if.. 


T 


d^'T'j-ir 


University  of  California. 

FROM    WW.    I.UtHAKV   OK 

I)K.    FRANCIS     LIKBK  K, 
Pioft'SH>r  <.f  iliftory  and  Law  in  Columbia  College,  New  York. 

THK  (illT   Of 

MICHAEL    REESE, 

Of  San  Francisco. 


SELECT 
SPEECHES 


OP 


THE   RIGHT  HONOURABLE 

WILLIAM    WINDHAM, 


AND 


THE   RIGHT   HONOURABLE 

WILLIAM   HUSKISSON: 


WITH 


PRELIMINARY    BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES. 


EDITED  BY 

ROBERT  WALSH. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
EDWARD  C.  BIDDLE  — 23  MINOR  STREET. 


18  37. 


^5^^ 

^v^-- 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1836,  by  Edward 
C.  BiDDLE,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Eastern 
District  of  Pennsylvania. 


Printed  by 
T.  K.  &  P.  G.  COLLINS, 

No.  1  Lodge  Alley,  Philadelphia. 


In  pursuance  of  the  design  announced  in  the 
advertisement  to  his  Selection  from  the  Speeches 
of  Mr.  Canning,  the  Editor  now  offers  another 
volume  of  valuable  Parliamentary  Eloquence. 
The  Speeches  of  Windham  and  Huskisson,  of 
which  the  choice  has  been  carefully  made,  are 
well  worthy  to  follow  those  of  the  most  illustrious 
orator  and  statesman  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

3 


r^r^ 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR 

OF 

THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE 

WILLIAM    WINDHAM 


William  Windham  was  the  descendant  of  a  line  of  ancestors 
which  is  traced  to  a  very  remote  period.  The  name  is  derived 
from  a  town  in  Norfolk,  England,  generally  written  Wymondham, 
but  pronounced  Windham^  at  which  place  the  family  appears  to 
have  been  settled  as  early  as  the  eleventh,  or  the  beginning  of  the 
twelfth  century,  Ailward  de  Wymondham  having  been  a  person 
of  some  consideration  in  the  time  of  Henry  the  First.  His  pos- 
terity remained  there  till  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  when 
one  of  them,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Sixth,  purchased  consi- 
derable estates  on  the  north-east  coast  of  Norfolk,  in  Felbrigg 
and  its  neighbourhood,  which,  from  that  time,  became  their  prin- 
cipal residence. 

William  Windham  was  born  in  1'750,  on  the  3d  of  May  (old 
style),  in  Norfolk.  At  seven  years  of  age,  young  Windham  had 
been  placed  at  Eton,  where  he  remained  till  he  was  about  six- 
teen ;  distinguishing  himself,  by  the  vivacity  and  brilliancy  of  his 
talents,  among  school-fellows  of  whom  many  were  afterwards 
highly  eminent  for  their  genius  and  acquirements.  He  was  the 
envy  of  the  school  for  the  quickness  of  his  progress  in  study,  as 
well  as  its  acknowledged  leader  and  champion  in  all  athletic 
sports  and  youthful  frolics.  The  late  Dr.  Barnard,  then  Head- 
master, and  afterwards  Provost  of  Eton  College,  used  to  remark 
when  Fox  and  Windham  had  become  conspicuous  in  the  senate, 
that  they  were  the  last  boys  he  had  ever  flogged.  Their  offence 
was,  that  of  stealing  off  together  to  see  a  play  acted  at  Windsor. 

On  leaving  Eton,  in  1766,  he  was  placed  in  the  university  of 
(1*) 


vi  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

Glasgow,  under  the  tuition  of  Dr.  Anderson,  Professor  of  Natural 
History,  and  the  learned  Dr.  Robert  Simson,  the  editor  of  Euclid. 
Here  he  remained  about  a  year,  having  by  diligent  application  to 
study  laid  the  foundation  of  his  profound  mathematical  acquire- 
ments. He  was  then  removed  to  Oxford,  where,  in  September 
1767,  he  was  entered  a  gentleman-commoner  of  University  col- 
lege. Sir  Robert  Chambers  being  his  tutor.  While  at  Oxford,  he 
took  so  little  interest  in  public  affairs,  that,  it  was  the  standing 
joke  of  one  of  his  contemporaries,  that  "  Windham  would  never 
know  who  was  prime  minister."  This  disinclination  to  a  political 
life,  added  to  a  modest  diffidence  in  his  own  talents,  led  him,  at 
the  period  which  is  now  spoken  of,  to  reject  an  offer  which,  by  a 
youth  not  more  than  twenty  years  of  age,  might  have  been  con- 
sidered as  a  splendid  one  ; — that  of  being  named  secretary  to  his 
father's  friend.  Lord  Townshend,  who  had  been  appointed  Lord 
Lieutenant  of  Ireland. 

After  four  years'  residence,  he  left  Oxford  in  1771.  He  always 
retained  feelings  of  gratitude  towards  Alma  Mater,  and  preserved 
to  the  last  an  intimate  acquaintance  and  correspondence  with 
some  of  the  most  distinguished  resident  members.  He  did  not, 
however,  take  his  master's  degree  till  1783.  That  of  doctor  of 
laws  was  conferred  on  him  in  1793,  at  the  installation  of  the 
Duke  of  Portland.  It  is  related  that  on  this  occasion,  almost  the 
whole  assembly  rose  from  their  seats,  when  he  entered  the  theatre, 
and  received  him  with  acclamations  of  applause. 

After  leaving  Oxford,  he  passed  some  time  on  the  continent. 
In  1773  a  voyage  of  discovery  towards  the  North-Pole  having 
been  projected  and  placed  under  the  command  of  the  late  Lord 
Mulgrave  (then  Commodore  Phipps),  Mr.  Windham,  with  his 
characteristic  ardour,  joined  as  a  passenger  in  the  expedition. 
To  his  great  mortification,  however,  a  continued  sea-sickness  of 
an  unusually  severe  and  debilitating  kind,  rendered  it  necessary 
for  him  to  be  landed  on  the  coast  of  Norway.  Here,  accompanied 
by  a  faithful  servant,  who  had  attended  him  from  his  childhood, 
he  passed  through  a  series  of  adventures  and  "  hair-breadth 
'scapes,"  in  which  his  courage  and  humanity  were  conspicuous. 
The  recital  of  them  might  agreeably  occupy  a  considerable 
space  in  a  memoir  less  limited  in  its  nature  and  extent  than  the 
present 


%     % 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WINDHAM.  y\{ 

His  earliest  essay  as  a  public  speaker  was  occasioned  by  a  call 
which  was  made  on  the  country,  for  a  subscription  in  aid  of 
Government,  to  be  applied  towards  carrying  on  the  war  with  our 
American  colonies.  It  was  on  the  28th  of  January  1778,  at  a 
meeting  of  gentlemen  of  the  county  of  Norfolk,  held  at  Norwich, 
that  Mr.  Windham  gave  the  first  promise  of  that  eminence  which 
he  afterwards  attained  as  an  orator  and  statesman.  It  will  be 
sufficient  in  this  place  to  notice,  that  the  part  which  he  took  was 
in  opposition  to  the  subscriptions,  and  to  the  war  itself;  and  that 
his  friend  and  his  father's  friend,  the  first  Marquis  Townshend, 
who  had  himself  proposed  the  measure  of  the  subscription,  bore, 
in  his  reply,  the  warmest  testimony  to  the  abilities,  knowledge, 
eloquence,  and  integrity,  of  his  young  antagonist. 

Some  time  before  the  event  which  has  been  last  noticed,  he 
had  entered  himself  as  an  officer  in  the  western  battalion  of  JVor- 
folk  militia.  In  this  character,  he  proved  that  he  inherited  the 
military  turn  and  talents  of  his  father,  to  whom  the  very  corps  in 
which  he  served  had  been  so  greatly  indebted  for  its  formation 
and  discipline.  But  his  useful  services,  as  a  militia  officer,  were 
soon  brought  to^a  close.  It  happened,  on  a  march,  that  impru- 
dently, and  in  a  sort  of  frolic,  he  joined  two  brother-officers  in 
riding  through  a  deep  rivulet,  after  which  they  were  obliged  to 
keep  on  their  wet  clothes  for  many  hours.  The  consequences  of 
this  adventure  were  fatal  to  one  of  the  party,  who  died  soon  after- 
wards ; —  Mr.  Windham  was  thrown  into  a  fever  of  a  most 
alarming  kind,  from  the  eflfects  of  which  it  is  certain  that  his  con- 
stitution never  thoroughly  recovered.  For  many  days  he  kept 
his  bed  at  Bury  St.  Edmund's,  without  any  hopes  being  entertain- 
ed of  his  recovery.  At  length,  he  was  thought  to  have  regained 
strength  enough  to  undertake  a  tour  on  the  Continent,  which  was 
recommended  to  him  for  the  re-establishment  of  his  health.  He 
accordingly  employed  nearly  two  years  of  his  life  in  a  journey 
through  Switzerland  and  Italy. 

From  this  tour  he  returned  at  a  critical  moment,  in  September 
1780.  The  Parliament  had  just  been  dissolved,  and  Sir  Harbord 
Harbord  (the  late  Lord  Suffield),  who  had  represented  Norwich 
for  more  than  twenty  years,  had  been  obliged  to  relinquish  his 
hopes  there,  in  consequence  of  a  powerful  coalition  which  his 


^* 


viii  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

colleague  Mr.  Bacon  (one  of  the  Lords  of  Trade)  had  formed 
with  Mr.  Thurlow,  a  citizen  of  the  place,  and  a  brother  of  the 
Lord  Chancellor.  But  the  friends  of  Sir  Harbord  being  deter- 
mined not  to  give  him  up  tamely,  invited  him  back  again,  and 
placed  him  in  nomination,  jointly  with  Mr.  Windham,  whom  they 
supposed  to  be  then  out  of  the  kingdom,  but  whose  vigorous 
speech  against  the  American  war  had  made  so  strong  an  impres- 
sion on  them,  that  his  absence  had  not  weakened  his  popularity. 
It  happened,  singularly  enough,  that,  without  the  least  knowledge 
of  what  had  just  passed  in  his  favour,  he  arrived  at  Norwich,  in 
his  way  from  London  to  Felbrigg,  just  three  days  before  the  poll 
commenced.  It  was  too  late,  however,  to  secure  his  election ; 
but  his  colleague,  Sir  Harbord  Harbord,  was  returned  with  Mr. 
Bacon ;  while  Mr.  Windham,  with  all  the  disadvantages  of  his 
situation,  had  the  satisfaction  of  counting  a  very  respectable  poll, 
as  well  as  of  securing  warm  assurances  of  support,  whenever  a 
future  occasion  might  require  it. 

Though  he  did  not  obtain  a  seat  in  Parliament,  he  lived,  from 
this  time,  much  in  town,  and  connected  himself  with  some  of  the 
most  eminent  political  and  literary  men  of  the  day.  Before  he 
made  his  tour  to  the  Continent,  he  had  become  a  member  of  the 
celebrated  Literary  Club.  On  his  return,  he  cemented  his  friend- 
ships with  the  leading  members  of  that  Society,  and  more  parti- 
cularly with  its  two  most  distinguished  ornaments.  Dr.  Johnson 
and  Mr.  Burke.  For  the  former,  he  entertained  sentiments  of  the 
highest  respect  and  regard,  which  the  Doctor  appears  to  have  re- 
turned with  equal  warmth.  The  high  commendation  with  which 
Johnson  noticed  him,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Brocklesby,  though  it  has 
been  often  repeated,  ought  not  here  to  be  omitted.  "  Mr.  Wind- 
ham," said  he,  "  has  been  here  to  see  me ; — he  came,  I  think,  forty 
miles  out  of  his  way,  and  staid  about  a  day  and  a  half;  perhaps 
I  may  make  the  time  shorter  than  it  was.  Such  conversation  I 
shall  not  have  again  till  I  come  back  to  the  regions  of  literature, 
and  there  Windham  is  inter  Stellas  Luna  minores.''^  Mr.  Burke, 
,->  during  a  long-tried  friendship,  political  and  personal,  found  in  Mr. 
Windham  a  faithful  associate,  and  warm  admirer.  Their  opinions 
seldom  differed ;  but  on  a  highly  important  occasion,  hereafter  to 
be  noticed,  upon  which  they  did  differ,  such  was  Mr.  Windham's 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WINDHAM.  {% 

deference  to  the  wisdom  and  experience  of  his  friend,  that  he  sur- 
rendered his  judgment  to  Mr.  Burke's.  From  his  connexion  with 
this  eminent  man,  and  with  his  old  school-fellow  Mr.  Fox,  he  now 
became,  though  out  of  Parliament,  a  sort  of  member  of  the  party 
then  in  opposition,  or  rather  of  that  branch  of  it  of  which  the  Mar- 
quis of  Rockingham  was  considered  as  the  leader. 

By  the  famous  coalition  of  Mr.  Fox  and  his  frfends  with  Lord 
North  and  the  remains  of  the  former  ministry.  Lord  Shelburne,  after 
effecting  a  general  peace,  was  driven  from  his  post  in  April  1783. 
Under  the  new  ministry,  of  which  the  Duke  of  Portland  was  the 
nominal  head,  Mr.  Windham  accepted  the  office  of  Chief  Secre- 
tary to  the  Earl  of  Northington,  then  appointed  Lord  Lieutenant 
of  Ireland.  An  anecdote,  which  has  been  often  repeated,  is  con- 
nected with  his  acceptance  of  this  appointment.  On  his  express- 
ing to  his  friend  Dr.  Johnson,  some  doubts  whether  he  could  bring 
himself  to  practise  the  arts  which  might  be  thought  necessary  in 
his  new  situation,  the  Doctor .  humorously  replied,  "  Don't  be 
afraid.  Sir ;  you  will  soon  make  a  very  pretty  rascal."  It  appears, 
however,  that  Mr.  Windham's  doubts  were  not  ill  founded.  He  - 
yielded  up  his  secretaryship  to  Mr.  Pelham  (now  Earl  of  Chi- 
chester) in  August  1783,  about  four  months  after  his  appointment. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  cause  of  this  resignation,  which 
has,  by  other  accounts,  been  attributed  to  ill  health,  it  appears 
that  on  this,  and  on  a  formei"  occasion,  when  he  visited  his  friend, 
Lord  Townshend,  during  his  Vice-royalty,  he  was  long  enough 
in  Ireland  to  form  many  valuable  friendships,  which  lasted  till  his 
death. 

On  the  downfall  of  the  coalition  ministry,  occasioned  by  Mr. 
Fox's  famous  bill  for  new  modelling  the  government  of  India,  a 
new  cabinet  was  appointed  at  the  close  of  1783,  with  Mr.  Pitt 
presiding  at  the  Treasury.  But  the  ex-ministers  still  retaining  a 
considerable  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons,  it  was  found 
necessary  to  dissolve  the  Parliament  in  March  1784.  On  this 
occasion,  Mr.  Windham  claimed  the  promises  of  his  friends  at 
Norwich,  but  soon  found  that  Mr.  Fox  and  his  party  had  lost 
much  of  their  popularity  in  that  city,  as  well  as  in  most  other 
parts  of  the  kingdom;  particularly  among  the  dissenters,  by 
whom  they  had  before  been  warmly  supported.     The  question, 

(B) 


X  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

too,  of  Parliamentary  Reform,  which  had  already  stood  in  his 
way  at  Westminister,  was  become  a  highly  popular  one  amongst 
his  Norwich  friends.  Still  he  was  not  to  be  dismayed.  On  the 
contrary,  his  intrepidity  rose  with  the  difficulties  which  threatened 
him  ;  for,  besides  avowing  at  a  public  meeting  his  dislike  to  the 
prevailing  doctrines  of  Reform,  he  published  a  very  manly  address 
to  the  electors,  in  which  he  spurned  the  popularity  to  be  acquired 
by  a  servile  accommodation  to  changes  of  public  opinion,  and 
declared  that  he  should,  on  all  occasions,  make  his  own  dispas- 
sionate judgment  the  sole  and  fixed  rule  of  his  conduct.  Danger- 
ous as  it  must  at  first  have  appeared,  the  boldness  of  this  address 
(which  gave  a  just  presage  of  his  future  political  course)  met 
with  a  generous  reward  from  those  who  could  not  approve  of 
his  public  connexions ;  'and  he  had,  on  the  result  of  the  election, 
the  satisfaction  of  being  returned  by  a  majority  of  sixty-four  over 
his  antagonist,  the  late  Honourable  Henry  Hobart.  In  this  con- 
test, his  success  was  remarkable,  for  in  almost  every  other  election, 
the  coalition  party  were  totally  defeated.  In  the  county  of  Nor- 
.  folk,  Mr.  Windham  warmly  exerted  himself  in  the  cause  of  his 
friend  Mr.  Coke ;  but  that  gentleman,  notwithstanding  the  great 
influence  he  derived  from  his  large  property,  and  many  estimable 
qualities,  was  driven  from  the  field  by  the  same  cry  which,  in 
other  places,  proved  fatal  to  Lord  John  Cavendish,  General  Con- 
way, Mr.  Byng,  and  many  other  friends  of  Mr.  Fox,  who,  by  a 
humorous  allusion  to  the  book  of  that  title,  gained  the  appellation 
of  "  Fox's  Martyrs." 

The  ministers,  however,  were  completely  triumphant;  their 
majorities  in  both  houses  were  large  and  decisive ;  and  the  oppo- 
sition, strong  as  they  continued  to  be  in  talents,  were  so  reduced 
in  numbers,  as  to  be  no  longer  formidable  in  any  other  way  than 
by  occasionally  putting  the  ministers  to  the  necessity  of  defending 
themselves  by  argument. 

Mr.  Windham  made  his  first  speech  in  Parliament  on  the  9th 
of  February  1785,  early  in  the  second  session  after  his  election. 
The  question  which  occasioned  this  trial  of  his  powers,  was  the 
celebrated  one  of  the  Westminster  scrutiny.  He  rose  imme- 
diately after  Mr.  Pitt  had  spoken  on  the  other  side,  and  he  was 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WINDHAM.  xi 

followed  by  Mr.  Fox,  who  congratulated  the  house  "  on  the  ac- 
cession of  the  abilities  which  they  had  witnessed." 

In  the  course  of  the  same  session,  Mr.  Windham  spoke  in  op- 
position to  Mr.  Pitt's  Shop  tax,  which  he  pronounced  to  be  partial, 
oppressive,  and  unjust,  on  the  same  grounds  upon  which  he  after- 
wards uniformly  reprobated  all  bills  that  had  for  their  object  a 
taxation,  not  on  the  community  at  large,  but  on  certain  classes 
of  men  invidiously  selected  from  it. 

We  may  now  advert  to  the  share  which  Mr.  Windham  took  in 
the  impeachment  of  Mr.  Warren  Hastings,  for  his  conduct  while 
administering  the  government  of  India.  This  measure,  though 
considered  in  its  time  to  be  of  the  very  first  importance,  is  now 
only  remembered  by  the  unparalleled  combination  of  talents  called 
forth  in  the  prosecution  of  it.  Of  the  impeachment  itself,  it  is 
perhaps  needless  to  say  more  than  merely  to  remark,  that,  though 
it  was  countenanced  by  Mr.  Pitt,  directed  by  Mr.  Burke,  and 
supported  by  almost  unrivalled  efforts  of  eloquence  on  the  part 
of  that  extraordinary  man,  as  well  as  of  Mr.  Sheridan,  and  Mr. 
Fox,  it  lingered  on  from  session  to  session,  till  even  its  power  to 
excite  attention  seemed  exhausted ;  and  it  was  at  length  dismissed 
almost  to  oblivion,  by  the  very  few  peers  who  could  be  induced 
to  give  a  vote  upon  it.  The  particular  charge,  however,  which 
was  entrusted  to  Mr.  Windham's  management,  must  be  concisely 
noticed.  It  alleged  perfidy  and  oppression  in  the  Governor-Gene- 
ral, in  the  breach  of  a  treaty  which  had  been  made  with  the  Na- 
bob Fyzoola  Khan  in  1774,  after  his  territories  had  been  invaded 
by  the  Company's  troops,  and  the  sum  of  150,000/.  had  been  paid 
by  him  upon  ratifying  the  Convention.  The  case,  as  it  was  stated, 
was  certainly  one  which  could  not  fail  to  call  forth  indignation 
from  a  man  of  whom  a  high  sense  of  honour,  and  a  warm  sym- 
pathy with  the  injured,  were  striking  characteristics.  In  main- 
taining this  charge,  Mr.  Windham  extended  his  parliamentary 
reputation ;  and  throughout  the  proceedings  against  Mr.  Hastings, 
he  fought  by  the  side  of  Mr.  Burke,  always  ready  as  well  as 
proud  to  defend  him  against  the  attacks  which  were  personally, 
and  sometimes  coarsely,  made  upon  him,  as  the  acknowledged 
leader  of  the  impeachment. 

Late  in  the  autumn  of  1788,  the  King  became  afflicted  with 


Xii  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

a  return  of  that  melancholy  aberration  of  intellect,  which  incapa- 
citated him  for  the  affairs  of  government  On  this  occasion,  Mr. 
Windham  warmly  entered  into  the  feelings,  and  supported  the 
opinions,  of  his  political  friends,  who  contended,  both  for  the  he- 
reditary right  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  assume  the  Regency, 
and,  during  that  assumption,  for  his  full  enjoyment  of  the  royal 
prerogatives,  unfettered  by  restrictions.  On  each  of  these  points 
however,  the  minister  was  triumphant.  The  right  of  the  two 
Houses  of  Parliament  "  to  provide  means  of  supplying  the  defect 
of  the  royal  authority,"  was  recognized  in  a  formal  resolution; 
and  the  Prince  of  Wales,  by  an  exertion  of  this  right,  was  to  be 
empowered  to  administer  the  royal  authority,  under  the  title  of 
Regent,  subject  to  limitations,  which  restrained  him  from  granting 
peerages,  reversions,  and  offices  for  life ;  but  before  the  bill  for  this 
purpose  had  passed  through  the  forms  of  the  House  of  Lords, 
it  was  rendered  unnecessary  by  the  King's  recovery,  which  was 
announced  to  parliament  on  the  10th  of  March  1789. 

In  the  session  of  1790  (4th  March)  he  gave  his  firm  and  de- 
cided opposition  to  Mr.  Flood's  motion  for  a  Reform  of  Parlia- 
ment. It  will  be  remembered  that  upon  this  question  he  had 
made  up  his  mind  at  an  early  period ;  and  it  will  hereafter  be 
seen,  that  the  opinions  he  then  formed  remained  unshaken  to  the 
close  of  his  life.  On  the  present  occasion,  he  differed  from  Mr. 
Fox,  and  his  principal  political  connexions  in  that  house,  Mr. 
Burke  excepted.  His  speech  was  pronounced  by  Mr.  Pitt  to 
contain  "  much  jjigenuity,  and,  in  some  respects,  as  much  wisdom 
and  argument  as  he  had  ever  heard  in  the  walls  of  that  house." 
Mr.  Pitt,  however,  professed  himself  to  remain,  after  the  most 
mature  deliberation,  a  firm  and  zealous  friend  to  parliamentary 
reform ;  though,  fearing  that  the  cause  might  suffer  disgrace  from 
its  being  brought  forward  at  an  improper  moment,  he  recom- 
mended Mr.  Flood  to  withdraw  his  motion.  It  appears,  from 
parts  of  Windham's  speech  that,  at  this  early  stage  of  it,  he  fore- 
saw the  results  of  the  French  Revolution. 

In  June  1790,  the  parliament  was  dissolved,  and  Mr.  Windham 
was  again  elected  for  Norwich,  after  a  very  slight  opposition. 

During  the  first  session  of  the  new  parliament,  he  strongly  re- 
probated the  conduct  of  the  ministers,  in  relation  to  their  arma- 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WINDHAM.  xiii 

ments  against  Spain  and  Russia,  which  had  respectively  been 
occasioned  by  disputes  concerning  the  possession  of  Nootka 
Sound  and  Oczakow.  On  a  renewal  of  the  latter  question,  in  the 
succeeding  session,  he  again  forcibly  expressed  his  disapprobation 
of  the  measures  which  had  been  pursued  by  government.  It 
should  also  be  noticed,  for  the  sake  of  recording  hereafter  a 
proof  of  the  consistency  of  his  sentiments  on  another  subject, 
that  in  February  1791  he  earnestly  supported  a  bill  which  was 
brought  into  the  House  of  Commons  by  Mn  Mitford  (now  Lord 
Redesdale),  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  from  certain  penalties 
and  disabilities  the  protesting  Catholic  Dissenters  of  England. 

The  French  Revolution,  though  it  cannot  justly  be  said  to  have 
occasioned  any  change  in  the  general  turn  of  Mr.  Windham's 
apolitical  opinions,  had  ultimately  the  effect  of  separating  him  from 
many  of  the  persons  with  whom  he  had  hitherto  been  acting.  Of 
the  commencement  and  early  progress  of  it,  he  had  been  more 
than  a  common  observer ;  he  had,  for  a  short  time,  been  an  actual 
spectator  of  the  scene.  We  have  already  found,  that  at  so  early 
a  period  as  March  1790,  he  was  awake  to  the  danger.  Soon  after 
that  declaration  of  his  sentiments,  the  memorable  publication  of 
Mr.  Burke's  "  Reflections"  produced  what  may  be  called  a  naw 
division  of  the  nation.  To  one  part  of  Great  Britain,  it  commu- 
nicated alarm  and  suggested  precaution,  while  from  the  other,  it 
served  to  call  forth  an  avowal  of  opinions,  which  before'  w^ere 
rather  suspected  as  possible,  than  believed  really  to  exist ;  at  least, 
to  any  considerable  extent.  The  boldness  of  the  answers  to  Mr. 
Burke  (particularly  of  that  by  Paine,  contained  in  his  celebrated 
**  Rights  of  Man")  fully  confirmed  the  apprehensions  which  had 
been  raised,  and  marked  out  a  definite  line  of  boundary  between 
what  were  now  to  be  the  two  great  parties  of  this  country  and 
the  world. 

In  the  outset  of  life,  Mr.  Windham  sacrificed  his  claims  upon 
the  representation  of  Westminster  to  his  dislike  of  the  prevailing 
doctrine  of  parliamentary  reform ;  and  just  before  he  obtained  a 
seat  for  another  place,  he  fairly  and  honourably  told  those  who 
were  about  to  choose  him,  that  a  subserviency  to  popular  notions 
was  not  to  be  expected  from  him.  The  very  question  upon  which 
he,  at  that  time,  differed  from  his  constituents,  was  one  in  which 
(2) 


xiv  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

he  took  part  with  the  aristocracy  against  the  temporary  clamours 
of  the  people.  With  sentiments  of  this  nature,  so  broadly  avow- 
ed, and  so  uniformly  acted  upon,  he  might  justly  have  been  re- 
proached with  inconsistency,  if  he  had  now  lent  his  authority  to 
the  approbation  of  French  principles,  or  his  voice  to  a  cry  for 
reform  and  revolution.  On  the  contrary,  he  opposed  both  the 
principles  and  the  cry,  and  took  his  stand  by  the  side  of  Mr.  Burke. 
Nor  was  he  alone  in  this  decision.  The  Duke  of  Portland,  the 
Earls  Fitzwilliam  and  Spencer,  with  many  other  persons  of  rank 
and  character  amongst  the  opposition,  felt  it  to  be  their  duty  to 
support  the  government  against  the  dangers  with  which  the  wide- 
spreading  contagion  of  French  example  seemed  in  their  judgment 
to  threaten  it 

One  of  the  first  public  manifestations  of  this  feeling  was  occa- 
sioned by  the  Proclamation  against  Seditious  Meetings,  which 
was  issued  by  Government  in  May  1792.  This  measure,  which 
was  decried  by  Mr.  Fox  and  many  of  his  friends,  received,  on 
the  contrary,  the  full  sanction,  both  in  and  out  of  Parliament,  of 
the  distinguished  persons  who  have  just  been  alluded  to.  At  a 
public  meeting  in  Norfolk,  called  for  the  purpose  of  voting  an 
Address  of  Thanks  to  His  Majesty  for  having  sent  forth  this 
Proclamation,  Mr.  Windham  took  occasion  to  avow,  in  the  most 
explicit  manner,  his  opinions  on  the  questions  which  agitated  the 
country.  He  rested  his  support  to  the  Proclamation  chiefly  on 
the  three  following  grounds : — the  dissemination  of  writings  tend- 
ing to  render  the  people  dissatisfied  with  their  government — the 
existence  of  clubs,  where  delusive  remedies  were  projected  for 
supposed  evils — and  the  correspondence  of  those  clubs  with  others 
of  the  most  dangerous  character  in  Paris. 

The  trials  and  executions  of  the  unfortunate  Louis  and  his 
Queen,  were  events  which  made  a  deep  impression  on  Mr.  Wind- 
ham, strengthening  both  his  abhorrence  of  French  principles,  and 
his  conviction  of  the  necessity  of  opposing  the  progress  of  them 
by  arms.  In  the  sessions  of  1793  and  1794,  he  gave,  on  every 
occasion,  his  unqualified  support  to  the  measures  of  Government 
for  prosecuting  the  war,  and  for  repressing  seditious  practices. 
And  in  the  month  of  April  in  the  latter  year,  he  distinguished 
himself  in  Norfolk  by  eloquently  recommending  the  measure  of  a 


THE  HONOURABLE  WIILLIAM  WINDHAM.  xv 

voluntary  subscription,  to  be  applied  in  the  defence  of  the  country. 
On  this  occasion,  he  was  reminded  of  the  conduct  he  had  ob- 
served in  1778,  with  respect  to  subscriptions  in  aid  of  the  Ameri- 
can war;  and  he  defended  himself  by  adverting  to  the  striking 
difference  that  existed  between  the  circumstances  of  the  two 
contests. 

About  this  time,  an  offer  was  made  by  Mr.  Pitt's  administra- 
tion, to  form  a  new  cabinet  which  should  include  the  leaders  of 
the  Whig  Alarmists.  This  proposal  Mr.  Windham  at  first  wished 
to  be  rejected ;  thinking  that  his  friends  and  himself,  by  continu- 
ing out  of  office,  could  give  their  support  to  the  general  objects 
of  Government  more  effectually  and  independently  than  they 
could  with  seats  in  the  cabinet ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  would  be 
left  more  at  liberty  to  declare  their  opinions  respecting  any  par- 
ticular measures  connected  with  the  conduct  of  the  war,  upon 
which  there  were  likely  to  be  grounds  of  variance.  Mr.  Burke, 
however,  thought  differently ;  his  opinion  was,  that  the  usefulness 
of  his  friends  to  the  country  would  depend  on  their  being  placed 
in  situations  which  would  give  them  a  fair  prospect  of  being  able 
to  direct  the  counsels  of  Government.  His  advice  prevailed  with 
the  majority  of  those  to  whom  the  offer  had  been  made,  though 
not  at  first  with  the  Duke  of  Portland.  Arrangements  were  then 
proposed,  under  which  Mr.  Windham  was  to  become  one  of  the 
Secretaries  of  State ;  but  at  length  the  Duke  of  Portland's  reluc- 
tance to  accept  office  having  been  overcome,  it  was  thought  pro- 
per, in  consideration  of  his  high  rank  and  influence  in  the  country, 
to  place  him  in  the  office  which  had  been  intended  for  Mr.^Vind- 
ham,  the  latter  consenting  to  accept  the  inferior  one  of  Secretary 
at  War,  with  a  seat  in  the  cabinet.  The  distinction  of  a  seat  in 
the  cabinet  was  first  annexed  to  it  on  this  occasion. 

In  his  new  capacity,  Mr.  Windham  vindicated  the  measures  of 
government  in  parliament  with  a  degree  of  warmth  and  openness 
which  by  some  persons  was  censured  as  indiscreet.  To  that  sort 
of  discretion,  indeed,  which  consists  in  dissembling  opinions  and 
feelings,  Mr.  Windham  was  an  utter  stranger.  He  thought  that 
the  common  maxim,  **  honesty  is  the  best  policy,"  was  as  valua- 
ble in  courts  and  cabinets  as  in  the  ordinary  concerns  of  life.  It 
is  true  that,  by  pursuing  this  conduct,  he  sometimes  gave  opportu- 


xvi  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

nities  to  his  adversaries  to  turn  to  his  disadvantage  any  hasty  or 
strong  expressions  which  might  fall  from  him  in  the  course  of  a 
warm  debate.  Among  those  which  were  imputed  to  him,  the 
greatest  triumph  was  assumed  by  the  opposition  of  the  day  from 
that  of  "  perish  commerce — let  the  constitution  live."  But  it  is 
curious  enough  that  this  remarkable  sentiment,  which  was  first 
charged  on  him  in  a  pamphlet  under  the  fictitious  signature  of 
Jasper  Wilson,  and  was  afterwards  echoed  and  re-echoed  through 
the  country,  had  in  fact  never  been  uttered  by  him,  but  was  owned 
by  Mr.  Hardinge.  Mr.  Windham,  however,  though  he  denied 
having  spoken  the  words,  justified  the  sentiment,  under  the  expla- 
nation which  he  gave  of  it,  namely,  a  preference,  as  an  alterna- 
tive, of  government,  order,  and  the  British  laws,  above  mere 
wealth  and  commercial  prosperity. 

In  July  1795,  an  expedition,  composed  of  emigrants,  proceeded 
against  Quiberon.  For  this  project,  which  unhappily  failed,  Mr. 
Windham  always  held  himself  responsible.  He  thought  it  a  most 
important  object  that  an  attempt  should  be  made  to  assist  the  ef- 
forts of  those  Frenchmen  who  were  struggling  at  home  against 
republicanism ;  and  he  earnestly  wished  that  such  an  experiment 
should  be  tried  with  a  far  greater  force  than  was  actually  em- 
ployed in  it.  He  always  remained  firmly  of  opinion  that  the 
royalist  war  in  France  had  been  too  lightly  considered  by  the 
British  government ;  and  that  if  the  tide  had  been  "  taken  at  the 
flood,"  the  family  of  Bourbon  might  have  been  restored  to  the 
throne. 

Upln  the  dissolution  of  parliament  in  1796,  Mr.  Windham  was, 
for  the  fourth  time,  chosen  member  for  Norwich.  An  opposition, 
however,  of  a  much  more  formidable  nature  than  that  in  1794, 
was  attempted  in  favour  of  Mr.  Bartlett  Gurney,  a  banker,  of 
considerable  local  influence,  who  w^as  defeated  by  a  majority  of 
only  83.  Mr.  Thelwall,  the  celebrated  political  lecturer,  was  at 
Norwich  during  this  election,  and  endeavoured  to  sharpen  the 
contest  by  his  popular  harangues  in  the  market-place,  against 
Mr.  Windham,  and  the  war-system  of  the  Pitt  administration. 

In  the  year  1797,  Mr.  Windham  had  to  deplore  the  loss  of  his 
illustrious  friend  Mr.  Burke,  whose  memory  he  ever  regarded 
with  the  warmest  affection,  as  well  as  the  profoundest  veneration. 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WINDHAM.  xvii 

He  considered  the  extinction  of  such  eloquence  and  wisdom,  as 
a  heavy  misfortune  to  the  country,  in  the  difficulties  with  which  it 
was  then  struggling.  In  a  letter,  dated  16th  November  1797,  he 
says,  "  I  do  not  reckon  it  amongst  the  least  calamities  of  the  times, 
certainly  not  among  those  that  affect  me  least,  that  the  world  has 
now  lost  Mr.  Burke.  Oh  !  how  much  may  we  rue  that  his  coun- 
sels were  not  followed !  Oh  !  how  exactly  do  we  see  verified  all 
that  he  has  predicted  !" 

Of  Mr.  Windham's  political  and  parliamentary  course,  during 
the  remainder  of  the  period  in  which  he  continued  in  office  with 
Mr.  Pitt,  it  seems  unnecessary  to  speak  much  in  detail ;  nor  in- 
deed could  it  be  done  without  entering  into  a  historical  relation 
of  the  events  of  the  war,  which  would  be  quite  inconsistent  with 
the  limited  nature  of  the  present  narrative.  It  may  be  sufficient 
to  observe  generally,  that  he  strenuously  resisted  every  proposal 
which  was  made  for  seeking  a  peace  with  the  French  republic,  as 
well  as  every  measure  which,  under  the  specious  name  of  Reform, 
tended,  as  he  thought,  to  the  subversion  of  the  constitution.  The 
union  with  Ireland  at  length  indirectly  occasioned  the  dissolution 
of  the  cabinet.  Mr.  Windham's  own  statement  on  this  subject  is 
so  explicit  and  decisive  that  it  may  be  proper  to  quote  it  here, 
with  the  view  of  explaining  the  grounds  of  his  retirement  from 
office.  "When  the  proposition,"  said  he,  "for  the  union  was 
first  brought  forward,  I  had  strong  objections  to  the  measure,  and 
I  was  only  reconciled  to  it  upon  the  idea  that  all  disabilities 
attaching  on  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  were  to  be  removed,  and 
that  the  whole  population  would  be  united  in  interests  and  affec- 
tions. Believing  this  to  be  the  case,  and  finding  that  impediments 
were  started  to  this  measure  much  stronger  than  I  was  prepared 
to  apprehend,  I  relinquished  the  administration,  because  I  thought 
the  measure  indispensable  to  the  safety  of  this  empire."  His  re- 
signation, which  took  place  in  February  1801,  accompanied  five 
of  his  colleagues ;  viz.  Mr.  Pitt,  the  Lord  Chancellor  (Loughbo- 
rough), Lord  Grenville,  Lord  Spencer,  and  Mr.  Dundas.  In  the 
new  administration,  Mr.  Addington  was  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  treasury,  bearing  of  course  the  acknowledged  character  of 
prime  minister. 

Mr.  Windham  had  been  in  office  nearly  seven  years,  and  du- 
(2*)  (C) 


xviii  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

ring  that  time  had  effected  many  regulations  by  which  the  army 
was  materially  benefited. 

In  the  cabinet  it  appears  that  he  had  differed  from  Mr.  Pitt  and 
the  majority  of  his  colleagues,  both  with  respect  to  the  object  and 
to  the  conduct  of  the  war.  He  always  broadly  avowed  the  opi- 
nions which  have  been  before  referred  to,  and  which  were  also 
maintained  by  Mr.  Burke;  namely,  that  the  legitimate  object  of 
the  war  was  tlie  restoration  of  the  House  of  Bourbon,  and  that 
this  object  could  only  be  accomplished  by  giving  liberal  encour- 
agement to  the  exertions  of  the  Royalists  in  France.  That  he 
was  wrong  with  respect  to  the  efficacy  of  those  means,  can  hard- 
ly be  inferred  from  any  actual  experience  of  facts;  for  the 
attempts  which  were  made  to  succour  the  Royalists  owed  their 
failure  to  other  causes  than  a  want  of  energy  in  the  persons  in- 
tended to  be  benefited  by  them. 

He  thought  the  war  had  been  conducted  with  too  little  atten- 
tion to  the  purposes  for  which  it  had  been  originally  undertaken ; 
— that  it  had  become  a  war  of  shifts  and  expedients ;  a  contest 
for  petty  and  remote  objects,  rather  than  for  near  and  vital  ones. 
These  opinions  he  repeatedly  expressed  to  some  of  his  colleagues 
in  long  and  detailed  letters,  which  were  in  fact  state-papers  of  a 
most  valuable  kind. 

During  the  prorogation  of  Parliament  in  1801,  the  new  minis- 
ters settled  preliminaries  of  peace  with  France  and  her  allies. 
This  measure  Mr.  Windham  regarded,  not  less  in  the  terms  than 
in  the  principle,  as  highly  dangerous  to  the  interests  of  the  coun- 
try. On  the  first  discussion  of  this  subject,  which  was  upon  an 
Address  of  Thanks  to  the  King,  he  was  unable  to  deliver  his  sen- 
timents ;  but  on  the  following  day,  (Nov.  4th,)  when  the  report 
of  the  Address  was  brought  up,  he  pronounced  the  celebrated 
speech  which  he  afterwards  published  in  the  form  of  a  Pamphlet, 
subjoining  to  it  an  Appendix,  valuable  for  the  information  it  con- 
'  tains,  as  well  as  for  the  vigour  with  which  it  is  composed. 

The  definitive  treaty,  which  was  ratified  a  few  months  after- 
wards, he  considered  to  be  even  more  censurable  than  the  pre- 
liminaries had  been;  and  in  conformity  with  this  opinion,  he 
moved  an  Address  to  the  King  on  the  13th  of  May  1802,  deplo- 
ring the  sacrifices  which  had  been  submitted  to  by  the  treaty,  and 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WmDHAM  xix 

expressing  apprehensions  for  the  safety  of  the  empire,  in  the  im- 
mense accession  of  territory,  influence,  and  power  which  had 
been  confirmed  to  France.  He  prefaced  this  Address  with  an 
eloquent  and  powerful  speech,  but  after  a  debate  which  occupied 
two  evenings  the  motion  was  negatived  by  278  votes  against  22, 
including  tellers.  Lord  Grenville  moved  a  similar  address  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  which  was  rejected  by  122  against  16.  So  po- 
pular was  the  Peace  of  Amiens,  that  only  16  peers  and  22  com- 
moners could  be  found  to  disapprove  of  it !  Mr.  Pitt  ^nd  Mr. 
Fox,  though  on  different  grounds,  were  found  amongst  its  sup- 
porters. 

Mr.  Windham  fell  a  victim  to  the  intrepidity  he  had  shown  in 
opposing  this  darling  measure.  After  having  represented  Norwich 
for  eighteen  years,  he  lost  his  seat  to  Mr.  William  Smith,  who  had 
been  invited  thither  to  oppose  him. 

He  took  his  seat  for  the  borough  of  St.  Mawes,  which  the 
kindness  of  the  Grenville  family  had  secured  for  him  as  a  retreat, 
in  the  event  of  a  repulse  at  Norwich.  His  friends  at  the  latter 
place,  though  his  political  connexion  with  them  no  longer  existed, 
were  unwilling  to  extinguish  all  recollection  of  it.  They  celebra- 
ted his  birth-day  by  annual  meetings,  which  were  fully  attended ; 
and  they  gave  themselves  the  additional  satisfaction  of  placing 
in  their  public  hall,  by  means  of  a  subscription,  a  well-executed 
portrait  of  him. 

When  the  renewal  of  war  appeared  inevitable,  he  opposed 
with  considerable  warmth,  the  measure  which  Mr.  Fox  recom- 
mended, of  seeking  an  adjustment  of  differences  through  the  me- 
diation of  Russia ;  and  he  urged,  on  the  contrary,  the  immediate 
adoption  of  the  most  vigorous  means  for  the  defence  of  the 
country.  Of  this  description,  however,  he  did  not  consider  the 
measure  proposed  by  the  ministers  for  raising,  by  a  scheme  of 
ballot  and  substitution,  what  was  called  an  Army  of  Reserve ; 
nor  was  he  disposed  to  approve  of  the  indiscriminate  employment 
of  a  large  and  expensive  establishment  of  volunteers.  His 
speeches  on  these  subjects  not  only  contain  some  of  the  most 
amusing  specimens  of  his  eloquence,  but  may  be  regarded,  per- 
haps, as  valuable  essays  on  military  topics,  from  which  those 
who  remain  unconvinced  by  his   arguments,  may  glean  much 


XX  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

useful  information,  conveyed  to  them  in  a  pleasing  and  popular 
form. 

To  the  volunteers  he  was  falsely  represented  as  an  enemy.  He 
admired  and  uniformly  extolled  the  spirit  which  they  manifested 
in  the  moment  of  danger ;  as  well  as  their  total  disregard  of  per- 
sonal inconvenience  and  privations.  But  while  he  admitted  their 
usefulness  if  employed  as  light  independent  bodies,  trained  as 
marksmen,  and  not  clogged  with  the  discipline  of  regulars,  he 
lamented  to  see  them  formed  into  battalions,  and  attempted  to  be 
forced  by  a  kind  of  hot-bed  into  troops  of  the  line.  To  hang  on 
the  rear  of  an  invading  enemy,  to  cut  off  his  supplies,  to  annoy 
him  from  concealed  points  by  keeping  up  an  irregular  fire,  were 
services  which  he  conceived  volunteers  might  easily  learn  and 
skilfully  execute ;  but  the  steady  and  exact  discipline  which  is  re- 
quired from  troops  destined  to  face  an  enemy  in  the  field  of  battle, 
he  thought  their  previous  habits,  unsuitable  avocations,  and  scanty 
means  of  instruction,  would  totally  forbid  them  from  attaining. 

A  motion  made  by  Mr.  Pitt,  on  the  15th  of  March  1804,  for 
an  enquiry  into  the  state  of  the  navy,  had  the  effect  of  uniting 
in  its  support  his  own  friends  with  those  of  the  Grenvilles, 
Mr.  Windham,  and  Mr.  Fox ; — and  though  it  was  negatived  by  a 
majority  of  71,  an  opinion  began  rather  generally  to  prevail  that 
Mr.  Addington*s  administration  was  not  long-lived.  In  its  stead, 
the  country  seemed  to  expect  that  a  ministry  w^ould  be  fo/med  on 
a  broader  basis,  uniting  all  the  parties  then  in  opposition,  and 
having  in  its  cabinet  the  two  great  rival  leaders  who  had  for 
twenty  years  divided  the  suffrages  of  the  nation. 

On  the  11th  of  April,  upon  the  third  reading  of  the  Irish  Militia 
Bill,  another  trial  of  strength  took  place,  in  which  the  numbers 
of  the  allied  oppositionists  appproached  very  near  to  those  of  the 
ministers;  being  107  against  128. 

The  ministers,  however,  fell  only  by  repeated  attacks.  On  the 
23d  of  April,  Mr.  Fox  moved  for  a  committee  to  consider  of  mea- 
sures for  the  defence  of  the  country.  This  motion  received  the 
support  of  Mr.  Pitt  and  Mr.  Windham,  and  of  their  respective 
friends,  amounting  in  all  to  204  against  256.  A  division,  two  days 
afterwards,  on  the  Irish  Militia  'Bill,  proved  still  less  favourable 
to  the  ministers,  who  could  count  only  240  votes  against  203. 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WINDHAM.  xxi 

By  these  latter  divisions,  the  fate  of  Mr.  Addington's  administra- 
tion was  decided.  Mr.  Pitt,  in  submitting  a  list  of  names  to  the 
royal  consideration,  not  only  included  that  of  Mr.  Fox,  but  is 
said  to  have  earnestly  and  warmly  recommended  his  admission 
into  the  new  cabinet.  But  the  attempt  proved  unsuccessful,  and 
Lord  Grenville,  Lord  Spencer,  and  Mr.  Windham  declined,  in 
consequence,  to  take  their  seats  in  a  cabinet  which  was  not  to  be 
formed  on  the  extensive  plan  of  including  the  heads  of  all  the 
parties  who  had  been  acting  together  in  opposition.  Mr.  Pitt, 
however,  accepted  the  premiership,  taking  with  him  Lord  Mel- 
ville, and  others  of  his  immediate  political  friends,  to  whom  were 
joined  Lord  Hawkesbury,  Lord  Castlereagh,  the  Duke  of  Port- 
land, Lord  Eldon,  and  some  other  members  of  the  preceding 
cabinet. 

Mr.  Windham  was  now  once  more  the  ally  of  Mr.  Fox,  and 
the  adversary  of  Mr.  Pitt; — a  situation  which  exposed  him  to  a 
charge  of  inconsistency.  In  June  1804,  soon  after  the  change  of 
administration,  Mr.  Pitt  brought  forward  his  Additional  Force 
Bill,  more  generally  known  afterwards  by  the  name  of  the  "  Pa- 
rish Bill,"  the  recruiting  under  its  provisions  being  intended  to  be 
effected  by  parish  officers.  Mr.  Windham  opposed  it  in  two  able 
speeches.     The  bill,  however,  passed  both  houses. 

In  the  course  of  the  ensuing  session,  (21st  of  February  1805,) 
he  called  the  attention  of  the  house,  in  a  long  and  luminous  speech, 
to  the  state  of  the  defence  of  the  country ;  but  on  this  question 
the  minister  was  again  triumphant.  He  also  took  occasion,  on 
the  14th  of  May  following,  to  pronounce  his  opinion  in  favour  of 
the  claims  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland.  This  was  a  topic  which 
he  had  much  at  heart. 

The  remainder  of  the  session  of  1805  was  chiefly  occupied  by 
the  proceedings  against  Lord  Melville,  in  which  Mr.  Windham 
took  but  little  part.  He  concurred,  indeed,  in  the  several  votes 
for  inquiry,  but  declined  taking  a  personal  share  in  it,  considering 
himself  disqualified  for  such  a  duty  by  "  the  official  connexion 
which  he  had  had  w^ith  Lord  Melville,  the  social  intercourse 
thence  arising,  and  the  impression  made  on  his  mind  by  the  many 
amiable  and  estimable  qualities  whjch  the  Noble  Lord  was  known 
to  possess. 


Xxii  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

The  expectation  of  a  vacant  seat  for  the  University  of  Oxford, 
occasioned,  in  the  summer  of  1805,  an  active  canvass  for  Mr. 
Windham  on  the  part  of  his  friends,  who  were  naturally  desirous 
that  one  of  the  most  honourable  distinctions  which  the  Univer- 
sity could  bestow,  should  be  conferred  on  so  celebrated  a  member 
of  it.  The  prospect  of  such  a  seat  was,  on  every  account,  highly 
desirable  to  Mr.  Windham,  but  the  vacancy  did  not  then  take 
place ;  and  when  it  afterwards  occurred,  he  had  engaged  himself 
in  a  contest  for  Norfolk. 

In  the  succeeding  month,  Mr.  Windham  shared  deeply  in  the 
feelings  of  the  country  on  the  loss  of  Lord  Nelson,  whom  he 
valued  as  a  personal  friend,  and  highly  admired  as  the  greatest 
ornament  of  his  profession. 

Lord  Nelson's  death  was  speedil}'  followed  by  Mr.  Pitt's  ; — an 
event  which  is  believed  to  have  been  hastened  by  the  calamitous 
issue  of  the  grand  continental  confederacy  against  France.  At 
the  opening  of  the  session,  on  the  21st  of  January  1806,  Mr. 
Pitt  was  living,  but  in  a  state  that  afforded  no  hope  of  recovery. 

On  Mr.  Pitt's  death,  a  change  of  administration  was  naturally 
looked  for. 

The  change  which  was  expected  took  place  in  the  beginning 
of  the  ensuing  month,  Lord  Grenville  being  commanded  by  the 
King  to  form  a  new  administration.  He  was  himself  placed  at 
the  head  of  the  treasury,  as  prime  minister.  Earl  Spencer,  Mr. 
Fox,  and  Mr.  Windham,  received  respectively  the  seals  of  the 
home,  the  foreign,  and  the  war  and  colonial  departments. 

The  earliest  and  chief  object  of  Mr.  Windham's  attention,  on 
his  attaining  office,  was  to  arrange  and  bring  forward  measures 
for  increasing  the  military  means  of  the  country.  His  measures 
having  been  finally  settled  in  the  cabinet,  he  stated  the  purport 
of  them  to  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  3d  of  April  1806,  in 
a  speech  which  Mr.  Fox  pronounced  to  be  one  of  the  most  elo- 
quent ever  delivered  in  parliament,  and  which,  though  it  occupied 
very  near  four  hours  in  the  delivery,  seemed  not  to  be  thought  too 
long  by. any  of  his  auditors. 

To  better  the  condition  of  the  soldier  was  his  great  and  lead- 
ing principle  for  increasing  the  regular  force  of  the  country.  To 
hold  out  periods  for  the  termination  of  the  soldier's  services,  and 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WINDHAM.  xxiii 

lo  recompense  those  services  by  additional  rewards,  were  the 
means  by  which  he  sought  to  accomplish  this  improvement : — 
and  the  immediate  effect  which  he  expected  to  produce,  was,  the 
rendering  of  the  army  more  inviting  as  a  profession,  from  its  be- 
ing more  advantageous  in  a  prudential  view,  and  consequently 
more  respectable,  on  account  of  the  better  description  of  persons 
who  might  thus  be  induced  to  engage  in  it.  The  soldier,  in  short, 
was  to  serve  an  apprenticeship  to  arms,  as  to  a  trade,  and  then 
either  to  follow  it  up,  or  to  relinquish  it,  at  his  option ;  but  was  to 
be  entitled  to  additional  benefits,  if  he  should  be  disposed  to  con- 
tinue his  services.  These  were  the  main  objects  of  his  measures, 
which  included,  however,  many  subordinate  regulations. 

His  measures,  under  the  form  of  various  bills,  passed  through 
both  Houses  of  Parliament,  with  considerable  majorities.  A  libe- 
ral and  immediate  addition  to  the  pensions  of  non-commissioned 
officers  and  privates,  in  certain  cases,  was  carefully  provided  for. 

In  the  summer  of  1806,  Mr.  Fox,  whose  health  had  been  de- 
clining from  the  time  of  his  accepting  office,  found  a  grave  near 
that  of  his  illustrious  rival.  His  loss  was  deeply  lamented  by 
Mr.  Windham,  whose  personal  regard  for  him  had  perhaps  never 
wholly  ceased,  but  had  certainly  been  fully  restored  upon  their 
recent  political  reconciliation.  This  event,  besides  the  regret  which 
it  produced,  happened  to  be  the  occasion  of  some  embarrassment 
to  him.  In  consequence  of  an  arrangement  which  was  proposed 
in  the  cabinet  respecting  the  appointment  to  certain  offices  (but 
not  affecting  his  own,  which  was  to  remain  as  before),  the  accept- 
ance of  a  peerage  was  very  strongly  pressed  upon  him  by  his 
colleagues,  and  very  resolutely  refused  by  him.  Convenient  as  the 
measure  might  have  been  to  him,  with  a  view  to  avoid  the  ex- 
pense of  future  elections,  (particularly  of  a  contest  in  Norfolk, 
where  a  canvass  had  actually  been  begun  for  him,)  he  would  not 
for  an  instant  suffer  considerations  of  this  kind  to  influence  his 
decision.  He  felt  that  his  usefulness  to  the  country  depended  not 
a  little  on  his  station  in  the  House  of  Commons ;  and  he  would 
have  cheerfully  relinquished  his  office,  rather  than  wear  the 
honours  which  were  to  be  thrust  upon  him.  In  consequence  of 
his  refusal,  another  arrangement  was  fixed  upon :  Lord  Howick 
succeeded  Mr.  Fox  as  foreign  secretary,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Gren- 
ville  took  his  seat  at  the  admiralty. 


XXiV  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OP 

In  October  1806,  the  parliament  was  dissolved. 

Mr.  Windham  havitig  been  previously  returned  not  only  for 
Norfolk  but  for  the  borough  of  New  Rowney,  now  took  his  seat 
for  the  latter  place. 

Soon  after  the  meeting  of  the  new  parliament,  Mr.  Windham 
found  a  welcome  opportunity  of  giving  full  expression  to  those 
chivalrous  feelings  with  which  the  successful  exertions  of  British 
valour  never  failed  to  inspire  him.  In  his  official  capacity,  he 
had  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  the  victory 
which  had  been  gallantly  achieved  on  the  Plains  of  Maida,  by  a 
small  body  of  troops  under  the  command  of  Sir  John  Stuart.  As 
the  task  was  grateful  to  him,  he  executed  it  in  a  manner  which 
made  the  most  lively  impression  on  his  auditors. 

It  was  during  Mr.  Windham's  absence  in  Norfolk,  that  Lord 
Howick  called  the  attention  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  a  clause 
which  was  intended  by  the  ministers  to  be  introduced  into  the 
Mutiny  Bill,  for  enabling  Roman  Catholics  to  hold  a  certain  mili- 
tary rank,  and  permitting  to  all  persons  in  the  arm.y  professing 
that  religion  the  uncontrolled  exercise  of  it.  It  was  afterwards 
thought  expedient  that  the  intended  provisions  should  be  made  the 
subject  of  a  separate  bill,  and  be  extended  to  the  navy.  The  mis- 
understanding which  this  measure  occasioned  between  the  King 
and  his  ministers,  and  the  consequent  dismissal  of  the  latter  from 
their  posts,  are  subjects  that  need  not  be  minutely  treated  of  It 
will  be  sufficient  to  relate,  that  on  the  25th  of  March  1807,  when 
called  upon  with  the  other  ministers  to  deliver  up  his  appointments, 
Mr.  Windham  received  a  flattering  assurance  of  the  sense  which 
the  King  entertained  of  the  motives  that  had  guided  him  in  execu- 
ting the  duties  of  his  office. 

In  the  very  short  period  of  a  year  and  six  weeks,  Mr.  Wind- 
ham had  done  much  for  the  benefit  of  the  army.  He  had  abol- 
ished service  for  life,  and  substituted  service  for  periods  ; — he  had 
increased  the  pay  of  the  subaltern,  as  well  as  the  ultimate  rewards 
of  the  private  soldier ; — and  (though  circumstances  had  delayed 
the  execution  of  it)  he  had  passed  a  measure  for  arming  and 
training  a  great  part  of  the  population  of  the  country. 

The  Duke  of  Portland  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  new  ad- 
ministration.    Lord  Castlereagh,  whom  Mr.  Windham  had  sue- 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WINDHAM.  xxv 

ceeded  in  the  war  and  colonial  department,  again  received  the 
seals  of  that  office;  and  Lord  Hawkesbury,  Mr.  Canning,  and 
Mr.  Perceval  occupied  the  other  prominent  situations  in  the  new 
cabinet  In  two  successive  divisions,  the  ministers  succeeded  i« 
negativing  the  motions  which  had  been  brought  forward  for  cen- 
suring the  means  of  their  attaining  office.  Their  success,  however, 
was  not  so  decided,  as  to  render  the  continuance  of  the  parlia- 
ment advisable.  It  was,  therefore,  dissolved  on  the  28th  April 
1807,  in  its  first  session,  and  within  five  months  after  it  had  as- 
sembled. 

In  the  first  debate  of  the  new  parliament  he  made  a  vigorous 
stand  against  the  clamour  of  "  no  popery,"  which  he  complained 
had  been  raised  against  him  and  his  late  colleagues.  Soon  after- ' 
wards  he  gave  his  decided  opposition  to  Lord  Castlereagh's  bill 
for  allowing  a  proportion  of  the  militia  to  transfer  their  services 
into  the  line,  by  enlisting  at  their  option  either  for  periods  or  for 
life.  This  he  considered  as  a  fatal  interruption  of  his  measures 
which  parliament  had  sanctioned  in  the  preceding  year.  At  the 
conclusion  of  the  session  he  brought  forward,  in  the  shape  of  pro- 
positions, a  summary  view  of  the  advantages  which  had  already 
been  derived  from  the  system  of  recruiting  for  periods. 

The  expedition  which-  was  sent  against  Copenhagen,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1807,  received  his  decided  disapprobation. 

Early  in  the  summer  of  1808,  the  eyes  of  all  Europe  were  di- 
rected towards  Spain,  where  a  gallant  spirit  broke  forth,  such  as 
few  persons  perhaps  besides  Mr.  Windham  had  harboured  a  hope 
of.  His  anticipation  of  it  is  found  in  a  speech  occasioned  by  the 
capture  of  Monte- Video,  and  delivered  on  the  16th  of  April  1807, 
more  than  a  twelvemonth  before  the  commencement  of  the  resist- 
ance which  he  contemplated.  From  the  first  notice  of  this  re- 
sistance to  the  latest  period  of  his  life,  he  was  a  zealous  Spaniard, 

He  not  only  took  the  most  lively  interest  in  the  proceedings  of 
the  patriots,  but  even  promised  himself  an  opportunity  of  becoming 
a  personal  witness  of  them,  by  undertaking  a  voyage  to  the  scene 
of  action. 

He   returned  to  Parliament  after  the  commencement  of  the 
session  of  1809.    Mr.  Wardle  had  previously  brought  forward  his 
charges  in  the  House  of  Commons,  against  the  Duke  of  York,  as 
(3)  (D) 


xxvi  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

Commander  in  Chief,  and  the  evidence  in  support  of  them  had 
been  proceeded  upon.  This  investigation,  which  occupied  much 
of  the  time  and  attention  of  the  House,  having  at  length  been 
brought  to  a  close,  Mr.  Windham,  on  the  14th  of  March,  pronoun- 
ced his  judgment  on  the  question,  in  a  speech  which  certainly  de- 
serves the  praise  of  great  moderation,  as  well  as  of  extraordinary 
acuteness.  He  lamented  that  the  charges  had  been  brought  for- 
ward, and  strongly  reprobated  the  manner  in  which  they  had  been 
attempted  to  be  supported ;  but  though  he  acquitted  the  Duke  of 
York  of  any  participation  or  connivance  in  the  disgraceful  trans- 
actions which  had  been  laid  open,  and  was  therefore  ready  to 
negative  the  address  which  Mr.  Wardle  had  proposed,  yet  he 
thought  that  the  suspicions  which  were  felt,  and  would  continue 
to  be  felt,  by  the  country,  were  such  as  to  render  it  desirable  that 
His  Royal  Highness  should  withdraw  from  office. 

This  speech,  as  it  did  not  exactly  fall  in  with  the  opinions  of  either 
party,  has  not  hitherto  perhaps  received  all  the  commendation  it 
deserves.  The  distinctions  laid  down  in  it,  on  the  degree  of  credi- 
bility due  to  certain  descriptions  of  evidence,  will  be  acknow- 
ledged, perhaps,  on  examination,  to  be  not  less  profound  than  inge- 
nious. It  might  be  difficult  to  find  in  any  professional  treatise  on 
the  doctrine  of  evidence,  such  an  union  of  logical  accuracy  with 
minute  knowledge  of  mankind  as  was  on  this  occasion  applied  to 
the  subject  by  Mr.  Windham. 

In  the  course  of  this  session,  the  bill  proposed  by  Mr.  Curwen, 
for  preventing  the  sale  of  seats  in  parliament,  affi^rded  him  an 
opportunity  of  discussing  at  considerable  length  the  general  ques- 
tion of  Reform,  against  which  his  protest  had  been  frequently  and 
forcibly  given.  This  speech,  for  close  observation  of  human  na- 
ture, and  for  vigour  of  imagination,  is  not  to  be  excelled  by  any 
in  the  jDresent  collection. 

Lord  Erskine's  Bill  for  preventing  Cruelty  to  Animals  he  oppo- 
sed with  equal  wit  and  argument. 

The  failure  of  the  Walcheren  Expedition  was  followed  by  pro- 
ceedings in  the  cabinet  which  led  to  the  resignation  of  Lord  Cas- 
tlereagh  and  Mr.  Canning.  A  formal  offer  was  now  made  by  Mr. 
Perceval,  on  the  part  of  the  ministers,  to  Lords  Grenville  and 
Grey,  to  receive  them,  with  their  friends,  as  members  of  the 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WINDHAM.  xxvii 

administration.  The  proposal,  however,  was  rejected,  and  the 
answer,  as  well  as  the  note  in  which  the  offer  was  conveyed, 
were  afterwards  made  public. 

The  administration  did,  however,  go  on,  as  Mr.  Windham  ex- 
pected and  hoped.  Mr.  Perceval  became  First  Lord  of  the 
Treasury  upon  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Portland ;  the  Marquis 
Wellelsey  succeeded  Mr,  Canning  in  the  foreign  department ; 
and  the  Earl  of  Liverpool  accepted  the  seals  of  the  war  and 
colonial  office,  which  had  been  resigned  by  Lord  Castlereagh. 

He  returned  to  town  soon  after  Christmas,  and  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  session  of  1810  was  at  his  post.  He  took  an 
early  occasion  to  express  in  very  strong  terms  his  disapprobation 
of  the  object  and  conduct  of  the  expedition  to  the  Scheldt. 

The  part  which  he  took  on  a  subsequent  question  exposed  him 
to  much  temporary  unpopularity.  In  the  prosecution  of  the  en- 
quiry which  the  House  of  Commons  instituted  on  the  subject  of 
the  Scheldt  Expedition,  Mr.  Yorke  thought  it  necessary  to  move 
daily  the  standing  order  for  excluding  strangers.  This  measure 
was  reprobated  by  Mr.  Sheridan,  who  proposed  that  the  standing 
order  should  be  referred  to  a  committee  of  privileges.  Mr.  Wind 
ham,  who  had  always  professed  to  dislike  the  custom  of  reporting 
debates  in  the  newspapers,  not  only  warmly  opposed  Mr.  Sheri- 
dan's motion,  but  used  some  expressions  by  which  -the  reporters 
in  the  gallery  considered  themselves  to  be  personally  calumniated. 
Their  resentment,  as  might  be  expected,  broke  forth  in  daily 
attacks  on  him  in  the  public  prints;  and  they  soon  came  to  a 
formal  agreement  that  his  speeches  should  no  longer  be  reported. 
For  these  marks  of  vengeance,  Mr.  Windham  had  fully  prepared 
himself,  and  he  imputed  no  blame  to  those  who  inflicted  them. 
To  the  honour  of  the  conductors  of  the  daily  press,  it  should  be 
remembered  that,  a  few  months  afterwards,  they  buried  their  re- 
sentments in  the  grave  of  their  illustrious  adversary,  and  joined 
with  the  public  in  lamenting  the  loss  of  his  talents  and  virtues. 

By  the  temporary  exclusion  of  Mr.  Windham's  speeches  from 
the  newspapers,  some  valuable  ones  have  been  wholly  lost,  while 
of  others  there  have  been  preserved,  only  a  few  slight  and  unsat- 
isfactory fragments.  Only  one,  and  that  a  very  short  one  remains 
entire,  namely,  his  eulogium  on  the  character  and  conduct  of  the 


xxviii  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

Roman  Catholics  of  England.  From  that  body  (whose  claims 
it  will  be  remembered,  received  his  warm  support  in  1790)  he  now 
presented  two  petitions,  praying,  in  loyal  and  respectful  language, 
for  the  removal  of  the  pains  and  disabilities  to  which  they  were 
liable  by  law,  on  account  of  their  religious  principles. 

Another  speech,  which  he  made  in  support  of  Lord  Porches- 
ter's  motion,  censuring  the  expedition  against  the  Scheldt,  is  re- 
presented, by  those  who  heard  it,  to  have  been  one  of  the  most 
eloquent  ever  delivered  in  Parliament.  It  arrested  and  fully  re- 
compensed the  attention  of  the  house  for  nearly  two  hours.  He 
was  urged  by  some  of  his  friends  to  prepare  it  for  publication  in 
the  form  of  a  pamphlet ;  but  his  answer  was,  that  as  the  subject 
was  temporary,  so  was  the  speech,  and  he  felt  no  anxiety  to  pre- 
serve it. 

In  the  proceedings  of  the  House  of  Commons  against  Sir 
Francis  Burdett,  for  a  breach  of  their  privileges,  Mr.  Windham 
stood  forward  in  maintaining  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  rights 
of  Parliament,  and  concurred  in  the  vote,  which  was  finally  agreed 
upon,  for  committing  Sir  Francis  a  prisoner  to  the  Tower.  His 
speech,  on  this  occasion,  is  said  to  have  been  a  highly  animated 
one,  but  no  part  of  it  has  been  preserved. 

The  practice  of  mutilating  the  printed  reports  of  parliamentary 
proceedings  continued  but  for  little  more  than  two  months ;  after 
which  Mr.  Windham's  speeches  were  again  suflfered  to  appear, 
as  well  as  Mr.  Tierney's,  vdiich  had  shared  in  the  proscription 
made  by  the  reporters.  On  the  1st  of  May  1810,  we  find  Mr. 
Windham  opposing  the  second  reading  of  a  bill  which  had  been 
brought  in  by  Sir  Samuel  Romilly,  as  part  of  his  plan  for  reduc- 
ing the  number  of  capital  punishments.  This  Mr.  Windham  con- 
sidered as  a  measure  of  dangerous  innovation,  and  in  resisting  it, 
he  took  occasion  to  avow  his  belief  that  the  mischievous  eflfects 
of  the  French  Revolution  had  not  yet  ceased.  That  Revolution, 
he  said,  had  still  an  existence, — "  it  was  above  us,  and  beneath 
us; — it  was  without  us,  and  within  us;  —  it  was  everyw^here 
round  about  us."     The  bill  was  lost  by  a  majority  of  two. 

He  spoke  for  the  last  time  in  the  House  of  Commons,  on  the 
11th  of  May  1810.  The  question  before  the  house  w^as,  the  course 
which  it  would  be  expedient  to  take  in  relation  to  the  actions 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WINDHAM.  jxJx 

which  had  been  brought  against  the  Speaker  and  the  Serjeant  at 
Arms  by  Sir  Francis  Burdett,  Mr.  Windham,  as  it  will  be 
readily  conceived,  asserted  the  dignity  of  Parliament,  and  the 
sacredness  of  its  privileges. 

A  painful  narrative  remains  to  be  related.  The  calamitous 
event  v^^hich  caused  Mr.  Windham's  last  illness  took  place  a  few 
months  previous  to  the  period  down  to  which  the  circumstances 
of  his  political  life  have  just  been  carried.  It  was  about  midnight, 
on  the  8th  of  July  1809,  that  in  walking  home  from  an  evening 
party,  he  observed  a  house  in  Conduit-Street  to  be  on  fire.  He 
hastened  to  the  spot,  to  render  his  assistance,  and  found  that  the 
house  in  flames  was  so  near  to  that  of  his  friend,  the  Honourable 
Frederick  North,  as  to  threaten  its  destruction.  Knowing  that 
Mr.  North,  (who  was  then  on  a  voyage  in  the  Mediterranean) 
possessed  a  most  valuable  library,  Mr.  Windham  determined,  with 
the  assistance  of  some  persons  belonging  to  a  volunteer  corps, 
whom  he  selected  from  the  crowd,  to  make  an  effort  for  the  pre- 
servation of  it.  After  four  hours'  labour,  four-fifths  of  the  books 
were  saved.  He  did  not  quit  the  house  till  the  flames,  w^hich 
finally  consumed  it,  had  spread  so  extensively  as  to  render  his 
further  exertions  highly  dangerous.  During  the  time  that  he  was 
employed  in  this  arduous  undertaking,  it  happened,  most  unfor- 
tunately, that,  by  a  fall,  he  received  a  blow  on  the  hip,  but  not  of 
so  painful  a  nature  as  to  occasion  any  relaxation  of  his  efforts. 
He  complained,  not  of  the  hurt,  he  had  received,  but  of  a  cold 
which  was  the  consequence  of  his  exposure  to  the  weather,  the 
night  having  been  very  rainy.  His  cold  continued  to  be  very 
troublesome  to  him  for  some  time,  but  from  the  blow  on  his  hip, 
he,  for  many  months,  appeared  to  suffer  no  inconvenience  whatever, 
though  it  occasioned  a  tumour  which,  in  the  following  spring,  had 
increased  to  considerable  size. 

In  May  1810,  Mr.  Windham  found  it  necessary  to  give  his  se- 
rious attention  to  the  tumour  which  had  been  thus  collected.  Mr. 
Cline  (whom  he  had  consulted  upon  it  two  months  before)  gave 
it  as  his  opinion  that,  in  order  to  prevent  dangerous  consequences, 
an  immediate  operation  was  necessary ; — and  his  advice  was  con- 
firmed by  that  of  four  out  of  six  eminent  surgeons  whom  Mr. 
Windham  separately  consulted.  It  is  not  at  all  surprising,  there- 
(3*) 


5fxx  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

fore,  that  Mr.  Windham,  whose  courage  was  on  all  occasions 
remarkable,  should  have  determined  on  submitting  at  once  to  the 
dangers  of  the  knife,  rather  than  linger  on  in  doubt  and  appre- 
hension. 

He  arrived  in  London  on  Friday  the  11th  of  May.  On  the  fol- 
lowing Sunday,  he  attended  at  the  Charter-house,  and  received 
the  sacrament,  which  wa^  administered  to  him  privately  by  the 
Reverend  Dr.  Fisher,  the  master  of  that  institution,  with  whom 
he  had  been  intimately  acquainted  from  his  youth.  The  remain- 
ing days,  before  the  operation  was  to  take  place,  he  employed  in 
arranging  papers,  in  making  a  codicil  to  his  will,  and  in  writing 
many  letters,  some  of  which  were  addressed  to  his  nearest  rela- 
tives, to  be  opened  in  case  the  event  proved  fatal  to  him. 

On  Thursday,  the  17th  of  May  1810,  the  operation  was  per- 
formed by  Mr.  Lynn,  in  the  presence  of  Dr.  Blane,  Mr.  Home, 
and  Mr.  Pilliner,  Mr.  Windham's  apothecary.  The  tumour  was 
skilfully  extracted,  but  having  been  very  deeply  seated,  and  at- 
tached to  the  ligaments  of  the  hip  joint,  the  operation  was  neces- 
sarily painful.  Mr.  Windham,  however,  bore  the  pain  with  the 
greatest  resolution ;  and,  during  a  pause  occasioned  by  a  consult- 
ation upon  the  necessity  of, making  a  further  incision,  he  even 
joked  with  his  perilous  situation.  The  tumour  proved  to  be 
schirrous,  of  the  shape  of  a  turkey's  egg,  but  even  larger.  For 
a  few  days,  appearances  were  not  unfavourable,  though  the 
wound  did  not  heal  with  what  is  called  the  first  intention,  and 
though  Mr.  Windham  suffered  greatly  from  restlessness  and  an 
irritable  state  of  the  nerves.  But  the  hopes  even  of  his  most  san- 
guine friends,  soon  began  to  give  way.  A  symptomatic  fever 
came  on,  and  upon  the  ninth  day  he  was  pronounced  to  be  in 
great  danger.  On  the  following  day  the  symptoms  were  judged 
to  be  less  unfavourable,  but  others  of  an  alarming  kind  soon  suc- 
ceeded, and  the  medical  attendants  (to  whom  were  now  added 
Dr.  Baillie  and  Sir  Henry  Halford)  no  longer  entertained  hopes 
of  his  recovery.  From  this  time,  the  fever  abated,  the  pulse  be- 
came firmer  and  better,  and  the  patient  even  began  to  take  and 
enjoy  nourishment ;  yet,  in  spite  of  these  otherwise  flattering  cir- 
cumstances, the  state  of  the  wound,  which  had  never  suppurated, 
and  the  total  inability  of  nature  to  make  any  effort  towards  re- 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WINDHAxM.  xxxi 

lieving  it,  were  symptoms  that  excited  no  feelings  but  those  of 
despair. 

While  he  lay  in  this  hopeless  condition,  nothing  could  exceed 
the  concern  which  was  expressed  by  almost  all  classes  of  the  in- 
habitants of  London ;  nor  was  this  sentiment  narrowed  by  party 
feelings,  for  every  man  who  spoke  of  him  seemed  to  be  his  friend. 
From  the  commencement  of  his  illness,  the  number  of  anxious 
enquirers  who  had  thronged  the  door  to  obtain  a  sight  of  the  daily 
reports  of  the  physicians,  would  almost  be  thought  incredible. 
Among  those  who  shared  in  these  feelings,  was  the  King,  who 
took  every  opportunity  of  making  enquiries  of  the  physicians 
concerning  Mr.  Windham's  illness,  pronouncing  him  (as  he  had 
done  on  a  former  occasion)  to  be  a  "  real  patriot  and  a  truly 
honest  man." 

On  Sunday,  the  3d  pf  June,  his  dissolution  appeared  to  be  fast 
approaching.  He  expired,  without  pain  or  emotion,  the  next 
morning  (Monday,  June  the  4th).  He  had  just  completed  the  six- 
tieth year  of  his  age. 

In  his  person  he  was  tall  and  well  proportioned.  Having  in  his 
youth  been  eminently  skilful  in  manly  exercises,  he  had  thence 
acquired  in  his  deportment  a  happy  union  of  strength  and  ease, 
of  agility  and  gracefulness,  which  never  forsook  him.  The  form 
of  his  features  was  singularly  interesting ;  and  the  penetrating 
vivacity  of  his  eye  gave  a  faithful  indication  of  the  corresponding 
qualities  of  his  mind. 

His  address  and  conversation  were  fascinating  to  all  classes  of 
persons ; — as  well  to  the  grave  as  to  the  gay — to  the  uninformed 
as  to  the  learned — to  the  softer  as  to  the  sterner  sex.  His  manners 
delighted  all  circles,  from  the  royal  drawing-room  to  the  village- 
green  ;  though,  in  all  circles  they  were  still  the  same.  As  the 
polish  of  his  address  was  not  artificial,  it  was  alike  pleasing  to  all. 
No  man  had  ever  less  pride,  in  its  offensive  sense. 

Of  his  acquirements  it  is  needless  to  speak  much  at  length. 
That  he  was  "  a  scholar,  and  a  ripe  and  good  one,"  there  are 
abundant  testimonies  to  prove ;  nor  did  his  classical  attainments, 
great  as  they  were  universally  allowed  to  be,  exceed  his  skill  in 
the  various  branches  of  mathematical  science.  That  skill  the  pub- 
lic, it  is  hoped,  will  be  enabled  to  appreciate  at  some  future  time, 


XXXii  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

by  the  publication  of  the  manuscript  treatises  which  are  in  the 
hands  of  his  executors.  His  reading  latterly  was  miscellaneous 
and  desultory;  but  what  he  hastily  acquired,  he  actually  retained 
and  aptly  applied  in  illustration  of  his  opinions  and  arguments. 

It  now  remains  to  speak  of  his  domestic  virtues,  in  doing  which 
it  will  be  difficult  to  use  any  other  language  than  that  of  unquali- 
fied eulogium.  His  tenderness  as  a  husband  and  relative,  bis 
kindness  as  a  friend  and  patron,  his  condescending  attention  to 
inferiors,  his  warm  sympathy  with  the  unfortunate,  are  so  many 
themes  of  praise,  which  it  would  be  more  agreeable  than  neces- 
sary to  dwell  upon.  The  sense  which  he  entertained  of  the  im- 
portance of  religion,  and  which  he  strongly  marked  by  one  of  the 
concluding  acts  of  his  life,  will  serve  to  complete  the  character  of 
a  man  who  had  scarcely  an  enemy,  except  on  political  grounds, 
and  had  more  personal  friends  warmly  attached  to  him,  than  al- 
most any  man  of  the  age. 

In  the  House  of  Lords,  on  the  6th  of  June  1810,  in  a  debate  on 
the  Question  for  referring  to  a  Committee  of  the  whole  house 
the  Petitions  of  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Ireland,  Earl  Grey  said. 
Within  the  last  four  years  they  had  lost  two  great  statesmen, 
Mr.  Fox  and  Mr.  Pitt,  to  whom,  ^bove  all  others,  he  could  safe- 
ly affirm,  the  different  political  descriptions  in  the  country  looked 
up  for  that  wisdom  in  council  and  energy  in  execution,  so  neces- 
sary in  any  pressing  emergency  of  public  affairs.  To  these  was 
now  added  the  third  loss,  the  subject  of  their  present  lamentations. 
It  was  unnecessary  to  say  that  he  alluded  to  the  late  Mr.  Wind- 
ham. It  was  his  misfortune  at  different  times  to  differ  from  that 
distinguished  and  regretted  character,  yet  in  the  heat  of  political 
disagreement,  he  never  ceased  to  admire  his  many  and  splendid 
virtues. — He  was  a  man  of  a  great,  original,  and  commanding 
genius — with  a  mind  cultivated  with  the  richest  stores  of  intellec- 
tual wealth,  and  a  fancy  winged  to  the  highest  ffights  of  a  most 
captivating  imagery ;  of  sound  and  spotless  integrity  (hear !  hear !), 
with  a  warm  spirit,  but  a  generous  heart  (hear !  hear !),  and  of 
a  courage  and  determination  so  characteristic,  as  to  hold  him  for- 
"ward  as  the  strong  example  of  what  the  old  English  heart  could 
effect  or  endure.  He  was  such  a  man,  that  his  adversary,  if  there 
was  any  man  worthy  to  be  his  adversary,  must  respect  him.    He 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WINDHAM.  xxxiii 

had,  indeed,  his  faults,  but  they  served  like  the  skilful  disposition 
of  shade  in  works  of  art,  to  make  the  impression  of  his  virtues 
more  striking,  and  gave  additional  grandeur  to  the  great  outline 
of  his  character. 

Lord  Milton  rose,  and  in  a  tone  which  the  strength  of  his  feel- 
ings frequently  rendered  inaudible,  spoke  to  the  following  effect : 
— In  moving.  Sir,  for  a  new  writ  for  Higham  Ferrers,  I  feel  it  to 
be  my  duty  to  speak  of  that  illustrious  man  whose  death  has  oc- 
casioned the  present  motion.  It  would  have  been  better  if  the 
performance  of  that  duty  had  devolved  upon  some  more  compe- 
tent person ;  at  the  same  time,  I  must  say,  that,  connected,  as  I 
had  the  honour  to  be,  with  that  illustrious  man,  my  heart  would 
have  upbraided  me  if  I  had  seen  any  person  whatever  more 
eager  to  do  that  justice  than  myself.  I  decline  to  take  that  course 
for  which  there  are  examples,  with  regard  to  other  distinguished 
individuals,  in  consequence  of  the  last  strict  injunctions  of  my  de- 
ceased friend ;  and'  in  the  observations  which  I  mean  to  submit 
to  you,  I  do  not  wish  to  allude  to  any  particular  part  of  his  pub- 
lic conduct,  lest  such  allusion  should  tend  to  create  the  slightest 
difference  of  opinion  among  those  who  are  willing  to  do  honour 
to  his  memory.  When  I  speak  of  his  great  talents  and  unsullied 
integrity,  I  feel  confident  that  no  difference  can  arise,  either  among 
those  who  agreed  or  those  who  disagreed  with  him.  All  persons 
admit  the  splendour  of  his  genius,  the  extent  of  his  ability,  the 
value  and  the  variety  of  his  mental  acquirements ;  all  who  have 
had  any  opportunity  of  witnessing  the  display  of  his  vigorous, 
his  instructive,  his  rich  and  polished  eloquence,  will,  I  am  persua- 
ded, concur  with  me  in  the  opinion,  that  his  death  has  caused  a 
great,  and  perhaps  an  irreparable  vacancy  in  this  house.  But,  in 
addition  to  all  the  qualities  of  genius,  information  and  integrity, 
which  confessedly  belonged  to  my  lamented  friend,  there  was  one 
character  which  attached  to  him  in  a  most  eminent  degree — (Here 
the  Noble  Lord  Was  quite  oppressed  by  his  emotion,  and  there 
was  a  loud  and  general  cry  of  hear,  hear,  hear  !) — I  believe,  re- 
sumed the  Noble  Lord,  that  it  will  ever  remain  in  the  memory  of 
this  house,  that  among  the  most  interesting  peculiarities  which  dis- 
tinguished my  friend,  was  an  undaunted  intrepidity  under  all  cir- 
cumstances, such  indeed  as  rarely  falls  to  the  lot  of  man,  and  a 

(E) 


xxxiv  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

manly  promptitude  to  speak  his  mind  upon  all  occasions.  He  was 

the  man  of  whom  more  than  another  it  might  well  be  said — 

Non  civium  ardor  prava  jubentium, 
Non  vultus  instantis  tyranni 
Mente  quatit  solids. 

He  was  the  man  who  was  never  to  be  moved  from  his  purpose, 
or  relaxed  in  his  exertion  by  any  considerations,  either  of  fear  or 
of  favour — no,  never  was  he  to  be  warped  from  the  honest  dic- 
tates of  his  own  mind.  This  quality,  always  so  valuable,  and 
which,  on  all  occasions,  conferred  such  peculiar  importance  upon 
his  sentiments,  renders  his  loss  at  present  an  aggravated  national 
calamity.  For  never,  perhaps,  was  it  more  necessary  that  pub- 
lic men  should  not  shrink  from  their  duties,  but  act  firmly  and 
consistently  with  the  dictates  of  an  honest  and  unbiassed  opinion. 
While  I  dilate  upon  the  merits  of  my  deceased  friend,  it  is  my 
wish  to  abstain  from  any  thing  like  exaggeration.  It  was  very 
rarely  his  lot  to  obtain  what  is  usually  termed  popularity.  But, 
if  it  be  true,  as  it  has  often  been  remarked,  that  rarely  high  cha- 
racter and  popularity  are  to  be  found  joined  together,  his  fate 
furnished  an  impressive  illustration  of  that  remark.  There  may 
be  persons  ready  to  follow  the  inclination  of  what  is  called  popu- 
larity respecting  my  friend.  But  although  he  may  not  have  the 
favour  of  such  persons,  sure  I  am,  that  in  no  part  of  his  conduct 
did  he  ever  want  the  sanction  of  an  approving  conscience — that 
in  no  instance  whatever  was  he  without  that  highest  of  human 
gratifications.  No,  his  honourable  mind  was  ever  conscious  that 
if  it  did  not  enjoy,  at  least  it  deserved  the  good  opinion  of  the 
country. — That  he  actually  had  the  good  opinion  of  al^  those  who 
are  capable  of  truly  appreciating  character,  I  have  not  the  slight- 
est doubt.  Among  all  those  who  attach  any  value  to  real  public 
virtue  and  talent,  I  am  firmly  persuaded  that  no  man  ever  stood 
higher.  If  he  had  faults  and  indiscretions,  which  of  us  are  with- 
out them  ?  but  his  faults  and  indiscretions  were  not  of  any  ordi- 
nary castj  for  they  sprung  from  no  ordinary  source.  They  were 
not  the  effect  of  any  deficiency  of  understanding  or  lowness  of 
view — no,  but  of  that  high-minded  generosity  which  was  his  pe- 
culiar characteristic.  His  disinterestedness  was  wholly  unques- 
tionable. Never  did  he  appear  to  regard  in  the  slightest  degree  in 


THE  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  WINDHAM.  xxxv 

what  manner  his  public  conduct  might  affect  himself — how  it 
might  impair  his  character  or  his  circumstances.  Influenced  alone 
by  what  he  conceived  to  be  right,  he  steadily  pursued  it  without 
any  dread  of  consequences.  Whether  his  ideas  of  right  or  wrong 
were  generally  correct,  or  whether  results  generally  justified  those 
ideas,  certain  I  am  that  I  anticipate  the  concurrence  of  those  who 
closely  observed  him,  that  the  feelings  and  the  motives  I  have  de- 
scribed, were  the  uniform  guides  of  his  conduct. — At  an  early 
period  of  his  life,  he  had  attached  himself  to  another  great  man 
(Mr.  Burke),  whose  loss  the  country  has  already  deplored.  He 
imbibed  from  that  great  character  those  opinions  which  he  invari- 
ably pursued ;  and  though,  at  one  time,  it  might  be  said,  that  he 
became  exceedingly  alarmed  at  what  some  might  regard  as  im- 
provements, but  what  others  might  consider  as  innovations,  it  pro- 
ceeded from  a  reverential  awe  for  the  true  principles  of  the  con- 
stitution.— The  Noble  Lord  then  expressed  that  it  had  been  his 
wish  to  avoid  any  thing  which  could  tend  to  excite  controversy, 
and  to  confine  himself  to  those  points  upon  which  controversy 
was  impossible.  It  was  his  wish  to  say  something  on  those  parts 
of  his  character  which  others  might  not  have  had  opportunities 
of  observing,  but  he  felt  himself  unequal  to  the  task.  Perhaps  it 
was  unnecessary  that  he  should  do  so.  The  house  knew  his  pub- 
lic character ;  and  certain  he  was,  that  among  his  friends  and  foes 
there  was  but  one  opinion — that  in  his  death  they  had  sustained 
a  loss  which  perhaps  the  youngest  among  them  might  not  live  to 
see  repaired.  Having  thus  unburdened  his  own  niind  on  the  occa- 
sion, he  believed  he  had  no  more  to  say.  Had  he  not  so  express- 
ed himself,  his  conduct  might  have  been  justly  considered  more 
extraordinary.  He  lamented  what  he  had  said  had  been  so  inele- 
gantly spoken,  but  he  was  not  able  sufficiently  to  master  his  feel- 
ings to  express  himself  as  he  could  wish.  He  concluded  by  mo- 
ving, "  That  the  Speaker  do  issue  his  writ  for  a  burgess  to  serve 
in  parliament  for  the  borough  of  Higham  Ferrers,  in  the  room  of 
the  Right  Honourable  William  Windham,  deceased." 

Mr.  Canning,  though  he  had  been  long  in  the  habit  of  opposing 
the  public  conduct  of  the  illustrious  character  now  no  more,  rose 
to  bear  his  testimony  to  those  talents  and  virtues  which  had  dis- 
tinguished Mr.  Windham's  splendid  career.     He  felt  equally  with 


XXXVi  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  WINDHAM. 

the  Noble  Lord,  the  impossibiHty  of  doing  justice  to  talents  so  ex- 
ahed,  to  virtues  so  rare.  Among  all  the  storms  and  all  the  con- 
tests which  had  raged  in  his  time,  whatever  might  have  been  the 
frenzy  of  the  moment,  he  above  all  had  avoided  the  appearance  and 
the  reality  of  soliciting  popular  approbation.  But  if  his  conduct 
had  not  made  him  the  object  of  transient  popularity,  it  had  secu- 
red him  what  was  of  greats'  value,  lasting  and  unperishable 
admiration.  At  no  time  could  so  great  a  character  pay  the  last 
debt  of  nature,  without  leaving  a  chasm  much  to  be  deplored, 
and  difficult  to  fill  up ;  but  never  was  there  a  period  at  which  his 
loss  could  be  more  sensibly  felt  than  at  present.  Throughout  his 
life,  from  a  sincere  sense  of  public  duty,  he  had  exposed  himself 
to  every  threatening  evil,  in  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  cause 
of  his  country. — He  had  left  them  a  proof  that  conduct  so  up- 
right, if  not  calculated  to  gain  the  applause  of  a  party,  was  cer- 
tain of  conciliating  universal  esteem.  It  had  often  been  his  (Mr. 
Canning's)  fate,  during  the  time  he  had  been  his  contemporary,  to 
oppose  his  public  conduct.  This  he  had  frequently  done,  thinking 
he  (Mr.  Windham)  carried  the  best  principles  to  an  excess,  but 
never  once  had  he  suspected  his  motives  to  be  dishonourable. — 
There  was  a  selfishness  of  which  it  was  difficult  for  a  pubHc  man 
to  divest  himself — the  selfish  pleasure  of  pleasing  those  with  whom 
they  were  in  the  habit  of  acting;  but  superior  still,  even  of  this 
most  amiable  of  all  selfish  feelings  had  Mr.  Windham  been  acquit- 
ted, both  by  his  political  friends  and  opponents. 


SELECT     SPEECHES 


OP 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE 


WILLIAM    WINDHAM 

4  37 


SPEECHES 

OF 

THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE 

WILLIAM  WINDHAM- 


PARLIAMENTARY   REFORM. 

MARCH  4th,  1790. 

Mr.  Flood  moved  for  leave  to  bring  in  a  Bill  to  amend  the  Representation 
of  the  People  in  Parliament.     The  motion  being  seconded  by  Mr.  Grigby, 

Mr.  Windham  addressed  the  Chair  in  the  following  speech : 
Sir, 

It  will  be  unnecessary  for  me  to  reply  to  the  arguments  of  the 
Right  Honourable  Gentleman  very  much  in  detail,  since,  as  the 
question  has  been  so  often  debated  in  this  house,  they  are  argu- 
ments which  every  Gentleman  wlio  has  heard  them  will  be  able 
to  refute.  But  I  cannot  help  observing,  that  there  is  a  preliminary 
question  which  the  Right  Honourable  Gentleman  seems  wholly  to 
have  forgotten,  and  which  ought  to  have  been  answered  before 
his  motion  should  even  have  been  received  by  the  house.  I  mean, 
that  he  has  forgotten  to  show  that  any  necessity  exists  for  adopt- 
ing his  proposition ;  he  has  not  proved  enough  to  encourage  us  to 
go  on  with  him  a  single  step.  He  ought  first  to  have  made  out 
his  grievance,  and  then  to  have  proposed  his  remedy.  When  the 
house  is  put  in  possession  of  both,  it  will  be  the  time  to  judge  how 
far  the  first  is  ascertained,  and  the  second  proportionate ;  and  to 
decide  whether  the  remedy  ought  to  be  adopted  or  not.  But  the 
Right  Honourable  Gentleman  has  only  asserted,  that  the  repre- 
sentation is  inadequate,  without  any  attempt  whatever  to  prove 
that  fact.  As  a  substitute  for  argument,  he  has  contented  himself 
with  a  triumphant  appeal  to  the  people;  and  this  I  have  always 
observed  to  be  the  practice  of  those  who  have  brought  this  ques- 
tion before  the  house.  On  my  part,  I  am  ready  to  resort  to  the 
same  appeal,  and  to  ask  whether  the  House  of  Commons,  consti- 
tuted as  it  is,  be  not  answerable  to  all  the  purposes  that  can  be 
required  of  it ;  and  whether  the  people  do  not  live  under  it  happy 
1  .  A  ' 


2  PARLIAMENTARY   REFORM. 

and  free,  and  do  not  even  enjoy  all  the  luxuries  of  life  which  they 
can  y)ossibly  desire.  It  is  whimsical  to  say  that  a  constitution, 
which  has  lasted  so  long,  and  which  experience  has  taught  us  to 
vakie  and  revere,  ought  now  to  be  departed  from,  in  order  that 
we  may  adopt  theoretical  and  new-fangled  schemes,  such  as  are 
now  j)roposed  to  us.  Let  us,  in  opposition  to  such  assertions  and 
doctrines,  look  to  the  blessings  we  are  enjoying; — let  us  judge  of 
the  tree  by  its  fruits,  and  apply  to  the  British  Constitution  a  homely 
adage,  which  is  not  the  less  apposite  for  being  coarse ; — that  "  the 
proof  of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating."  The  experience  of  all  ages 
has  demonstrated,  that  this  house  is  adequate  to  all  that  is  neces- 
sary, and  that  with  no  better  a  system  of  representation,  the  coun- 
try has  been  prosperous  and  flourishing,  the  people  have  been 
comfortable  and  safe.  Every  proposition  of  reformation  or  inno- 
vation is  good  or  bad  according  to  the  circumstances  of  the  case; 
and  this  is  a  case  in  which  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  we  have 
every  thing  to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain.  The  project  comes  before 
the  house  under  the  appearance  of  liberty,  as  all  innovations  do, 
which  are  likely  to  destroy  that  very  liberty  they  profess  to  pre- 
serve. The  liberty  of  this  country  requires  no  speculative  security, 
nor  can  it  be  better  secured  than  by  the  means  by  which  it  has  so 
long  continued. 

Sir,  the  Right  Honourable  Gentleman  has  quoted  the  case  of 
the  Middlesex  Election,  and  has  laid  great  stress  on  the  fact  of 
the  minority  having  in  that  case  been  allowed  to  triumph  over 
the  majority.  The  fact,  indeed,  was  so,  and  were  it  so  in  other 
cases,  were  such  even  the  general  rule  of  election,  and  the  affairs 
of  the  house  were  to  go  on  as  well  as  they  have  done,  I  should 
not  be  disposed  to  quarrel  with  such  a  rule,  merely  because  I 
might  be  unable  exactly  to  see  how  such  a  result  could  follow 
from  it.  I  should  content  myself  with  the  result  itself;  and  to 
those  who,  like  the  Right  Honourable  Gentleman,  might  be  dis- 
posed to  cavil  with  it,  I  would  say,  in  the  words  of  Hamlet, 

"  There  are  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth,  Horatio, 
Than  are  dreamt  of  in  your  philosophy." 

As  to  the  American  War,  the  Right  Honourable  Gentleman,  in 
his  reference  to  that  subject,  has  come  somewhat  near  to  the 

g)int  to  which  I  wish  to  bring  him ; — I  mean,  to  matter  of  fact, 
ut  I  deny  that  the  continuance  of  that  war  was  owing  to  the 
inadequacy  of  the  representation.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  the 
wish  of  the  people  that  that  war  should  be  begun,  nor  was  any 
strong  indication  of  an  opposite  feeling  manifested,  till  towards 
the  conclusion  of  it.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  a  Right  Honourable 
Friend  of  mine  (Mr.  Fox)  opposed  the  war,  and  that  the  Electors 
of  Westminster  continued  him,  and  very  properly  continued  him. 


PARLIAMENTARY   REFORM.  3 

as  their  representative.  But  it  is  also  true,  that  another  Right 
Honourable  Friend  of  mine  (Mr.  Burke)  acted  the  same  wise  and 
honourable  part,  and  what  was  the  consequence  ?  Why,  that  he 
lost  his  seat  for  Bristol.  He  was  expressly  turned  out,  at  a  popu- 
lar election,  for  opposing  the  continuance  of  the  war,  and  had  to 
resort  for  a  seat  to  one  of  those  boroughs  which  are  now  pro- 
posed to  be  disfranchised.  Towards  the  close  of  the  war,  a  loud 
clamour  was  raised  for  a  Reform  of  Parliament,  as  a  remedy  for 
the  evils,  and  losses,  and  expenses,  to  which  the  people  had  been 
exposed ;  though  I  am  afraid  that  those  very  people  originally 
engaged  in  the  war  with  no  better  motive  than  that  of  saving  their 
own  pockets  by  taxing  those  of  the  Americans. 

Sir,  it  was  at  the  period  of  which  I  am  now  speaking,  that  a 
deluge  of  wild  opinions  was  let  loose  upon  us.  The  emancipation 
of  America  served  to  swell  the  flood.  But  I  have  been  flattering 
myself  that  it  had  long  since  subsided.  I  hoped  that  the  cry  had 
been  dead,  but  it  turns  out  only  to  have  slept.  And  truly  sorry 
am  I  to  observe,  that  swarms  of  these  strange  impracticable 
notions  have  lately  been  wafted  over  to  us  from  the  Continent,  to 
prey  like  locusts  on  the  fairest  flowers  of  our  soil ; — to  destroy 
the  boasted  beauty  and  verdure  of  our  Constitution.  It  is  in  con- 
formity with  these  notions  that  we  are  called  upon  to  new-model 
our  establishments,  which  have  for  ages  withstood  innovation. 
Yet  the  people  at  large,  it  is  obvious,  have  no  such  wish.  If  they 
have,  why  do  they  not  declare  it  ?  What  is  the  political  malady, 
what  the  grievance  that  is  now  complained  of?  What  evil  has 
overtaken  us,  in  consequence  of  this  inadequate  representation  of 
the  people  ?  Experience  has  proved  that  the  British  Constitution 
contains  somewhere  and  somehow  within  itself,  a  principle  of 
self-recovery  and  self-preservation,  which  brings  it  back,  amidst 
all  the  deviations  to  which  it  is  exposed,  to  its  natural  and  salu- 
tary state.  Quod  peiis  hie  est  There  is  no  occasion  for  an 
infusion  of  new  blood,  which,  instead  of  being  salutary,  might 
prove  fatal. 

But,  Sir,  were  I  even  disposed  to  approve  of  the  Right  Honour- 
able Gentleman's  notions  of  reform,  I  should  still  feel  it  my  duty 
to  object  in  the  strongest  manner  to  the  time  in  which  he  has 
thought  proper  to  bring  them  forward.  What,  would  he  recom- 
mend you  to  repair  your  house  in  the  hurricane  season  T-  The 
Right  Honourable  Gentleman,  indeed,  professes  only  to  wish  to 
open  the  door  for  a  change,  being  perfectly  indiflferent  himself  as 
to  what  that  change  might  be.  Now  a  change  may  be  good  in 
the  abstract ;  but  merely  for  the  sake  of  a  change,  I  can  never 
consent  to  pull  down  the  fabric,  and  take  the  chance  of  building 
it  up  again.  This,  to  use  the  language  of  play,  (though  I  am 
myself  no  gamester,)  would  not  be  playing  upon  velvet:  a  little 


4  PARLIAMENTARY   REFORM. 

only  might  be  gained,  and  every  thing  might  be  lost.  As  to  a 
love  of  change  generally,  this  passion  is  natural  to  all  ages  and 
countries;  but  men  are  not  more  fond  of  innovation,  than  they 
are  apt  to  difler  as  to  the  particular  schemes  of  reform  that  are 
to  be  carried  into  execution.  It  is  not  enough  to  say,  that  a 
majority  of  the  people  are  friendly  to  reform  in  general,  unless 
some  particular  mode  of  reformation  be  also  agreed  upon.  But 
even  were  this  the  case,  and  were  any  scheme  of  ParHamentary 
Reform  generally  approved  of,  I  should  still  think  it  my  duty  to 
oppose  the  dangerous  and  progressive  spirit  of  innovation; — I 
must  still  enter  my  protest  against  the  strange  mixture  of  meta- 
physics with  politics,  which  we  are  witnessing  in  the  neighbouring 
country,  where  it  would  seem  as  if  the  ideal  world  were  about  to 
overrun  the  real.  In  that  country  speculatists  and  theorists  are 
now  frontibus  adversis  pugnantia.  Let  us,  in  good  time,  avoid 
the  infection. 

Sir,  it  is  my  firm  opinion  that  there  is  no  grievance  existing  in 
this  country  which  we  cannot  correct,  without  calling  in  the 
advice  of  a  theorist.  While  the  people  are  enjoying  the  highest 
degree  of  freedom  and  felicity,  why  should  we  try  to  persuade 
them  that  they  are  all  the  time  in  misery  and  slavery  ?  While 
we  are  feeling  the  blessings  of  peace  and  plenty,  why  should  a 
thought  come  into  our  heads  that  we  are  unwell,  and  must  have 
recourse  to  medicine  1  This  is  like  the  story  in  the  Spectator,  of 
a  man  in  good  health,  who  had  read  medical  books  till  he  fancied 
that  he  had  every  symptom  of  the  gout  upon  him,  except  pain. 
Let  me  entreat  the  house  not  to  fall  into  the  state  of  this  imagi- 
nary valetudinarian.  Let  us  not  fancy  that  our  Constitution  stands 
in  need  of  the  specifics  which  are  offered  to  us,  trifling  and  harm- 
less as  they  are  represented  to  be.  Once  received,  they  may,  like 
the  puncture  of  a  man's  arm,  bring  on  disorders  that  are  dangerous 
to  the  whole  body ;  and  the  Constitution,  now  healthy  and  flourish- 
ing, may  fall  to  cureless  ruin. 

Mr.  Pitt,  though  he  approved  generally  of  the  measure  of  a  Reform  in  Par- 
liament, wished  it  to  be  postponed  till  a  more  favourable  moment,  and  in  order 
to  avoid  a  specific  vote  on  the  subject,  proposed  a  motion  of  adjournment.  Mr. 
Powys,  Mr.  Secretary  Grenville,  and  Mr.  Burke,  spoke  against  the  proposed 
Reform;  and  Mr.  Fox  in  favour  of  it,  though  he  recommended  Mr.  Flood  to 
withdraw  his  motion,  which  was  accordingly  done. 


(    5   ) 

REVOLUTIONARY  PRINCIPLES. 

DECEMBER   13th,   1792. 

His  Majesty's  Speech  from  the  Throne,  on  opening  the  session,  having 
been  read  by  the  Speaker,  the  Lord  Mayor  moved  an  Address,  which  con- 
tained the  following  passages : 

"  It  has  been  impossible  for  us  not  to  perceive,  from  our  own  observation  in 
different  parts  of  the  country,  the  increased  activity  with  which  seditious 
practices  have  of  late  been  openly  renewed ;  and  we  learn,  with  concern, 
that  not  only  a  spirit  of  tumult  and  disorder  (the  natural  consequences  of 
such  practices)  has  shown  itself  in  acts  of  riot  and  insurrection,  which  required 
the  interposition  of  a  military  force  in  support  of  the  civil  magistrate,  but 
that  the  industry  employed  to  excite  discontent  has  appeared  to  proceed  from 
a  design  to  attempt,  in  concert  with  persons  in  foreign  countries,  the 
destruction  of  our  happy  constitution,  and  the  subversion  of  all  order  and 
government. 

"  We  entertain  a  just  sense  of  the  temper  and  prudence  which  have 
induced  Your  Majesty  to  observe  a  strict  neutrality  with  respect  to  the  war 
on  the  continent,  and  uniformly  to  abstain  from  any  interference  in  the  inter- 
nal affairs  of  France ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  we  cannot  but  participate  in  the 
just  uneasiness  with  which  Your  Majesty  must  observe  any  indications  of  an 
intention  to  excite  disturbances  in  other  countries,  to  disregard  the  rights  of 
neutral  nations,  and  to  pursue  views  of  conquest  and  aggrandizement,  and  par- 
ticularly to  adopt  measures  towards  Your  Majesty's  allies,  the  States  General, 
inconsistent  with  the  laws  of  nations,  and  the  positive  stipulations  of  ex- 
isting treaties. 

"  The  circumstances,  which  Your  Majesty  has  been  pleased  to  communi- 
cate to  us,  appear  to  have  rendered  it  highly  important,  for  the  safety  and 
interest  of  this  country,  that  Your  Majesty  should  have  recourse  to  those 
measures  of  prevention  and  internal  defence,  with  which  Your  Majesty  is 
entrusted  by  law. 

"We  sincerely  hope  that  these  exertions,  and  the  steps  which  Your 
Majesty  has  taken  for  augmenting  your  naval  and  military  force,  will  have 
the  happy  tendency  both  to  maintain  internal  tranquillity,  and  to  render  a  firm 
and  temperate  conduct  effectual  for  preserving  the  blessings  of  peace. 

"  Your  Majesty  may,  at  the  same  time,  rely  on  our  zealous  concurrence 
in  such  measures  as  may  prove  to  be  necessary  for  the  security  of  these  king- 
doms, and  for  the  faithful  performance  of  our  engagements." 

Mr.  Fox  moved  an  Amendment,'   "to  express  to  His   Majesty  our  most 

zealous  attachment  to  the  excellent  constitution  of  this  free  country;  our 

sense  of  the  invaluable  blessings  which  we  derive  from  it,  and  our  unshaken 

determination  to  maintain  and  preserve  it;  to  assure  His  Majesty  that,  uniting 

1* 


Q  REVOLUTIONARY    PRINCIPLES. 

with  all  His  Majesty's  faithful  subjects  in  these  sentiments  of  loyalty  to  tlie 
Throne,  and  attacliment  to  the  constitution,  we  feel  in  common  with  them 
the  deepest  anxiety  and  concern,  when  we  see  those  measures  adopted  by 
the  executive  j,^overnment,  which  the  law  authorises  only  in  cases  of  insur- 
rection within  tliis  realm. 

"That  His  Majesty's  faithful  Commons,  assembled  in  a  manner  new  and 
alarming  to  the  country,  think  it  their  first  duty,  and  will  make  it  their  first 
business,  to  inform  themselves  of  the  causes  of  this  measure,  being  equally 
zealous  to  enforce  a  due  obedience  to  the  laws  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  faith- 
ful execution  of  them  on  the  other. 

Mr.  Windham  rose  immediately  after  Mr.  Fox,  and  said,  that 
strange  as  it  might  seem,  he  should  vote  this  night  with  those 
whose  measures  he  had  uniformly  and  conscientiously  reprobated, 
in  opposition  to  those  whose  political  sentiments  on  almost  every 
occasion  were  in  unison  with  his  own.  It  might  appear  extraor- 
dinary that  he  should  be  found  defending  the  measures  of  persons 
with  whom  he  had  been  so  long  in  political  hostility,  and  in  some 
degree  reprobating  the  principles  of  some  of  his  political  asso- 
ciates. He  had  his  attachments,  he  confessed,  and  those  attach- 
ments in  lesser  considerations  might  have  some  influence  even 
upon  his  judgment.  But  upon  a  subject  of  the  importance  of  the 
present,  he  was  determined  to  be  governed  solely  by  a  sense  of 
duty. — Indeed,  he  had  often  given  his  opinion  in  that  house,  that 
in  the  year  1784  most  unconstitutional  measures  had  been  adopted, 
and  unconstitutional  principles  maintained;  and,  on  the  same 
grounds,  he  had  often  since  reprobated  the  conduct  of  ministers, 
who  had  pretty  uniformly  adhered  to  the  system  upon  which  they 
had  come  into  power ;  nay,  he  was  of  opinion,  that  to  the  pro- 
ceedings of  1784,  we  might  ascribe  the  evils  of  our  present 
situation ;  but  the  question  now  was,  whether  they  were  right  in 
the  present  instance  1  and  here  he  confessed  he  could  not  agree 
with  his  Right  Honourable  friend  (Mr.  Fox)  in  almost  any  of  the 
sentiments  he  had  expressed  that  night. — They  differed  either  on 
principle,  or  on  the  application  of  principle,  on  all  the  pohits  of 
this  subject.  The  foundation,  however,  ol*  their  difference  lay  in 
the  state  of  this  country  at  the  present  moment.  "Was  the 
country  at  this  moment  in  a  state  of  danger,  ay  or  no  ?"  He 
was  told,  he  said,  that  there  was  no  real  cause  for  alarm  among 
the  people ;  that  the  only  alarm  that  was  felt  had  been  created 
by  Government  Government  must  certainly  have  had  strange 
and  wonderful  powers,  indeed,  to  produce  the  alarm  every  day 
expressed  in  different  parts.  No,  there  were  serious  and  well- 
founded  alarms  from  the  conduct,  not  of  the  officers  of  Govern- 
ment, but  from  those  who  had  sworn  an  enmity  to  all  Government. 
— Did  not  the  whole  country  feel  it?     Was  not  every  town, 


REVOLUTIONARY   PRINCIPLES.  7 

village,  and  hamlet  filled  witli  apprehension  ?  Could  a  man  enter 
into  his  own  house,  or  could  he  walk  in  a  field,  without  observing 
that  it  occupied  the  whole  of  the  attention  of  all  ranks  and 
descriptions  of  people  ?  This  was  what  his  Right  Honourable 
Friend  had  been  pleased  to  make  a  matter  of  argument,  but  what 
was  really  mere  matter  of  observation ;  a  man  should  not  reason 
on  the  probability  or  improbability  of  these  events,  but  should  ob- 
serve upon  the  fact,  and  attend  to  the  relation  of  others.  If  a 
man  confined  himself  in  one  room  of  his  own  house,  he  would 
know  no  more  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  next,  than  he  would 
know  what  was  going  on  in  another  country ;  but  if  he  chose  to' 
be  vigilant,  he  might  know  a  good  deal  more.  So  in  the  present 
case,  if  a  man  would  not  believe  any  thing  but  what  he  saw, 
nor  see  any  thing  but  what  he  liked,  it  was  not  very  probable 
that  he  would  discover  much  of  the  alarm  in  question.  But  if 
he  was  at  the  pains  to  observe,  the  alarm  was  visible  enough. 
Had  he  observed  it?  Yes.  He  had  seen  the  intention  of  the 
enemies  of  the  present  constitution  expressed  in  various  shapes. 
He  had  seen  it  in  the  confidence  of  their  agents ;  in  the  boldness 
of  those  who  wished  the  subversion  of  the  constitution.  He  ap- 
pealed to  the  house,  whether  they  did  not  know  and  feel  that 
there  was  a  general  alarm  all  over  the  country.  The  next  point 
to  be  considered,  in  the  order  which  his  Right  Honourable  Friend 
had  taken,  was  how  far  it  might  be  fit  to  check  the  cause  of  this 
mischief  by  law,  the  question  of  the  policy  of  doing  which  he 
had  determined  in  the  negative.  It  was  true  that  the  measures 
now  pursued  over  the  country,  were  such  as  had  never  been  em- 
ployed before;  but  it  must  be  observed,  in  answer  to  this,  that 
there  never  had  been  such  an  occasion  before.  Speculative 
opinions  had  been  published  from  time  to  time  in  this  country, 
and  they  might  have  been  continued  to  be  published,  but  the 
manner  of  publishing,  as  well  as  the  works  published  of  late, 
were  entirely  new.  He  believed  the  society  for  Constitutional 
Information  began  the  system  now  pursued ;  it  was  soon  trans- 
planted into  another  country,  in  the  fertile  soil  of  which  it  had 
thriven  so  well  as  to  overthrow  all  order,  and  estabhsh  confusion. 
Having  had  this  glorious  eflfect  by  transplantation,  it  was  now 
brought  to  this  Country,  for  the  purpose  of  producing  the  sarfie 
effect.  The  machine  was  so  well  constructed,  there  were  such 
skill,  contrivance,  and  management,  in  the  engineers,  that  unless 
parliament  were  on  their  guard,  and  the  sensible  and  honest  part 
of  the  community,  active  in  counteracting  their  designs,  the 
whole  form  of  our  Government  might  be  easily  subverted.  He 
spoke  not  from  distrust  merely,  or  rumour,  but  he  knew,  and  it 
was  notorious  that  there  had  been,  and  was  now,  a  constant 
communication  between  persons  in  Paris,  and  persons  in  London, 


8  REVOLUTIONARY    PRINCIPLES. 

the  object  of  which  was  the  destruction  of  our  present  form  of 
Government.  This  sort  of  counter  alliance  of  the  Englishman 
in  Paris,  and  the  Frenchman  in  London,  had  been  regularly 
formed,  and  the  effect  of  it  was  felt  already  in  an  alarming  de- 
gree; for  in  every  town,  in  every  village,  nay,  almost  in  every 
Bouse,  these  worthy  gentlemen  had  their  agents,  who  regularly 
disseminated  certain  pamphlets ;  these  agents  were  vigilant  and 
industrious,  delivered  these  pamphlets  gratis,  a  proof  there  must 
be  somewhere  a  society  to  defray  the  expense,  for  these  agents 
could  not  afford  to  be  thus  generous  to  the  public  without  assist- 
ance; they  could  not  pay  for  them  out  of  their  own  pockets. 
No,  the  whole  was  a  well-arranged  methodized  plan,  for  gradually 
undermining  the  principles  of  the  British  constitution.  This  was 
not  all,  they  proceeded  with  the  solemnity  of  an  oath,  which  was, 
that  they  were  to  be  ready — Here  the  confusion  arising  from  the 
loud  cries  of  "  Prove !  prove !"  and  "  Hear  !  hear !"  interrupted 
him  for  a  few"  seconds — when 

Mr.  Burke  {called  to  order.)  He  observed  that  a  gentleman 
was  asserting  a  fact  which  he  was  satisfied  could  be  proved,  and 
a  convenient  season  would  soon  arise  for  that  purpose,  that  was, 
when  there  should  be  an  inquiry  into  this  business:  but  there 
could  be  no  good  reason  why  any  gentleman  delivering  his  senti- 
ments should  give  up  the  sources  of  his  information  in  this  stage 
of  the  business.  There  might  be  good  reason  why  they  should 
not  now  be  exposed. 

Mr. Windham  then  proceeded:  he  had  heard  long  ago  of  the 
truth  of  what  he  had  just  been  stating  from  very  unquestionable 
authority — indeed  he  had  been  informed  of  it  by  an  Honourable 
Member  of  that  house,  but  it  was  not  a  fact  of  any  great  conse- 
quence. The  system  he  had  alluded  to,  had  been  carried  on  all 
over  the  country,  more  or  less  in  the  northern  part  of  this  king- 
dom ;  great  pains  had  been  taken  with  the  poorer  part  of  the 
community,  to  wean  their  affections  from  Government — and  it 
was  very  strongly  suspected,  that  the  whole  plan  was  supported 
by  a  purse  which  was  believed  to  be  made  up  in  France ;  this  he 
did  not  know,  but  he  believed  it  to  be  the  case.  In  answer  to  this, 
it  might  be  answered  that  the  French  were  not  likely  to  contribute 
much  money,  having  little  or  none  to  spare  upon  this  or  any  other 
such  occasion,  to  which  the  reply  was  obvious.  Those  who  are 
in  a  state  of  desperation,  have  always  the  most  money  to  squan- 
der upon  acts  of  profligacy  and  dishonour ;  besides,  poor  and 
wretched  as  they  w^ere,  yet  such  sums  however  large  to  indi- 
viduals could  not  be  of  any  great  consequence  to  a  nation.  The 
manner  in  which  this  business  was  conducted,  was  very  artful. 
On  putting  these  works  of  sedition  into  the  hands  of  the  labourer, 
they  always  told  him  they  were  intended  for  his  instruction.  They 


REVOLUTIONARY  PRINCIPLES.  9 

represented  their  societies  as  places  for  the  instruction  of  the 
lower  class.  The  proper  meaning  of  fair  instruction  was  by- 
education  to  teach  a  man  a  mode  of  reasoning.  But  this  instruc- 
tion was  nothing  more  than  a  general  conveyance  of  particular 
opinions.  Again,  they  said  that  their  object  was  the  propagating 
truth,  and  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  man ;  how  well 
these  points  have  been  gained  we  had  recent  instances.  It  was 
an  attempt  to  reverse  the  order  of  society  altogether.  From  the 
pulpit  we  had  been  accustomed  to  hear  laid  down,  as  the  founda- 
tion of  all  happiness,  obedience  to  the  laws.  From  the  Jacobin 
Club  nothing  was  inculcated  but  disobedience  to  the  law ;  and  the 
doctrine  that  those  who  make  laws  in  this  country  have  no  com- 
petent authority  to  make  laws.  These  sentiments,  if  generally- 
received,  would  very  speedily  overturn  all  order  and  government. 
The  art  with  which  these  sentiments  were  introduced  among  the 
lower  classes  of  society  was  consummate ;  they  pretended  that 
they  taught  nothing  but  philosophical  truths ;  but  instead  of  arguing 
philosophically  in  their  books  they  made  round  assertions,  and 
they  acted  wisely  for  their  purpose  by  so  doing ;  for  the  persons 
to  whom  they  addressed  themselves,  were  incapable  of  pursuing 
a  subject  logically  from  premises  to  conclusion,  nor  would  this 
mode  of  reasoning  suit  their  cause.  Not  even  these  assertions 
were  made,  until  they  had  prepared  the  mind  to  receive  them ; 
they  gained  the  affections  first  by  flattering  the  passions,  and  then 
they  proceeded  to  instruct,  as  they  termed  it.  Whether  the  law, 
even  in  the  freest  country  in  the  world,  ought  to  permit  every 
man  to  preach  what  doctrines  he  thought  fit,  and  gain  over  as 
many  proselytes  as  he  could,  was  a  question  that  had  often  been 
suggested,  and  which  he  should  determine  in  the  negative ;  for 
these  truths,  as  they  were  termed,  would  dwindle  into  nothing, 
if  the  sentiment  built  upon  them  could  be  seen,  and  the  conse- 
quences of  them  anticipated ;  but  these  poor  peasants  had  not  the 
power  of  deducing  consequences,  and  therefore  they  listened  to 
assertion. — Nor  could  he  see  the  harm  there  was  of  preventing 
all  endeavours  to  explain  to  a  poor,  illiterate  fellow,  whose  extent 
of  powers  was  but  barely  adequate  to  the  task  of  procuring  food 
for  his  own  subsistence,  points  which  had  divided  the  opinions  of 
the  ablest  writers.  He  saw  no  great  loss  to  society  from  putting 
an  end  to  public-house  political  clubs,  and  ale-house  debates  on 
politics;  in  short,  he  saw  no  reason  why  they  should  not  be 
altogether  suppressed.  Next  came  the  question,  where  will  you 
draw  the  line,  whom  will  you  take  up,  and  whom  will  you  suffer 
to  pass  by;  or,  shall  no  man  give  his  opinion  upon  the  constitu- 
tion ?  He  said,  he  could  not  distinguish  in  this  case  by  any  pre- 
vious principle,  which  must  depend,  as  all  acts  in  the  law  did, 
upon  the  discretion  of  a  competent  tribunal,  a  jury.     This  point 

B 


10  REVOLUTIONARY  PRINCIPLES. 

he  illustrated  by  several  observations  upon  the  various  denomina- 
tions of  homicide  and  libels.  But  would  he  call  that  treason  in 
duodecimo,  which  was  innocent  in  quarto  ?  that  was  what  he  did 
mean,  because  much  of  the  guilt  in  these  cases  depended  upon 
the  quo  animo ;  and  he  who  printed  seditious  sentiments  would 
take  care,  if  he  intended  mischief,  that  they  should  be  within  the 
reach  of  the  lowest  order.  Many  of  these  persons,  it  seems,  had 
been  calumniated  by  imputing  to  them  motives  which  they  did 
not  avow,  and  intentions  which  they  denied ;  this  observation  was 
specious,  but  not  solid,  for  it  was  well  known  they  did  intend 
what  they  did  not  profess,  and  this  was  demonstrable  by  their 
actions ;  some  indeed,  when  questioned,  confessed  a  direct  inten- 
tion of  subverting  our  Government.  If  they  were  asked  if  they 
were  friends  to  our  Government,  they  answered,  yes.  But  they 
wanted  no  King,  they  wanted  no  Lords — all  they  wanted  was  a 
perfect  representation  of  the  people.  Such  a  constitution  would 
no  more  be  the  constitution  of  England  than  the  constitution  of 
Venice ;  in  short,  their  view  was  to  destroy  all  hereditary  right, 
and  perhaps  afterwards  to  attempt  an  equalization  of  property ; 
for  one  of  their  books  stated,  that  a  country  could  not  be  -said  to 
be  truly  free,  where  there  was  so  much  inequality  among  its 
members.  Some  Gentlemen  affected  to  treat  these  things  with 
contempt,  but  they  ought  not,  in  his  mind,  to  be  so  regarded.  It 
was  true,  the  high  ranks  of  life  were  not  contaminated  by  these 
infamous  principles ;  but  if  they  were  to  cast  their  eyes  down- 
ward, they  would  see  there  lurking  underneath  a  sort  of  subter- 
ranean heat,  that  might  burst  forth  with  prodigious  violence,  if 
not  immediately  extinguished. 

With  regard  to  the  combined  armies  that  marched  towards  the 
capital  of  France,  he  believed  their  motives  were  good,  and 
therefore  he  wished  them  success ;  and  so  he  should,  had  their 
motives  been  ever  so  bad :  that  which  they  opposed,  was  worse 
than  any  consequence  that  could  have  resulted  from  their  success. 
He  had  been  told,  indeed,  that  no  country  ought  to  intermeddle 
with  the  internal  affairs  of  another ;  this  might  be  right  in  a  lim- 
ited sense,  but  it  could  not  be  so  to  the  length  insisted  upon  by 
some  modern  politicians ;  he  could  conceive  many  instances  in 
which  it  ought  to  be  departed  from.  Two  nations  might  quarrel 
— one  might  be  clearly  in  the  right,  and  the  other  clearly  in  the 
wrong ;  the  continuance  of  their  contest  might  affect  the  interest 
of  a  third  nation.  Such  a  nation  had  a  right  to  interfere.  But 
did  France  pursue  only  her  own  internal  regulation  ?  Did  she 
keep  good  faith  in  her  decree,  "  That  she  abandoned  for  ever  all 
ideas  of  foreign  conquest  ?"  She  professed,  indeed,  good  will  to 
all  mankind,  but  before  a  Frenchman  could  be  faithful;  his  nature 
must  be  changed. — It  was  their  object  to  lower  this  country,  and 


REVOLUTIONARY  PRINCIPLES.  H 

in  that  they  would  persist  until  they  should  accomplish  their  wish- 
es, if  possible. — What  was  to  be  said  for  them  in  the  war  against 
the  King  of  Sardinia  ?  Still  worse  was  their  conduct  at  Geneva ; 
but,  above  all,  who  would  applaud  their  decree,  "  to  give  liberty 
to  mankind  ?"  Was  it  not  avowing  an  intention  to  disturb  every 
power  in  Europe?  They  talked,  indeed,  of  giving  to  every  place 
where  their  arms  were  victorious,  a  choice  of  the  form  of  Gov- 
ernment; but  did  they  wait  for  the  sense  of  the  majority?  Not 
they  indeed.  When  two  or  three  were  gathered  together,  &c. 
that  was  enough  for  them.  What  were  their  intentions  with 
respect  to  this  country?  Refer  to  the  correspondence  of  the 
Jacobin  club  of  Manchester  and  the  Jacobin  club  of  Paris.  Did 
any  man  believe  that  they  would  hesitate  to  bring  an  army  into 
the  heart  of  this  country,  if  they  thought  themselves  safe  in  so 
doing  ?  but  they  did  not  so  much  depend  upon  themselves  as  they 
did  upon  their  bullies  in  other  countries.  Thus,  from  all  circum- 
stances, minute  in  themselves,  but  of  the  most  serious  importance 
when  combined,  it  would  appear  that  the  alarm  was  not  fictitious, 
but  real.  Ministers  therefore,  in  point  of  principle,  had  acted 
rightly  in  calling  out  the  militia.  They  might  be  a  little  irregular 
in  point  of  form,  but  as  they  had  observed  the  spirit  of  the  con- 
stitution, they  had  his  cordial  support. 

Mr.  Secretary  Dundas,  Mr.  Burke,  and  Mr.  Anstruther  supported  the  ad- 
dress :  Mr.  Grey,  Mr.  Sheridan,  and  Mr.  Erskine  spoke  in  favour  of  the 
Amendment.     The  house  divided, 

For  the  Address 290 

Against  it 50 

Majority       240 


(    12  ) 
HABEAS  CORPUS  SUSPENSION  ACT. 

JANUARY    5th,  1795. 

Mr.  Sheridan  moved  for  leave  "  to  bring  in  a  Bill,  to  repeal  an  Act  passed 
in  the  last  session  of  Parliament,  empowering  His  Majesty  to  secure  and 
detain  such  persons  as  shall  be  suspected  of  conspiring  against  his  Person  and 
Government." 

Mr.  Windham  (Secretary  at  War)  said,  that  there  were  so 
many  of  his  Honourable  Friends  more  capable  than  he  could 
presume  to  be,  of  answering  the  various  topics  which  had  been 
brought  into  argument  by  the  Honourable  Gentleman  who  had 
just  sat  down,  that  he  should  not  have  troubled  the  house  with 
any  observations  at  that  early  period  of  the  debate,  were  it  not 
that  personal  allusion  had  been  frequently  made  to  himself  in  the 
course  of  that  Gentleman's  elaborate  declamation.  —  The  first 
topic  which  he  would  notice,  was  the  Honourable  Gentleman's 
remark  upon  some  words  which  fell  from  him  respecting  a  Right 
Honourable  Gentleman  on  the  other  side  of  the  house  (Mr.  Fox,) 
whom,  whether  he  called  so  or  not,  he  certainly  would  consider  as 
a  friend.  This  was  a  subject  which  he  had  long  remarked  some 
Honourable  Gentlemen  had  a  great  propensity  to  bring  into  dis- 
cussion ;  he  had  before  been  obliged  to  make  animadversions 
upon  it,  as  it  was,  to  say  no  worse  of  it,  extremely  officious ;  and 
however  the  Honourable  Gentlemen  might  flatter  themselves  that 
it  conduced  to  their  views,  he  would  hazard  an  assertion,  that 
such  intermeddling  did  not  give  satisfaction  to  either  party.  As 
the  matter,  however,  had  been  brought  on  the  tapis,  he*  would 
fully  explain  that  which  he  had,  already,  as  he  thought,  explained 
before.  What  he  had  said  on  a  former  day,  and  what  he  would 
then  repeat,  was,  that  for  mutual  accommodation  he  would, 
though  he  retained  the  sentiment,  discontinue  the  usual  form  of 
address,  and  had  given  for  his  reason,  that,  standing  with  each 
other  on  a  different  footing  from  what  they  had  formerly  done, 
he  might,  by  persisting  in  it,  force  his  Right  Honourable  Friend 
into  restraint  or  embarrassment.  This  he  avowed  to  be  the  real 
meaning  of  his  expressions,  and  this  he  fancied  must  still  be  in 
the  recollection  of  every  ojae  present ;  he  put  it  to  the  Honourable 
Gentleman  himself  to  declare  whether  it  was  not  the  handsomest 
mode  of  deporting  himself;  had  he  done  otherwise,  those  who 
had  thought  proper  to  bring  the  subject  under  notice,  might  say 
that  he  acted  with  the  insidious  intention  of  promoting  that  re- 
straint and  embarrassment  which,  in  truth,  he  wished  to  avoid. 


HABEAS  CORPUS  SUSPENSION  ACT.  18 

If  this  was  an  error,  he  confessed  it  to  be  an  error  of  delibera- 
tion, and  one  in  which  he  certainly  meant  to  persist. 

The  Honourable  Gentleman  had  endeavoured  to  persuade  the 
house,  that  the  conduct  of  the  persons  who  promoted  the  war 
was  criminal ;  and  that  he  (Mr.  Windham)  was  more  criminal 
than  any  of  its  abettors.  He  was  desirous  to  avow,  that,  on  the 
footing  on  which  the  Honourable  Gentleman  had  stated  it,  he 
was  indeed  criminal.  If  it  were  criminal  to  have  seen,  at  a  very 
early  period,  (but  not  so  early  as  he  could  wish  he  had,)  that  the 
conduct  of  the  French  was  likely  to  involve  Great  Britain  iif 
warfare  and  confusion,  and  to  be  convinced  that,  in  her  own  de- 
fence, as  well  as  from  principles  of  justice  and  policy,  she  should 
have  declared  war  before  she  did,  then,  certainly,  he  was  most 
highly  so.  But  that,  he  hoped,  was  the  very  utmost  extent  of 
his  criminality ;  and  of  his  firmness  and  resolution,  to  which  the 
Honourable  Gentleman  had  alluded,  he  would  answer  for  it,  that 
he  never  would  be  found  to  shrink  from  any  charges  that  might 
be  brought  against  him,  nor  be  deterred  by  the  empty  menace  of 
any  set  of  men,  from  the  constant  and  zealous  discharge  of  the 
trust  reposed  in  him,  and  from  the  most  unremitting  vigilance 
against  every  thing  that  had  the  face  of  hostility  to  his  country 
or  himself,  particularly  the  politics  of  the  Honourable  Gentleman. 
The  Honourable  Gentleman  had  said,  that,  in  discussing  the 
subject  in  agitation,  he  would  deal  with  him  with  the  utmost 
frankness.  He  wished,  for  the  Honourable  Gentleman's  own 
sake,  as  well  as  that  of  the  house,  the  subject,  and  himself,  that 
he  had  coupled  another  thing  along  with  it,  and  used  him  with 
fairness  as  well  as  with  frankness.  He  had,  however,  done  quite 
the  reverse,  and  given  the  most  unfair  and  unaccountable  con- 
struction to  all  that  he  had  said.  Had  there  been  any  thing  in 
his  mode  of  expressing  himself  at  all  ambiguous,  candour  would 
have  taken  it  rather  upon  the  favourable  side ;  whereas,  the 
Honourable  Gentleman  had  made  use  of  a  supposed  ambiguity 
to  pervert  his  meaning,  and  substituted  his  own  suppositions  in 
the  place  of  facts.  He  declared,  and  called  for  the  house  to  bear 
witness  for  him,  that  he  had  not,  in  using  the  words  acquitted 
felon^  at  all  alluded  to  the  persons  lately  acquitted :  on  this  point, 
It  was  to  be  lamented  by  the  Honourable  Gentleman's  admirers 
and  advocates,  that  all  his  tragic  declamations,  all  his  deep-toned, 
fine-spun  periods,  fell  at  once  to  ruin,  the  foundation  itself  being 
thus  withdrawn  from  under  them..  For  himself  he  declared  what 
he  had  said  was  this  —  When  the  Honourable  Gentleman  had 
endeavoured,  with  so  little  judgment,  and  so  little  eflfect,  to  de- 
monstrate that  the  acquittal  of  those  men  (whether  they  are  called 
felons  or  culprits,  for  he  was  almost  afraid  to  call  them  by  any 
name,  lest  he  should  be  misinterpreted)  had  entirely  proved  the 


14  HABEAS  CORPUS  SUSPENSION  ACT. 

non-existence  of  a  conspiracy  to  overthrow  the  Government,  as 
well  as  their  own  individual  innocence,  he  had .  said,  that  they 
were  proved  innocent  to  no  greater  an  extent  than  numberless 
otlier  persons  who  were  discharged  from  the  Old  Bailey ;  not 
from  their  innocence  being  established  in  a  moral  point  of  view, 
but  from  want  of  legal  proof  of  their  guilt.  This  exultation  of 
the  Honourable  Gentleman  and  the  persons  acquitted,  they  shared 
with  many  culprits  who,  though  absolutely  guilty,  are  discharged 
from  failure  of  prosecution,  from  a  flaw  in  the  indictment,  or 
from  any  other  of  those  various  legal  points,  under  cover  of 
which  the  guilty  sometimes  skulk  away  from  the  arm  of  justice, 
and  strut  about  afterw^ards,  talking  of  remedy  by  actions  at  law, 
and  pluming  themselves  upon  their  accidental  escape,  as  if  their 
integrity  and  uprightness  had  been  positively  proved  and  estab- 
lished in  the  opinion  of  their  country.  Here,  he  said,  he  would 
rest  the  point  for  the  present,  and  hoped  that  the  Honourable 
Gentleman  would  not  oblige  him  to  revive  it  again,  nor  do  as  he 
had  often  done  before,  that  is  to  say,  make  a  watch- word  of  it, 
and,  by  the  most  unfair  and  insidious  means,  propagate  and  pass 
it  current  throughout  the  world,  as  if  it  had  never  been  contra- 
dicted— the  most  unjust  and  unmanly  way  of  sapping  fair  fame 
and  reputation  that  any  one  could  devise.  The  Honourable 
Gentleman  had  said  muoh  of  spies  and  informers.  It  was  a 
melancholy  consideration  to  reflect,  that  such  men  were  often 
necessary,  and  he  feared  they  would  be  more  wanting  than  ever, 
in  the  situation  in  which  the  politics  of  the  Honourable  Gentle- 
man and  his  friends  were  likely  to  plunge  the  country.  The 
Honourable  Gentleman,  who,  in  all  things,  was  more  than  com- 
monly shrewd  and  acute,  had  the  most  extraordinary  faculties 
he  ever  knew  any  one  to  possess  for  the  purpose  of  raising 
groundless  charges,  and  the  most  extraordinary  industry  and  art 
in  giving  them  circulation :  one,  he  said,  he  would  particularly 
mention, — one  originating  in  falsehood,  and  afterwards  circulated 
with  a  wicked  industry,  which  spoke  too  plainly  to  be  misunder- 
stood, what  their  drift  was  who  managed  it.  The  expression  was 
the  well-known  hackneyed  "  Perish  Commerced  It  was  neces- 
sary, he  thought,  to  refer  to  the  many  revivals  of  it,  which  the  ma- 
lignity and  wicked  designs  of  some  men  had  occasioned — after 
being  made  a  handle  of  in  various  quarters,  all  of  which  he 
suffered  to  pass  in  contemptuous  silence ;  he  again  found  it  revived 
in  a  letter  published  a  few  days  ago,  by  a  person  of  too  great 
rank  to  be  overlooked  (Lord  Lauderdale.)  Two  years  ago,  Mr. 
Windham  observed,  this  falsehood  was  first  circulated,  and  what 
would  tend  to  develope  the  intentions  of  the  calumniators,  it  was 
most  carefully  disseminated,  where  it  w^s  supposed  to  be  most 
likely  to  do  him  injury :  it  was,  in  short,  printed,  and  stuck  up  in 


HABEAS  CORPUS  SUSPENSION  ACT.  15 

the  workshops  of  Norwich,  to  alienate  the  affections  of  the  people 
from  him,  and  persuade  them  that  he  was  their  worst  enemy ; 
again  it  was  brought  up  in  the  house  against  him  by  those  who 
well  knew  in  their  hearts  that  the  expression  was  not  his.  But 
he  was  silent,  and  that  silence  was  taken  for  an  admission  of  the 
fact. — "Now,  Sir,"  said  he,  "What  will  you  think,  if  you  shall 
see  that  this  has  been  brought  up  again  in  this  volume  which 
I  hold  in  my  hand,  stamped  with  the  authority  of  a  Noble  Peer  1 
{Vide  Letters  to  the  Peers  of  Scotland,  by  the  Earl  of  Lauder- 
dale, page  18.)  Did  not  the  Noble  Writer  know  that  the  charge 
was  publicly  and  unjustly  attributed  to  me?  and  did  he  not  intend, 
by  the  way  he  puts  it  here,  that  it  should  be  applied  to  me,  and 
considered  as  my  words  1 — if  not,  what  did  he  mean  ?" 

Major  Maitland  rose  and  said,  he  should  not  have  troubled 
the  house,  and  most  particularly  to  interrupt  the  Right  Honoura- 
ble Gentleman,  did  he  not  believe  he  could  save  some  time  to  the 
house  by  explaining  the  case ;  the  Noble  Earl,  a  relation  of  his, 
had  asked  him,  if  it  was  that  Right  Honourable  Gentleman  who 
had  made  use  of  that  expression  which  was  reported  to  have 
come  from  authority ;  he  informed  his  noble  relation  it  was  not, 
and  the  expression  had  never  been  applied  to  that  Right  Honour- 
able Gentleman.  The  Colonel  said,  he  trusted  that  the  character 
of  that  Noble  Earl  for  candour,  sincerity^  and  honour,  was  such 
as  not  to  entitle  any  man  in  that  house,  or  this  country,  to  suspect 
him  of  doing  any  thing  that  was  illiberal. 

Mr.  Windham  continued — I  ani  rather  surprised  at  the  explana- 
tion, as  it  confirms  the  full  extent  of  my  charge,  which  is,  that 
the  noble  author  of  the  work  knew  that  the  sentiment  had  been 
falsely  imputed  to  me,  and'  yet  sent  it  forth  to  the  world  under  the 
authority  of  his  name  uncontradicted.  In  the  same  work  there 
is  another  passage  to  the  same  effect,  which,  noticing  the  Rock- 
ingham party,  says,  that  the  Duke  of  Portland,  Earl  Fitzwilliam, 
Mr.  Burke,  Mr.  Windham,  and  some  others,  attended  meetings 
for  a  Parliamentary  Reform  ;  which,  as  far  as  relates  to  myself, 
I  deny,  and  believe  unfounded  as  to  the  rest.  I  challenge  any  one 
to  assert  that  I  ever,  either  in  or  out  of  parliament,  contended  for 
that  object,  which  I  cannot  but  regard  as  a  degeneration  instead 
of  a  Reform  of  Parliament.  In  this  house  I  have  uniformly 
opposed  it ;  and  before  I  had  the  honour  of  a  seat  here,  I  refused 
to  stand  for  the  city  of  Westminster,  though  I  might  have  been 
returned,  because  I  knew  the  inhabitants  at  that  time  were  attach- 
ed to  schemes  of  Reform.  These  facts  being  notorious,  I  am  at 
a  loss  to  perceive  the  candour  and  fairness  of  the  Noble  Lord  in 
circulating  reports  which  he  must  know  to  be  unfounded.  This 
system  of  misrepresentation  is  in  my  mind  much  more  injurious, 
than  that  so  much  complained  of  about  spies  and  informers. 


15  HABEAS  CORPUS  SUSPENSION  ACT. 

There  is  no  calculating  the  evil  which  it  may  produce  in  times 
of  trouble  and  commotion.  It  was  thus,  that  early  in  the  French 
Revolution,  Foulon  was  massacred,  because  it  was  reported  that 
he  had  said,  "  he  would  make  the  people  eat  grass."  The  influence 
and  dangerous  tendency  of  these  party  catch-ircrds  could  not  be 
stronger  exemplified  than  in  the  hackneyed  phrase  of  "  Swinish 
Multitude ;"  the  sense  of  which  expression  was  completely  dis- 
torted from  that  in  which  it  was  applied,  in  the  beautiful  passage 
where  it  was  originally  made  use  of.  Can  any  one  doubt  what 
was  intended  by  this  gross  and  unmanly  perversion  of  its  meaning, 
if,  unfortunately  for  this  country,  the  party  that  perverted  it  had 
obtained  their  ends,  and  fully  seated  themselves  in  power  1  On 
one  point  of  the  Honourable  Gentleman's  main  argument  I  cannot 
forbear  some  remarks.  He  says,  that  the  persons  tried  are  com- 
pletely innocent,  because  they  are  acquitted.  Does  he  mean  then 
totally  to  disregard  the  presumption  of  guilt  which  was  cast  on 
them  by  the  finding  of  the  Grand  or  Accusing  Jury  ?  Setting  this 
aside,  is  there  any  doubt  but  that  the  verdict  of  a  jury  pronounces 
only  that  the  parties  were  not  in  a  legal  sense  guilty  ?  But  there 
is  a  vast  medium  between  legal  guilt  and  moral  innocence ;  and 
besides,  there  might  be  various  stages  even  of  legal  guilt  short 
of  the  specific  charges  brought  against  them.  As  a  legislative 
body,  however,  we  are  not  to  seek  the  verdict  of  a  jury  to  guide 
us;  we  must  look  to  presumption  and  probability,  and  govern  our 
conduct  by  their  evidence.  The  Honourable  Gentleman,  in  the 
same  spirit  of  misrepresentation,  has  mad^  me  deny  the  distresses 
of  the  poor,  and  sympathised  himself  as  usual  in  an  extraordinary 
degree  with  the  poor  of  Norwich ;  whereas,  I  appeal  to  the  recol- 
lection of  the  house,  whether  I  did  not  bar  and  anticipate  this 
misconception  and  application  to  the  poor  of  that  town.  I  said, 
that  the  distresses  of  the  war  were  not  great,  and  that  those  who 
most  loudly  complained  of  them  had  not  felt  their  pressure  at  all, 
not  so  much  as  in  the  relinquishment  of  the  most  trifling  luxury; 
and  between  the  rich  and  poor  there  is  an  indissoluble  bond  and 
mutual  dependence.  They  are  not  separate  interests,  but  one, 
neither  of  which  can  be  affected  without  operating  in  the  same 
proportion  on  the  other.  My  assertions  are  thus  answered.  I 
said,  that  a  certain  description  of  people  had  not  felt  the  burden 
of  which  they  had  complained.  He  answers  me,  that  others  do. 
I  said,  that  no  burdens  were  at  present  felt.  He  answers  me,  that 
they  will  be  felt.  What  course  of  candour  and  fair  reasoning  is 
a  match  for  this  shifting  subtlety?  Is  it,  I  ask,  a. culpable  degree 
of  aristocracy,  to  deny  the  competence  of  the  lower  orders  of 
society  in  questions  of  peace  and  war?  The  direct  object  of  any 
war  must  be  allowed  trifling,  compared  to  the  expense  of  men 
and  treasure,  which  the  most  successful  termination  could  be 


HABEAS  CORPUS  SUSPENSION  ACT.  17 

estimated  at.  It  is  the  remote  and  complicated  objects  of  war 
that  form  the  justification  of  the  measure,  and  neither  the  abihty 
nor  information  of  the  poor  enable  them  to  be  fit  judges  of  these 
subjects.  It  was  the  great  art  of  people  who  pretended  to  think 
otherwise,  to  rouse  the  passions  of  the  people,  and  not  to  inform 
or  exercise  their  judgments,  for  which  they  had  in  fact  the  most 
sovereign  contempt.  IrT  any  war  which  those  gentlemen  might 
or  ever  had  approved,  would  they  consuU  those  opinions  which 
they  now  thought  proper  to  exalt  into  consequence  for  purposes 
of  their  own  ?  They  ask  where  is  the  conspiracy,  and  deny  its 
existence,  because  there  is  not  legal  and  technical  proof  They 
contend  that  there  is  no  danger,  because  the  danger  happens  not 
to  fall  within  the  precise  line  of  former  example.  Whereas  the 
danger  now  is  entirely  of  the  novel  kind.  A  new  order  of  things 
is  looked  for,  and  every  previous  right  and  established  law  is 
regarded  as  antiquated  prejudice,  and  inimical  to  the  interests  of 
the  people.  But  can  Gentlemen,  after  expatiating  on  the  precise 
limits  of  ancient  treason,  turn  short  round  and  say,  that  there  is 
no  danger,  because  it  is  not  precisely  of  that  kind  which  ancient 
experience  pointed  out,  and  guarded  against  ?  In  those  days,  the 
life  of  the  Monarch  was  in  danger  directly,  and  that  offence  was 
dreaded,  and  guarded  against.  Now  w^e  have  to  look  to  the  base 
and  insidious  incitement  of  the  lower  orders,  as  the  prevailing 
vice.  Every  bad  and  restless  passion  is  called  forth  under  pre- 
tence of  right  and  reason.  The  natural  and  inevitable  distress, 
which  is  inherent  under  all  governments,  is  made  the  ground  of 
accusation  against  that  constitution  which  secures  to  us  the  least 
proportion  of  those  evils  which  ever  existed  in  one  community. 
I  mean  not  to  impute  any  censure  to  the  jurymen  who  acquitted 
the  persons  accused,  as  the  charge  was  apparently  remote  from 
the  death  of  His  Majesty;  and  plain  and  honest  men  are  not 
always  possessed  of  that  strength  and  search  of  understanding 
which  is  necessary  to  detect  cunning  and  concerted  fraud.  Many 
shades  of  distinction  might  reasonably  be  supposed  to  occur  to 
them  from  the  length  and  intricacy  of  the  case;  and  wherever 
doubt  occurs,  a  jury  is  universally  inclined  to  acquit.  It  is  curious, 
however,  to  remark,  that  when  the  report  of  the  secret  committee 
was  brought  forward,  it  was  said,  what  is  your  proof,  where  is 
your  evidence  of  the  facts  ?  And  from  the  silence  on  these  heads 
it  was  inferred,  that  no  proof  existed.  Now  the  facts,  however, 
are  established  upon  oath,  yet  fresh  objections  are  instantly  stated. 
On  my  part,  I  cannot  wish  for  a  more  complete  refutation  of  all 
these  patriotic  doubts  and  surmises  relative  to  the  plots,  than  the 
bare  and  simple  reading  of  the  documents  produced  in  evidence. 
In  this  much-vaunted  respect  for  the  verdict  of  a  jury,  I  think 
that  I  perceive  something  of  a  confined  view;  for  this  verdict 
2*  C 


ig  HABEAS  CORPUS  SUSPENSION  ACT. 

seems  only  immaculate  and  conclusive  when  it  acquits,  and  In- 
stantly when  it  convicts,  its  whole  nature  is  changed ;  so  instanti 
the  jury  become,  as  by  the  touch  of  a  magic  wand,  transformed 
into  a  packed  set  of  hirelings.  Who  can  forbear  this  observation, 
who  sees  the  same  man  celebrate  the  jury  who  acquitted  Hardy, 
Tooke,  and  Thclwall,  who  had  before  thought  so  little  of  the  jury 
that  had  condemned  Watt  and  Downie,  tliough  their  verdict  was 
backed  by  the  confession  of  the  convict,  in  a  state  when  every 
man's  word  was  taken,  namely,  on  the  point  of  death.  In  all  the 
praises  of  verdicts,  this  verdict  had,  by  some  strange  accident, 
been  kept  out  of  sight.  We  state  that  there  have  been  plans  and 
views,  call  them  conspiracies,  or  by  any  other  name,  of  the  most 
mischievous  nature,  to  stir  up  and  incite  the  poor  to  dissatisfaction 
and  tumult,  and  finally  to  insurrection  and  plunder.  But  who  shall 
want  converts,  who  tell  the  poor  that  the  rich  are  usurpers,  and 
that  they  have  a  right  to  reprisals  1  Should  this  be  said  only  to 
exist  in  theory,  we  recur  to  the  practice  of  a  great  nation,  who 
had  more  than  realized  the  most  terrible  expectations  of  the  most 
timid.  These  modern  engineers  knew  better  than  to  attack  the 
life  of  a  king  directly,  and  therefore  think  to  elude  the  provisions 
of  the  statutes  of  treason ;  they,  on  the  contrary,  approach  the 
walls  of  the  town  by  regular  siege,  and  the  Honourable  Gentleman 
contends  that  we  are  from  the  walls  to  see  them,  without  molesta- 
tion, complete  their  works  and  prepare  their  mines.  To  satisfy 
us  of  the  great  prudence  and  propriety  of  this  conduct,  he  adverts 
to  a  novel  and  extravagant  philosophical  doctrine  of  national 
character,  which  he  thinks  totally  unconnected  with  soil  and  situ- 
ation; but  did  it  never  occur  to  him,  that  whatever  influence 
government  may  have  on  character,  character  originally  modifies 
government,  and  is  therefore  the  prime  cause  of  the  ultimate 
effect.  Among  other  paradoxes  he  seems  to  have  found  out,  that 
nations  have  no  character  in  common,  and  are  not  to  take  any 
example  from  each  other. 

In  speaking  of  the  present  corruption  and  depravity  of  France, 
he  refers  all  to  the  effect  of  the  old  government ;  whereas  we  find 
that  these  effects  increase  in  the  exact  proportion  as  the  new 

fovernment  recedes  from  the  old,  and  becomes  distinctly  esta- 
lished.  This  paradox,  however,  is  not  new  with  the  Honourable 
Gentleman,  of  attributing  all  the  errors  and  excesses  of  the  present 
state  of  France  to  the  ancient  Government,  and  he  seems  to 
adhere  to  it  with  all  the  phrenzy  and  fondness  which  men  usually 
show  to  their  most  extravagant  opinions.  If,  indeed,  this  deplora- 
ble effect  were  owing  to  the  old  government  of  France,  we  should 
see  its  effect  follow  up  closely  the  destruction  of  that  system ; 
whereas  nothing  could  be  greater  than  the  exit  of  that  govern- 
ment which  now  lies  buried  under  the  ruins  of  all  that  was  excel- 


HABEAS  CORPUS  SUSPENSION  ACT.  19 

lent  in  the  country.  The  Honourable  Gentleman  has  another 
solution  also  for  this  difficulty,  namely,  the  war.  The  war,  he 
says,  has  conduced  to  this  state  of  savage  desperation  in  which 
we  find  France.  But  why,  it  might  be  asked,  have  not  other 
wars  and  similar  difficulties  produced  the  same  effect  in  other 
nations  ?  Because  they  were  not  debased  and  corrupted  by  the 
governments  which  directed  them.  This  is,  however,  the  poor 
and  common  resort  of  all  empirics.  If  the  case  does  not  succeed, 
it  is  from  this  thing  or  that,  and  every  thing  but  their  own  igno- 
rance and  want  of  skill.  They  were  called  in  too  late,  the  pre- 
vious treatment  was  bad,  and  killed  the  patient  before  they  came. 
Mean,  paltry,  and  unworthy  argument ! 

The  Honourable  Gentleman  asks  if  the  example  of  the  people 
of  France  is  more  to  be  dreaded  here  than  that  of  Kings  in 
Europe,  w^hom  with  him  we  might  have  been  induced  to  call 
despots,  if  the  liberty  of  France  had  not  buried  all  former  despotism 
in  the  excess  of  its  cruelty  and  oppression.  Triumphant  as  this 
argument  may  seem,  nothing  is  more  easily  answered.  If  you 
reduce  the  people  of  this  country  to  the  miserable  state  of  the 
people  of  France,  they  will  act  the  same,  from  the  operation  of 
the  paramount  and  leading  features  of  our  nature.  So,  if  you 
reduce  a  King  of  England  to  the  state  of  the  monarchs  of  Europe, 
he  will  act  the  same.  What  we  deplore  and  deprecate,  is  the 
attempt  by  sly  and  insidious  means  to  seduce  the  people  of  this 
country  from  the  noble  and  honest  character  they  had  for  ages 
possessed.  The  main  question  between  us  now  is,  whether  these 
.  associations  honestly  and  really  proposed,  however  erroneously, 
a  parliamentary  reform,  as  it  is  called,  or,  under  that  pretence, 
the  utter  subversion  of  the  constitution  ?  Let  any  man  look  to 
the  evidence  on  the  late  trials,  and  say  honestly  from  his  heart 
which  was  in  view. 

There  was  another  object  of  the  Honourable  Gentleman's  ani- 
madversion and  censure,  which  how^ever  was  so  genera]  and 
loose,  that  I  find  not  so  much  difficulty  in  answering  as  in  under- 
standing it.  Some  charges  can  no  more  be  replied  to,  than  the 
scolding  of  a  fishwoman  in  BiUingsgate.  Does  the  Honourable 
Gentleman  mean  to  say  that  it  is  dishonourable  to  accept  of 
office  ? — [No,  from  the  other  side.]  No !  Then  if  he  gives  up 
that,  he  gives  up  all  that  he  has  advanced  on  that  subject.  The 
calumnies  cast  on  such  things  are  only  to  be  resisted  by  the  shield 
of  character ;  to  that  my  Noble  Friends  and  I  resort.  I  am  truly 
sorry  the  Honourable  Gentleman  is  not  ashamed  of  such  low, 
mean  traffic,  I  defy  him  to  show  a  single  circumstance  that  can 
tend  to  cast  the  shadow  of  doubt  on  our  conduct.  The  malice 
of  the  design  is  so  corrected  by  the  impotency  of  the  eflfort,  that 
I  will  not  sacrifice  a  word  in  answering  it     The  Honourable 


20        '  HABEAS  CORPUS  SUSPENSION  ACT. 

Gentleman  has  asked  me  why  I  did  not  continue,  as  at  first,  to 
give  honourable  support  to  ministers,  without  joining  them.  Would 
not  support,  without  responsibility  annexed  to  it,  be  mean,  be 
dishonest  ?  In  fact,  if  I  had  not  come  into  an  ostensible  office, 
where  would  the  Honourable  Gentleman  have  found  that  responsi- 
ble character  with  which  he  threatens  me  in  future.  Of  these 
personal  allusions  I  can  only  recollect  one  more,  namely,  that  if  I 
took  an  ostensible  office,  I  should  have  resigned  the  emolument 
of  it.  Does  he  mean  this  as  a  general  principle ;  and  if  not,  why 
is  the  exception  to  be  made  ?  As  often  as  this  notion  has  been 
agitated,  it  has  as  often  been  rejected  by  the  best  and  wisest  of 
men,  and  all  attempts  to  reduce  it  to  practice  have  been  regarded 
as  a  mean  and  paltry  lure  to  popularity.  He  is  called  upon, 
therefore,  to  explain  himself  more  fully  on  this  head,  and  should 
disdain  to  come  forward  with  dark  assertions,  which  he  dare  not 
openly  avow.  I  think  I  have  now  noticed  all  the  parts  of  the 
Honourable  Gentleman's  speech,  which  had  a  personal  allusion, 
either  to  me  or  the  eminent  characters  who  came  into  office  at 
the  same  time.  The  more  general  topics  of  his  speech  I  shall 
leave  to  the  refutation,  as  I  promised  in  my  outset,  of  those  who 
are  equally  ready  and  more  able  than  I  am. 

Mr.  Hardinge  followed  Mr.  Windham,  and  declared  that  the  sentiment  of 
"  Perish  Commerce,  let  the  Constitution  live,"  had  proceeded  from  him,  and 
not  from  Mr.  Windham. 

Mr.  Erskine,  Mr.  Fox,  and  Mr.  Sheridan  supported  the  motion ;  Serjeant 
Adair  opposed  it    On  a  division,  there  appeared, 

For  the  Motion 41 

Against  it 185 

Majority 144 


(   21    ) 
TAX    ON    DOGS. 

APRIL  25th,  1796. 

The  order  of  the  day  being  read  for  the  commitment  of  the  Dog  Tax  Bill, 
Mr.  Dent  (with  whom  the  bill  had  originated)  moved,  "  That  the  Speaker 
should  leave  the  chair."     Mr.  Sheridan  opposed  the  Bill. 

Mr.  Windham  (Secretary  at  War)  said  he  did  not  mean  to 
object  to  the  whole  of  the  bill,  but  to  part  of  it  only.  He  thought 
a  tax  upon  all  sporting  dogs  fair,  because  they  are  a  kind  of  lux- 
ury, and  their  owners  can  afford  to  pay.  But  he  thought  there 
was  a  passion,  spleen,  and  enmity,  against  the  canine  race,  in  the 
formation  of  the  bill,  that  amounted  really  to  a  principle  of  extir- 
pation. From  the  tenor  of  it  he  should  have  been  apt  to  imagine 
that  Actaeon  had  revived,  or  that  some  fabulous  divinities  had  de- 
scended to  pronounce  an  eternal  ban  and  curse  on  the  whole  race 
of  dogs.  They  certainly  at  times  were  disagreeable,  and  he  had 
felt  that  inconvenience ;  but  he  should  have  been  loath  to  have 
gone,  in  consequence,  to  avenge  himself  on  the  whole  species.  It 
was  unworthy  of  this  or  any  other  country,  to  levy  a  rate  on  any 
animal,  because  that  animal  was  not^  employed  in  tilling  ground, 
or  because  the  poor  might  feed  on  dogs'  provisions.  It  appeared 
as  if  there  was  not  room  enough  on  earth  for  men  and  dogs. 
The  Honourable  Gentleman  had  entered  into  several  calculations 
to  show  the  number  of  dogs  and  the  quantity  of  provisions  they 
consumed ;  but  he  seemed  to  forget  that  there  was  a  great  quan- 
tity of  waste  which  they  destroyed,  which,  if  they  were  annihilated, 
would  become  a  greater  nuisance.  He  seemed  to  imagine,  that 
all  the  refuse,  now  given  to  dogs,  would  go  to  human  creatures. 
No  such  thing ;  for  they  consume  a  great  quantity  of  offal,  which 
could  not  well  be  otherwise  disposed  of,  and  consequently  his 
calculation  of  the  quantity  of  provisions  was  exceedingly  errone- 
ous. He  had  also  excited  an  alarm  upon  this  head,  by  observing 
that  population  increases  with  provision.  So  it  does,  but  not  it 
there  be  a  greater  quantity  of  provisions  than  the  consumers  re- 
quire. How  much  of  the  produce  of  the  earth  goes  to  other 
purposes  than  the  food  of  man  ?  Does  not  the  Honourable  Gen- 
tleman himself  give  to  his  coach-horses  and  his  saddle-horses, 
what  would  serve  for  human  food  ?  But  when  you  consider  the 
sustenance  of  men,  you  are  to  consider  their  comforts  and  enjoy- 
ments also ;  or  if  you  do  not,  we  shall  revert  to  rudeness  and 
barbarism.    Now,  as  to  that  part  of  the  bill  which  related  to  the 


22  TAX  ON   DOGS. 

dogs  of  the  poor,  his  objections  were  too  numerous  to  be  repeated. 
Some  dogs  are  retained  by  the  poor  as  implements  of  trade,  and 
the  Legislature  ought  not  to  tax  the  industry,  but  the  expenditure, 
of  the  people.  Some  were  retained  for  their  companionable 
qualities ;  and  when  the  fidelity  and  winning  attachment  of  a  dog 
was  remembered,  it  was  unkind  to  propose  a  plan  which  should 
tend  to  destroy  him.  Dogs  kept  for  sporting,  were  peculiar  to  the 
rich,  and  though  he  did  not  mean  to  arraign  sporting,  he  thought 
it  not  the  highest  sort  of  amusement,  inasmuch  as  it  reduced  the 
hunter  to  the  condition  of  the  animal  he  hunted.  With  the  rich, 
it  might  be  taxed ;  but  with  the  poor,  the  affection  for  a  dog  was 
so  natural,_that  in  poetry  and  painting  it  had  been  constantly  re- 
corded, and  in  any  sort  of  domestic  representation,  we  scarcely 
see  a  picture  without  a  memorial  of  this  attachment.  If  the  rich 
man  feels  a  partiality  for  a  dog,  what  must  a  poor  man  do,  who 
has  so  few  amusements  ? — A  dog  is  a  companion  of  his  laborious 
hours  ;  and  when  he  is  bereft  of  his  wife  and  children,  fills  up  the 
dreary  vacuity.  It  is  a  well-known  fact,  that  Alexander  Selkirk, 
upon  whose  narrative  the  story  of  Robinson  Crusoe  was  founded, 
cultivated  the  society  of  every  animal  upon  the  island,  except 
those  which  he  was  obliged  to  kill  for  food.  This  was  his  great- 
est satisfaction,  and  a  dog  affords  a  similar  satisfaction  to  the 
poor.  Would  the  house  then  sacrifice  that  honest,  virtuous  satis- 
faction? An  Honourable  Gentleman  behind  him  (Mr.  Buxton) 
disapproved  of  any  difference  between  the  poor  and  rich,  because 
he  wished  for  equality,  forgetting  that  equal  burdens  are  laid  upon 
unequal  means,  and  that  they  ought  to  be  proportioned  in  the 
same  manner  as  rewards  and  punishments. — But  although  he 
wished  the  tax  to  be  levied  upon  sporting  dogs,  he  was  a  friend 
to  the  game  laws,  and  to  aristocratical  distinctions ;  and  he 
thought  all  the  arguments  that  had  been  urged  against  the  game 
laws  were  recommendations  in  their  favour,  provided  they  were 
not  oppressive.  He  did  not  think  that  poor  men  kept  dogs  for 
the  destruction  of  game,  and  he  lived  in  a  game  country  where 
he  was  qualified  to  judge ;  besides  if  a  poacher  wanted  a  dog  for 
that  purpose,  he  could  afford  to  pay  for  it ;  so  that,  extending  the 
tax  to  the  poor,  would  be  no  protection  to  the  game.  As  to  the 
worrying  of  sheep,  the  dogs  commonly  kept  by  poor  people  were 
too  small ;  for  the  dogs  that  worry  sheep  are  pointers,  hounds, 
lurchers,  guard-dogs,  &c.  and  whenever  they  are  once  guilty  of 
that  vice,  they  will  never  leave  it  off  till  they  are  destroyed ;  but, 
dead  or  alive,  they  hunt  the  animal,  and  have  been  known  to  tear 
the  skins  in  tanners'  yards.  He  was  in  perfect  conformity  with 
his  Honourable  Friend,  when  he  did  not  wish  to  leyy  any  assess- 
ment on  the  poor ;  for  if  people,  distressed  as  some  were  who 
kept  dogs,  would  deprive  themselves  of  part  of  their  food  to  keep 


TAX  ON   DOGS.  23 

a  dog,  that  was  the  best  proof  of  the  value  of  tlie  animal,  and  he 
knew,  if  they  were  assessed,  how  likely  they  would  be  to  be  taken 
up  by  the  parish  officers.  An  Honourable  Friend  (Mr.  Buxton) 
had  said,  that  no  person  who  receives  relief  from  the  parish  ought 
to  be  allowed  to  keep  a  dog.  He  differed  from  him  in  opinion, 
because  the  whole  class  of  labourers  are  liable  to  apply  for  relief 
on  account  of  the  unequal  balance  of  their  earnings  and  expend- 
iture ;  for  every  accident  or  calamity  subjects  them  to  the  neces- 
sity of  making  such  application.  It  would  be  cruel  and  impolitic 
to  pass  such  a  law ;  it  is  a  sort  of  law,  from  which  every  man 
would  revolt.  The  dog  is  a  companion  to  a  solitary  man,  and 
to  a  man  with  a  family  a  play-fellow  for  his  children ;  and  these 
considerations  induced  him  to  wish  that  satisfaction  to  be  preserv- 
ed to  the  poor.  He  had  been  led  on  by  the  subject  farther  than 
he  intended ;  but  he  could  not  think  of  sacrificing  any  man's  feel- 
ings to  any  consideration  of  interest  which  had  been  held  out 
from  the  extension  of  the  tax. 

Mr.  Courtenay  and  Mr.  Pitt  opposed  the  bill,  which  was  thrown  out  with- 
out a  division. 


(     24     ) 

BULL-BAITING. 

APRIL  18th,  1800. 

The  order  of  the  day  being  read  for  further  considermg  the  Report  of  the 
Committee  on  the  Bill  for  preventing  the  practice  of  Bull-Baiting,  Sir  Wil- 
liam Pulteney  moved,  "That  the  house  do  now  consider  further  the  said 
Report." 

Mr.  Windham  spoke  to  the  following  effect : 
Sir, 

I  RISE  for  the  purpose  of  opposing  the  motion  which  has  been 
made  by  the  Honourable  Baronet ;  and  had  I  been  present  when 
this  bill  was  in  its  former  stages,  I  should  have  even  then  decidedly 
opposed  it ;  for  notwithstanding  the  gravity  with  which  it  was 
introduced,  and  the  importance  which  seemed  to  be  attached  to 
it,  I  should  certainly  have  thought  it  my  duty  to  ask  the  house  if 
they  knew  upon  what  it  was  that  they  were  going  to  legislate. 
Let  me  now  ask  them  what  there  is  in  Bull-Baiting,  which  they 
have  suddenly  found  to  be  so  alarming.  It  is  no  new  practice ; 
it  has  existed  more  than  a  thousand  years,  without  having  been 
supposed  to  be  pregnant  with  any  of  those  crying  evils  that  are 
now  ascribed  to  it.  Is  it  pretended  that  it  "  has  increased,  is  in- 
creasing, and  ought  to  be  diminished  ?"  I,  for  one,  cannot  think 
that  it  has  increased,  nor  can  I  see  any  necessity  whatever  for 
the  interference  of  the  legislature  in  order  to  diminish  it.  In  my 
whole  life,  indeed,  I  have  never  been  present  but  at  two  Bull- 
Baitings,  and  they  happened  while  I  was  a  school-boy ;  but  I  can- 
not say  that  I  experienced  any  bad  effects  from  the  gratification 
of  my  curiosity.  I  did  not  find  myself  the  worse  for  it,  nor  could 
I  suspect  that  the  other  spectators  were  contaminated  by  the 
spectacle. 

Sir,  there  are  some  persons  to  whom  a  legislative  measure  like 
this  may  appear  serious  and  important ;  but  for  my  own  part,  I 
cannot  but  look  upon  it  as  proceeding  from  a  busy  and  anxious 
disposition  to  legislate  on  matters  in  which  the  laws  are  already 
sufficient  to  prevent  abuse ; — it  at  best  only  argues  a  pruritus  leges 
ferendi,  in  the  gratifying  or  opposing  of  which  I  cannot  but  think 
my  time,  and  more  especially  that  of  the  house,  is  most  miserably 
employed.  This  house  ought  only  to  legislate  when  an  act  of 
legislature  is  gravely  and  generally  called  for ;  and  not  merely  to 
gratify  petty,  personal  and  local  motives,  such  as  are  infinitely 


BULL. BAITING.  25 

beneath  the  deHberate  dignity  of  Parliament ;  especially  in  times 
like  the  present,  when  questions  of  vital  importance  are  hourly 
pressing  on  our  attention.  Really,  Sir,  in  turning  f -om  the  great 
interests  of  this  country  and  of  Europe,  to  discuss  with  equal 
solemnity  such  measures  as  that  which  is  now  before  us,  the  house 
appears  to  me  to  resemble  Mr.  Smirk,  the  auctioneer  in  the  play, 
who  could  hold  forth  just  as  eloquently  upon  a  ribbon  as  upon  a 
Raphael.  This  petty,  meddling,  legislative  spirit,  cannot  be  pro- 
ductive of  good :  it  serves  only  to  multiply  the  laws,  which  are 
already  too  numerous,  and  to  furnish  mankind  with  additional 
means  of  vexing  and  harassing  one  another. 

A  great  deal  has  lately  been  said  respecting  the  state  of  the 
poor,  and  the  hardships  which  they  are  suffering.  But  if  they  are 
really  in  the  condition  which  is  described,  why  should  we  set 
about  to  deprive  them  of  the  few  enjoyments  which  are  left  to 
them  ?  If  we  look  back  to  the  state  of  the  common  people'in 
those  countries  with  which  our  youthful  studies  make  us  ac- 
quainted, we  find,  that  what  with  games,  shows,  festivals,  and  the 
institutions  of  their  religion,  their  sources  of  amusement  and 
relaxation  were  so  numerous  as  to  make  them  appear  to  have 
enjoyed  a  perpetual  holiday.  If  we  look  to  Catholic  countries,  it 
will  also  appear,  partly,  perhaps,  from  many  festivals  and  cere- 
monies being  adopted  into  their  religion  from  the  Pagan  system, 
and  afterwards  so  transformed  as  to  incorporate  with  it,  that  they 
all  enjoy  many  more  amusements  and  a  much  longer  time  for 
relaxation  than  the  poor  in  this  country,  who  may  say  with  jus- 
tice, "  Why  interfere  with  the  few  sports  that  we  have,  while  you. 
leave  to  yourselves  and  the  rich  so  great  a  variety  1  You  have 
your  carriages,  your  town-houses,  and  your  country-houses ;  your 
balls,  your  plays,  your  operas,  your  masquerades,  your  card- 
parties,  your  books,  your  dogs,  and  your  horses  to  amuse  you — 
On  yourselves  you  lay  no  restraint — But  from  us  you  wish  to  take 
the  little  we  have." 

In  the  South  of  France  and  in  Spain,  at  the  end  of  the  day's 
labour,  and  in  the  cool  of  the  evening's  shade,  the  poor  dance  in 
mirthful  festivity  on  the  green,  to  the  sound  of  the  guitar.  But  in 
this  country  no  such  source  of  amusement  presents  itself.  If  they 
dance,  it  must  be  often  in  a  marsh,  or  in  the  rain,  for  the  pleasure 
of  catching  cold.  But  there  is  a  substitute  in  this  country,  well 
known  by  the  name  of  a  Hop.  We  all  know  the  alarm  which  the 
very  word  inspires,  and  the  sound  of  the  fiddle  calls  forth  the 
magistrate  to  dissolve  the  meeting.  Men  bred  in  ignorance  of  the 
world,  and  having  no  opportunity  of  mixing  in  its  scenes  or 
observ^ing  its  manners,  may  be  much  worse  employed  than  in 
learning  something  of  its  customs  from  theatrical  representations; 
but  if  a  company  of  strolling  players  make  their  appearance  in  a 
3  I) 


20  BULL. BAITING. 

village,  they  are  hunted  immediately  from  it  as  a  nuisance,  except, 
}^rhaps,  there  be  a  few  people  of  greater  wealth  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, whose  wives  and  daughters  patronize  them.  Then  the 
labouring  people  must  have  recourse  to  the  public-house,  where, 
perhaps,  they  get  into  conversation,  and  politics  become  the  sub- 
ject. That  this  is  an  employment  sufficiently  mischievous  I  am 
willing  enough  to  admit.  What  are  they  to  do  then  ?  Go  home 
and  read  their  bibles !  This  is,  no  doubt,  very  proper ;  but  it 
would  be  well  if  the  rich  set  them  a  little  better  example  in  this 
way.  Whatever  may  be  the  habits  of  the  more  luxurious  climates 
of  the  continent,  the  amusements  of  our  people  were  always  com- 
posed of  athletic,  manly,  and  hardy  exercises,  affording  trials  of 
their  courage,  conducive  to  their  health,  and  to  them  objects  of 
ambition  and  of  glory.  In  the  exercise  of  those  sports  they  may, 
indeed,  sometimes  hurt  themselves,  but  could  never  hurt  the  nation. 
If  a  set  of  poor  men,  for  vigorous  recreation,  prefer  a  game  of 
cudgels,  instead  of  interrupting  them,  it  should  be  more  our  business 
to  let  them  have  fair  play ;  for  victory  is  here  to  them  an  object 
of  as  much  glory  as  greater  men  could  aim  at  in  a  superior  sphere. 
These  sports  are,  in  my  mind,  as  fair  an  object  of  emulation  and 
of  fame,  as  those  in  which  the  higher  classes  are  so  proud  to 
indulge ;  and  here  1  am  ready  to  agree  with  the  poet,  that,  in  other 
circumstances, 

"  He  that  the  world  subdued,  had  been 
But  the  best  wrestler  on  the  green." 

Some  little  time  since,  it  was  thought  matter  of  reproach  for 
gentlemen  to  be  present  at  any  of  these  athletic  trials ;  and  even 
boxing  was  cried  down  as  an  exercise  of  ferocity.  It  is  time  to 
resist  these  unnecessary  restraints ;  for,  if  this  bill  should  pass  into 
a  law,  it  would  no  doubt  be  follow^ed  by  other  regulations  equally 
frivolous  and  vexatious.  It  is  idle  to  declaim  against  savage 
manners  or  dispositions  in  this  country.  The  character  of  the 
people  is  directly  the  reverse;  their  sports  are  robust  and  hardy, 
but  their  tempers  are  not  ferocious ;  nay,  it  is  a  fact,  that  there  is 
not  a  people  in  the  whole  world  that  feel  a  greater  horror  at  blood- 
shed. Compare  them  with  the  people  of  France  or  Italy,  where 
all  is  suavity,  sprightliness,  and  gaiety,  and  let  us  rejoice  in  the 
difference  between  the  humanity  of  their  characters.  I  will  not 
say,  whether  certain  principles,  if  suffered  to  operate,  might  not 
have  produced  sanguinary  scenes  here  as  well  as  in  other  places; 
but  I  can  safely  assert,  that  cruelty,  or  the  thirst  of  blood,  is  not  in 
the  nature  nor  in  the  habits  of  Englishmen.  On  this  subject,  I  may 
be  permitted  to  make  an  allusion  to  an  affray  which  lately  took 
place  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  in  which  some  foreigners  were  engaged. 
Unfortunately,  murder  was  the  consequence  of  that  scuffle,  w^hich. 


BULL-BAITING.  27 

amongst  Englishmen,  would  have  terminated  in  a  black  eye  or 
a  bloody  nose.  So  congenial  is  this  principle  of  humanity  to  the 
hearts  of  our  people,  and  so  uniformly  displayed  in  their  actions, 
that  it  might  imply  the  suspicion  of  effeminacy,  if  they  had  not 
so  often  given,  on  all  occasions,  such  glorious  testimonies  of 
courage  and  prowess  in  another  way.  In  war  they  are  prodigal 
of  their  own  blood ;  but  after  the  shock  of  battle,  or  the  fury  of 
an  assault,  their  first  sentiment  is  always  shown  in  mercy  to  the 
vanquished;  and  it  is  not  unfair  to  attribute  to  their  manly  amuse- 
ments much  of  that  valour  which  is  so  conspicuous  in  their  mar- 
tial achievements  by  sea  and  land.  Courage  and  humanity  seem 
to  grow  out  of  their  wholesome  exercises. 

Sir,  having  premised  thus  much,  I  next  come  to  consider  this 
case  of  bull-baiting  in  particular.  The  sport  here,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, is  at  the  expense  of  an  animal  which  is  not  by  any  means 
a  party  to  the  amusement ;  but  it  at  the  same  time  serves  to  cul- 
tivate the  qualities  of  a  certain  species  of  dogs,  which  affords  as 
much  pleasure  to  their  owners  as  greyhounds  do  to  others ;  and 
why  should  the  butcher  be  deprived  of  his  amusement  any  more 
than  the  gentleman  ?  That  peculiar  breed  of  dogs,  though  now 
decreasing,  and  nearly  extinct,  has  always  been  held  in  high  esti- 
mation in  this  island.  Gratian,  who  wrote  as  early  as  the  age  of 
Augustus,  mentioned  and  described  this  animal,  which,  indeed, 
has  always  been  so  much  a  favourite,  that  many  of  our  ships  are 
called  after  its  name.  It  is  no  small  recommendation  to  bull-dogs, 
that  they  are  so  much  in  repute  with  the  populace. 

The  advocates  of  this  bill.  Sir,  proposed  to  abolish  bull-baiting 
on  the  score  of  cruelty.  It  is  strange  enough  that  such  an  argu- 
ment should  be  employed  by  a  set  of  persons  who  have  a  most 
vexatious  code  of  laws  for  the  protection  of  their  own  amuse- 
ments. I  do  not  mean  at  present  to  condemn  the  game  laws ; 
but  when  Gentlemen  talk  of  cruelty,  I  must  remind  them,  that  it 
belongs  as  much  to  shooting,  as  to  the  sport  of  bull-baiting ;  nay 
more  so,  as  it  frequently  happens,  that  where  one  bird  is  shot,  a 
great  many  others  go  off  much  wounded.  When,  therefore,  1 
hear  humane  Gentlemen  even  make  a  boast  of  having  wounded  a 
number  of  birds  in  this  way,  it  only  affords  me  a  further  proof 
that  savage  sports  do  not  make  savage  people.  Has  not  the  butcher 
as  much  right  to  demand  the  exercise  of  his  sport,  as  the  man  of 
fortune  to  demand  that  of  hunting  ?  Is  not  the  latter  as  painful 
to  the  horse,  as  the  former  to  the  bull  ?  And  do  not  Gentlemen, 
for  the  empty  fame  of  being  in  at  the  death,  frequently  goad  and 
spur  their  horses  to  exertions  greatly  beyond  their  strength  I  Might 
not  the  butcher  say,  "  I  have  no  coaches,  horses,  balls,  masque- 
rades, nor  even  books,  which  afford  so  much  delight  to  those  in 
higher  stations,  and  who  have  more  leisure  time ;  do  not  there- 


28  BULL-BAITING. 

fore  deprive  me  of  the  amusement  I  feel  in  setting  the  propensities 
of  one  animal  against  those  of  another."  The  common  people 
may  ask  with  justice,  why  abolish  bull-baiting  and  protect  hunting 
and  shooting  t  What  appearance  must  we  make,  if  we,  who 
have  every  source  of  amusement  open  to  us,  and  yet  follow  these 
cruel  sports,  become  rigid  censors  of  the  sports  of  the  poor,  and 
abolish  them  on  account  of  their  cruelty,  when  they  are  not  more 
cruel  than  our  own? 

It  may  be  said,  that  in  bull-baiting  the  labouring  poor  throw 
away  their  money,  and  lose  their  time,  which  they  ought  to 
devote  to  labour,  and  that  thus  they  themselves  may  become 
chargeable  to  the  rich.  But  surely,  if  there  be  any  set  of  men 
who  ought  to  be  left  at  liberty  to  dispose  of  their  money  as  they 
choose,  it  ought  to  be  the  industrious  labourers ;  and  such  men  do 
not  lose  time  by  their  amusements,  but  work  harder  and  longer 
at  other  times,  to  make  up  for  what  time  they  may  lose  in  relaxa- 
tion, and  to  furnish  them  with  additional  money  for  the  enjoyment 
of  such  recreations.  I  do  not  mean  to  speak  against  magistrates ; 
on  the  contrary  I  am  convinced  of  the  value  and  importance  of 
the  services  they  render  to  the  community,  and  of  the  general 
activity  and  propriety  with  which  they  discharge  their  duty ;  but 
^  do  think  that  many  of  them  appear  to  act  upon  an  opinion,  that 
it  is  their  duty  at  all  times  to  control  the  common  people  in  their 
amusements,  like  some  to  whom  the  care  of  children  is  committed, 
who  think  it  right  to  deny  them  every  thing  which  they  seem 
eager  to  have  or  enjoy.  They  appear  to  act  on  the  opinion,  that 
the  common  people  have  nothing  to  do  with  any  amusement ;  but 
ought  only  to  eat,  to  sleep,  and  to  work. 

Upon  the  whole.  Sir,  there  does  not  appear  to  me  to  be  any 
real  evil  in  the  practice  of  bull-baiting ;  that  it  would  be  trifling  to 
legislate  upon  such  petty  concerns,  and  that  it  is  in  the  present 
case  absurd,  as  the  practice  is  already  so  much  fallen  into  disuse, 
that  it  seems  as  if  the  bill  has  been  brought  in  now  lest  it  should 
be  quite  abolished  before  it  could  be  passed.  As  to  the  cruelty 
of  the  practice,  it  is  mere  solemn  mockery  in  Gentlemen  to  talk 
of  it,  while  they  themselves  indulge  in  sports  equally  cruel.  In  a 
bull-baiting  a  hedge  may  be  broken  down,  or  a  field  of  grass 
trodden  down  ;  but  what  is  this  compared  to  the  injury  by  a  pack 
of  hounds,  followed  by  horses  and  their  riders,  sweeping  over 
fields  and  hedges  without  distinction?  Accidents  to  the  lookers-on 
do  sometimes  happen  at  bull-baiting ;  but  I  am  sure  that  I  have 
known  more  fatal  accidents  than  ever  happened  from  bull-baiting, 
arise  in  the  county  of  Norfolk  alone,  (keeping  out  of  the  question 
those  which  have  happened  merely  from  the  danger  always 
attending  the  use  of  fire-arms)  by  quarrels  between  the  game- 
invaders  and  the  game-preservers,  some  being  killed  on  the  spot. 


BULL. BAITING.  29 

^nd  others  hanged  afterwards  for  the  murders.  What  then  is  the 
plea  by  which  the  bill  is  supported  ?  It  cannot  be  frona  sensibility 
and  hatred  of  cruelty  in  those  very  Gentlemen  who  in  the  game- 
season,  as  it  has  been  justly  said,  become  their  own  butchers  and 
poulterers. 

Sir,  I  shall  conclude  by  moving,  "  That  the  consideration  of 
the  report  of  the  Committee  on  the  Bill  be  delayed  till  this  day  six 
months." 

Mr.  Canning  also  opposed  the  Bill ;  Sir  William  Pulteney,  Mr.  Sheridan, 
and  Sir  Richard  Hill,  supported  it  The  house  divided  on  Mr.  Windham's 
Amendment, 

Ayes 43% 

Noes 41 

Majority  against  the  Bill 2 


MAY  24th,  1802. 

Mr.  Dent  moved  the  order  of  the  day,  for  the  second  reading  of  the  Bill  to 
prevent  Bull-Baiting  and  Bull-Running.  Sir  Richard  Hill  having  supported 
the  measure, 

Mr.  Windham  said,  that  the  evil  complained  of  by  the  supporters 
of  this  bill,  w^as  not  such  as  imperiously  called  for  or  justified  the 
interference  of  the  legislature.  He  deprecated  the  introduction 
of  such  a  subject  at  a  moment  of  such  extreme  anxiety,  when  the 
country  was  divided  between  hopes  and  fears,  and  there  were  so 
many  things  of  importance  to  agitate  men's  bosoms.  It  was  not 
an  evil  that  had  "  grown  with  our  growth,  and  strengthened  with 
our  strength;"  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  had  declined  as  they 
increased.  In  fact,  it  would  be  gone  before  the  house  would  have 
time  to  legislate  upon  it. 

Curremus  precipites 


Dum  jacet  in  ripd  calcemus  Csesaris  hostem. 

An  allusion  had  been  made  to  a  petition  from  Norwich  on  the 
subject ;  and  an  insinuation  had  been  thrown  out,  that  it  was  a 
practice  generally  prevalent  in  that  neighbourhood.  The  fact, 
nowever,  was,  that  on  enquiry  he  himself  had  found  that  within 
the  last  twenty  years  only  two  instances  were  remembered  of  a 
bull-baiting  in  Norwich  or  its  vicinity.  Decreasing  as  the  practice 
was  all  over  the  country,  he  could  not  but  think  that  the  discus- 
sion of  such  paltry  local  complaints  was  wholly  unworthy  of  the 


30  BULL-BAITING.  / 

legislature  of  a  great  nation.  It  was  part  of  a  system  of  introduc- 
ing subjects  of  a  similar  kind  into  parliament,  which  he  could 
not  omit  the  opportunity  of  reprobating  in  the  strongest  terms. 
The  subject  was  in  all  points  of  view  degrading ;  but  it  appeared 
more  especially  unv/orthy  of  being  entertained  by  the  imperial 
parliament,  at  a  time  when  so  many  other  subjects  of  great 
national  importance  were  calling  for  the  attention  of  the  house. 
Such  a  ^ort  of  public  interference  with  matters  unworthy  of  the 
consideration  of  the  legislature  could  be  productive  of  no  conse- 
quences but  such  as  were  mischievous.  No  law  could  be  desirable 
which  would  be  attended  with  no  national  advantage,  and  this 
advantage  ought  to  be  well  weighed  before  a  legislative  enact- 
ment was  required.  A  law  in  all  cases  necessarily  involved  a 
certain  degree  of  restraint ;  and  it  was  also  to  be  taken  into  the 
account  that  it  could  not  be  carried  into  effect  without  vesting  in 
those  who  were  to  enforce  its  provisions  a  considerable  degree 
of  discretion.  If  such  a  law  as  that  now  called  for  were  to  be 
passed,  it  could  not  act  by  a  silent  operation.  On  the  contrary, 
it  would  be  enforced  by  those  w^ho  principally  exerted  themselves 
for  the  observance  of  the  game-laws,  and  w^ho,  in  enforcing  its 
provisions,  could  not  possibly  escape  a  large  share  of  public  odium. 
Such  was  the  subject  now  before  the  house,  which  contained 
nothing  of  public  or  general  interest.  To  procure  the  discussion 
of  sucn  subjects,  it  was  necessary  to  resort  to  canvass  and 
intrigue.  Members,  whose  attendance  was  induced  by  local 
considerations  in  most  cases  of  this  description,  were  present; 
the  discussion,  if  any  took  place,  was  managed  by  the  friends  of 
the  measure ;  and  the  decision  of  the  house  was  perhaps  ulti- 
mately a  matter  of  mere  chance.  The  present  bill  was  precisely 
one  of  a  similar  description,  and  but  from  the  circumstances  of 
the  subject  having  excited  some  attention  in  a  former  session,  it 
might  have  been  considered  by  chance,  and  agreed  to  without 
discussion. 

On  this  general  principle,  then,  he  was  inclined  to  oppose  the 
discussion  of  the  subject,  as  totally  unworthy  of  the  dignity  of  the 
house.  But  he  had  in  the  next  place  to  object  to  the  manner  in 
which  the  subject  of  bull-baiting  had  been  considered,  not  from  a 
general  view  of  the  subject,  but  from  a  few  insulated  examples. 
The  friends  of  the  bill  took  a  view  of  the  practice  complained  of, 
merely  as  exhibited  on  a  minute  scale,  and  from  them  consequences 
were  drawn.  They  put  the  bull  and  the  dog  as  exhibited  in  a 
few  instances,  into  the  eye  of  their  microscope,  and  through  this 
confined  medium  desired  the  house  to  contemplate  the  general 
practice.  The  cruelties  of  the  practice  were  the  only  circum- 
stances held  up  to  observation,  and  every  thing  else  w^as  kept  out 
of  view.     But  if  this  mode  of  viewing  the  subject  were  to  be 


BULL. BAITING.  31 

adopted,  he  saw  no  reason  why  all  other  sports  should  not  be 
contemplated  in  a  similar  manner.  If  the  cruelty  of  Bull-baiting 
was  thus  to  be  held  up  to  the  attention  of  the  house  in  such  glar- 
ing colours,  why  were  not  hunting,  shooting,  fishing,  and  all  other 
amusements  of  a  similar  description,  to  be  judged  of/by  similar 
principles  1  If  the  effects  of  the  one  were  to  be  viewed  through 
the  medium  of  a  microscope,  why  were  not  the  consequences  of 
the  other  to  be  scrutinized  with  equal  severity?  By  viewing 
objects  in  this  way,  not  only  would  false  conclusions  be  drawn, 
but  the  objects  themselves  would  appear  inverted,  and  in  a  way 
never  intended  by  nature.  Things  would  not  only  not  appear  the 
same,  but  their  whole  aspect  would  be  reversed. — Nothing  could 
be  more  pleasing  to  the  eye  than  the  sight  of  female  beauty  ;  but 
even  if  the  fairest  complexion  were  contemplated  through  a 
microscope,  deformities  would  appear,  and  hairs  unobseryable  to 
the  naked  eye  would  present  themselves  as  bristles  on  the  back 
of  a  boar.  Such  attacks  as  th6  present  on  the  amusements  of 
the  people  struck  him  in  no  other  light  than  as  the  first  step  to  a 
reform  of  the  manners  of  the  lower  orders.  Those  who,  when 
young  men,  had  formed  projects  for  the  reformation  of  Parlia- 
ment, finding  themselves  disappointed  in  those  projects,  now 
formed  the  design  of  reforming  the  manners  of  the  people.  In 
their  desires  to  accomplish  this  object,  there  were  two  great 
parties  united,  the  Methodists  and  the  Jacobins,  though  the  objects 
they  had  in  view  by  this  change  were  essentially  different.  By 
the  former,  every  rural  amusement  was  condemned  with  a  rigour 
only  to  be  equalled  by  the  severity  of  the  Puritanical  decisions. 
They  were  described  as  a  part  of  the  lewd  sports  and  Anti- 
Christian  pastimes  which,  in  times  of  Puritanism,  had  been  totally 
proscribed.  Every  thing  joyous  was  to  be  prohibited,  to  prepare 
the  people  for  the  reception  of  their  fanatical  doctrines.  By  the 
Jacobins,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  an  object  of  important  con- 
sideration to  give  to  the  disposition  of  the  lower  orders  a  character 
of  greater  seriousness  and  gravity,  as  the  means  of  facilitating 
the  reception  of  their  tenets ;  and  to  aid  this  design,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  discourage  the  practice  of  what  was  termed  idle  sports 
and  useless  amusements.  This  was  a  design  which  he  should 
ever  think  it  his  duty  strenuously  to  oppose.  For,  though  he 
wished  that  the  people  might  become  more  virtuous,  more  atten- 
tive to  the  duties  of  religion,  better  fathers,  better  husbands,  better 
children,  he  could  never  agree  that  for  this  purpose  their  social 
habits  should  be  changed ;  that  they  should  prove  more  austere, 
more  unsociable,  and  more  self-conceited  than  they  now  were. 
Whenever  he  saw  any  steps  taken  to  produce  this  effect,  he  could 
not  consider  them  in  any  other  light  than  as  so  many  steps  of  a 
departure  from  the  old  English  character.     The  habits  long  esta- 


32  BULL-BAITING. 

blished  among  the  people  were  the  best  fitted  to  resist  the  schemes 
of  innovation;  and  it  was  among  the  labouring  and  illiterate  part 
of  the  people  that  Jacobinical  doctrines  had  made  the  smallest 
progress.  In  this  respect,  indeed,  it  was  otherwise  with  Methodist 
doctrines.  They  throve  best  on  a  stubborn  soil ;  but  they  had  the 
eflect  of  preparing  it  for  the  reception  of  the  doctrines  of  Jaco- 
binism. In  this  work  the  two  parties  mutually  over-reached  each 
other.  The  party  of  the  Methodists  invited  the  people  to  read, 
and  in  the  first  instance  they  might  peruse  a  few  Jacobinical  pro- 
ductions, that  they  might  read  with  greater  advantage  their 
fanatical  productions  at  a  future  period.  In  the  same  way  the 
Jacobins  wished  to  divert  the  people  from  every  social  pursuit ; 
reading  they  strenuously  recommended ;  and,  though  a  few 
Methodistical  books  were,  in  the  first  instance,  not  wholly  pro- 
scribed^  they  were  allowed  only  to  fit  the  mind  for  the  reception 
of  their  poisonous  tenets.  The  eflTect  of  their  exertions  was  the 
same,  though  thus  difl^erently  pursued.  It  was  equally  directed  to 
the  destruction  of  the  old  English  character,  by  the  abolition  of 
all  rural  sports.  So  much  convinced  was  he  that  this  was  the 
object  of  such  a  bill  as  the  present,  that  he  almost  felt  disposed  to 
rest  his  opposition  to  it  on  this  footing.  Out  of  the  w^hole  number 
of  the  disaffected,  he  questioned  if  a  single  bull-baiter  could  be 
found,  or  if  a  single  sportsman  had  distinguished  himself  in  the 
Corresponding  Society.  The  hunting  for  which  they  reserved 
themselves  was  of  a  noble  kind ;  they  disdained  the  low  pursuits 
of  ordinary  sportsmen;  the  game  against  which  their  efforts  were 
directed  were  of  no  less  a  quality  than  Kings. 

When  he  spoke  of  this  union  of  the  Methodists  and  Jacobins, 
he  did  not  mean  to  deny  that,  in  their  political  principles,  as  well 
as  their  ultimate  objects,  they  essentially  differed.  Religion  was 
an  ingredient  in  the  character  of  the  Methodists,  which  was 
directly  hostile  to  the  views  of  Jacobinism;  for  in  the  composition 
of  modern  Jacobinism,  religion  formed  no  part.  But  they  were 
not,  on  serious  consideration,  so  very  far  removed  from  each 
other  as  might,  at  first  sight,  appear.  As  a  general  assertion  it 
w^ould  be  admitted  that  hot  water  was  farther  removed  from  con- 
gelation than  what  was  cold;  but  when  the  hot  water  was 
exposed  to  the  air,  it  was  more  speedily  frozen.  In  a  similar 
manner,  though,  in  the  abstract,  Methodism  and  Jacobinism 
seemed  to  be  the  farthest  removed  from  each  other,  yet  facts 
showed  that  the  tenets  of  the  one  prepared  the  mind*  for  the 
adoption  of  the  doctrines  of  the  other.  In  confirmation  of  this 
mutual  design  of  these  parties,  the  Right  Honourable  Member 
took  occasion  to  quote  a  passage  from  the  Memoirs  of  a  rural 
Poet  of  considerable  celebrity,  (Bloomfield,  author  of  the  Farmer's 
Boy,  &c  by  a  gentleman  of  respectable  literary  talents,  Mr.  Capel 


BULL. BAITING.  38 

Lofft,)  in  which  it  is  mentioned,  that,  the  Poet  was  in  the  habit 
of  spending  his  time  in  reading  in  his  garret,  or  attending  a  de- 
bating society,  which  the  editor  recommends  as  a  much  more 
worthy  mode  of  employing  himself,  than  if  he  had  been  occupied 
with  gambling,  drinking,  or  fighting.  Mr.  Windham  paid  some 
very  handsome  compUments  to  the  originality  of  many  of  the 
thoughts  of  this  poet,  to  his  natural  simplicity  and  unaffected 
elegance  of  language.  He  wished  what  he  now  said  to  be  con- 
sidered as  an  unexaggerated  declaration  of  his  opinion  of  the 
skill  of  the  author ;  and  he  hoped  it  would  be  considered  as 
nothing  improper  when  he  added,  that  he  wished  this  opinion, 
thus  publicly  delivered,  to  be  viewed  as  an  advertisement  of  the 
merit  of  the  poem.  But  with  this  high  opinion  of  the  merits  of 
the  poer,  he  had  doubts  how  far  it  was  proper  to  encourage  ideas 
of  literary  profit  or  renow^n  in  those  who  had  been  bred  to  a  use- 
ful trade.  In  particular  instances  it  might  not  be  prejudicial ;  but 
to  inculcate  such  notions  as  those  contained  in  the  passage  of  the 
Memoirs  to  which  he  had  referred,  could  tend  only  to  a  mis- 
chievous purpose.  He  regretted  the  minuteness  with  which  he 
was  obliged  to  enter  into  the  consideration  of  the  subject,  but 
threw  the  blame  on  those  by  whom  such  a  subject  was  introduced — 
an  examination  of  the  bill  was  not  less  necessary  than  if  it  had  re- 
ferred to  a  subject  of  the  highest  national  importance.  To  examine 
the  character  of  a  daub  of  Teniers  was  often  a  work  of  more 
difficulty  than  to  describe  the  beauties  of  the  Madona  of  Raphael. 

He  next  proceeded  to  read  an  extract  from  a  sermon,  which 
he  declared  he  should,  in  all  probability,  never  have  read,  but  from 
the  circumstance  of  its  having  been  sent  to  him  by  the  author,  in 
which  the  cruelty  of  bull-baiting  is  described  in  very  strong  terms ; 
and  the  man  who  would  encourage  the  practice  is  represented  as 
a  person  who  would  not  hesitate  to  sheathe  a  blade  in  the  bowels 
of  his  fellow-creatures.  That  the  practice  of  sports,  even  when 
they  were  of  a  cruel  kind,  tended  to  render  mankind  cruel,  he 
denied,  and  he  founded  his  assertion  on.  the  history  of  all  ages 
and  countries.  The  most  elegant  scholars,  and  the  finest  poets 
in  ancient  and  modern  times,  from  Xenophon  to  Virgil  and  Mil- 
ton, were  loud  in  the  praises  of  many  of  those  sports  which,  with 
equal  justice,  might  be  called  cruel,  as  that  which  had  been  so 
loudly  condemned.  What  was  the  inference  he  drew  from  all 
this,  but  that  cruelty  was  not  at  all  the  object  of  those  sports, 
though  in  certain  instances  it  might  be  the  result  ?  If  he  were 
asked,  what  was  the  object  of  bull-baiting,  he  should  be  better 
able  to  give  an  intelligible  answer,  than  if  he  were  asked  a  simi- 
lar question  with  regard  to  hunting,  or  other  amusements  of  that 
description.  That  a  certain  degree  of  gratification  might  be 
received  from  the  spectacle  of  the  combats  of  animals,  the  history 


34  BULL-BAITING. 

of  all  ages  sufficiently  proved.  Even  the  philosophy  of  the  pre- 
sent age  took  part  with  a  practice  which  had  prevailed  in  this 
country  for  centuries.  In  the  tinrie  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  that 
which  is  now  despised  and  reprobated  as  the  amusement  only  of 
the  lowest  of  the  people,  was  an  amusement  courted  by  all  ranks. 
Since  that  period  bull-baiting  had  decHned,  arid  hunting  had 
usurped  its  room.  The  one  had  become  the  favourite  amusement 
of  the  great,  and  the  other  had  sunk  in  dignity  till  it  was  in  a 
great  measure  annihilated ;  and  yet  it  was  at  such  a  moment  as 
this,  that  the  house  was  called  upon  to  put  it  down  by  a  legislative 
enactment.  Was  this,  he  asked,  a  time  to  abridge  the  amusements 
of  the  common  people,  when  we  were  meditating  the  extension 
of  the  Game  Laws  to  Ireland? 

But  the  riots  and  confusion  which  the  practice  of  bull-baiting 
occasioned  were  urged  as  another  reason  for  the  necessity  of  the 
interference  of  the  legislature.  This  was  a  favourite  argument 
on  a  former  occasion,  w^hen  the  subject  was  before  the  house, 
with  an  Honourable  Friend  of  his  (Mr.  Wilberforce),  Member 
'  for  Yorkshire.  In  this  instance  the  conduct  of  his  Honourable 
Friend  put  him  in  mind  of  the  story  of  the  butcher,  who  ran  about 
seeking  his  knife  while  it  was  in  his  teeth ;  for  he  was  searching 
every  quarter  in  quest  of  objects  of  reform,  while  those  in  his  own 
neighbourhood  were  totally  overlooked !  When  he  condemned 
the  excesses  to  which  bull-baiting  gave  rise,  had  he  forgotten  all 
the  confusion  and  riot  which  horse-racing  produced  ?  He  himself 
did  not  object  to  the  practice  of  horse-racing,  since  there  were 
so  many  individuals  to  whom  it  was  a  source  of  pleasure.  But 
he  might  be  allowed  to  remind  the  house  of  the  observation  of 
Dr.  Johnson,  who  had  expressed  his  surprise  at  the  paucity  of 
human  pleasures,  w^hen  horse-racing  constituted  one  of  their 
number.  Perhaps  the  anxiety  displayed  by  many  persons  in  the 
pursuit  of  this  pleasure,  might  be  considered  as  approximating  to 
the  efforts  of  the  degenerate  Emperors  of  Rome,  to  gratify  a 
palate  which  luxury  had  rendered  insensible  to  the  ordinary  ma- 
terials of  food.  To  horse-racing  he  was  himself  personally  no 
more  an  enemy  than  he  was  to  boxing — though  in  making  this 
observation  he  was  far  from  meaning  to  disparage  boxing  so  far, 
as  to  put  them  on  an  equal  footing,  or  to  insinuate  that  so  poor, 
mean,  and  wretched  an  amusement  as  the  one,  was  at  all  to  vie 
in  importance  with  the  other,  which  was  connected  with  ideas  of 
personal  merit,  and  individual  dignity.  But  he  was  confident,  that 
in  point  of  effect  on  the  morals  of  the  people,  the  influence  of 
horse-racing  was  infinitely  more  pernicious  than  any  which  bull- 
baiting  could  produce.  What,  he  desired  the  house  to  consider, 
did  a  horse-race  consist  of?  What  was  the  description  of  persons 
whom  it  encouraged  to  assemble  ?    They  consisted  of  all  the  riff- 


BULL. BAITING.  35 

raff  from  every  part  of  the  country.  There  were  to  be  seen  col- 
lected all  the  black-legs  of  the  metropolis,  the  markers  at  billiard- 
tables,  apprentices  who  had  embezzled  the  property  of  their  mas- 
ters, and  who  are  afterwards  obliged  to  resort  to  knavery  to  cover 
their  fraud,  gingerbread  venders,  strolling  gamblers,  in  a  word, 
infamous  characters  of  everv  denomination.  Such  was  the  descrip- 
tion of  individuals  whom  horse-racing  assembled.  Now  what 
was  the  object  which  such  an  amusement  had  in  view?  He  con- 
fessed himself  unable  to  view  it  in  any  other  light  than  as  a 
species  of  gambling.  It  did  not  seem  to  him  to  give  exercise  for 
one  generous  feeling.  His  Honourable  Friend  had  however  taken 
a  cumbrous  leap  over  no  less  than  nine  racing-grounds  in  the 
county  which  he  represented,  and  had  never  descended  till  he 
had  alighted  at  a  bull-bait.  He  had  totally  neglected  the  duty  of 
destroying  abuses  at  home,  but  had  spent  all  his  labour,  and  exert- 
ed all  his  zeal,  in  poaching  in  foreign  manors.  So  much,  he 
remarked,  on  the  argument  that  bull-baiting  was  productive  of 
riot  and  confusion. 

He  next  recurred  to  the  inexpediency  of  abridging  the  amuse- 
ments of  the  lower  orders  at  the  present  moment.  There  was  a 
very  numerous  class  of  pleasures  from  which  their  circumstances 
in  life  excluded  them.  To  the  pleasures  of  intellect,  that  source 
of  the  purest  delights  of  humanity,  their  situation  denied  them 
access.  To  the  accommodations  of  social  life,  so  far  as  a  change 
of  situation  and  place  was  concerned,  they  were  strangers.  The 
rich  had  their  feasts,  their  assemblies,  their  parties  of  pleasure, 
their  pic  nics,  every  thing,  in  short,  which  could  afford  them  grati- 
fication. From  amusements  of  this  kind  the  lower  orders  were 
excluded  by  their  poverty.  But  there  was  another  class  of  plea- 
sures from  which  they  were  in  a  great  measure  excluded  by  the 
rigour  of  the  law.^  The  authority  of  the  magistrate  was  often 
interposed  to  counteract  even  their  harmless  pleasures.  To  dance 
at  all  out  of  season,  was  to  draw  on  their  heads  the  rigour  of 
unrelenting  justice.  The  great  might  gratify  themselves  in  a  thou- 
sand different  ways,  and  the  magistrate  did  not  conceive  it  within 
his  sphere  to  interrupt  their  amusements.  But  it  was  known  that 
an  organ  did  not  sound  more  harshly  in  the  ears  of  a  Puritan, 
than  did  the  notes  of  a  fiddle  in  those  of  a  magistrate,  when  he 
himself  was  not  to  be  of  the  party.  He  made  an  allusion  to  a 
beautiful  passage  of  a  celebrated  writer  (Sterne),  in  which  he 
describes  the  condition  of  the  lower  orders  at  the  close  of  the  day, 
when  labour  was  fipished,  when  families  met  together  to  join  in 
social  pleasures,  when  the  old  encouraged  the  sports  of  the  young, 
and  rejoiced  in  the  amusements  of  their  children.  But  what  was 
all  this  when  translated  into  plain  English  ?  It  conveyed  to  us 
merely  the  idea  of  a  hop.     In  confirmation  of  his  ideas  about 


36  BULL-BAITING. 

the  restraints  to  which  the  amusements  of  the  lower  orders  are 
subjected,  he  referred  to  certain  transactions  which  took  place  in 
a  square  at  the  west  end  of  the  town  (Berkeley-square)  a  few 
years  ago.  The  whole  neighbourhood  had  been  alarmed ;  the 
most  serious  apprehe.nsions  were  excited ;  the  aid  of  the  military 
was  judged  necessary;  and  after  all  this  idle  pomp  and  authority, 
it  was  discove;;ed  that  the  formidable  disturbers  of  the  public 
peace  were  a  few  domestics  dancing  to  the  music  of  a  blind 
sailor's  fiddle.  It  was  to  be  regretted  that  many  Gentlemen  should 
be  anxious  to  deprive  the  lower  orders  of  their  amusements,  from 
a  seeming  apprehension,  that  if  they  were  suffered  to  enjoy  those 
recreations  they  would  not  labour  sufficiently,  and  might  become, 
from  their  improvidence,  a  burthen  to  the  poor  rates,  to  which  the 
rich  must  contribute;  this  was  a  most  injudicious  system  of  think- 
ing, and  he  cautioned  the  rich  against  acting  upon  it.  The  effi- 
cient part  of  the  community  for  labour  ought  to  be  encouraged  in 
their  exertions  rather  by  furnishing  them  with  occasional  amuse- 
ments, than  by  depriving  them  of  one,  as  this  bill  proposed — a  bill, 
the  supporters  of  which  would  take  them  to  the  Tabernacle  or  to 
Jacobinism — for,  if  to  poverty  were  to  be  added  a  privation  of 
amusements,  he  knew  nothing  that  could  operate  more  strongly 
to  goad  the  mind  into  desperation,  and  to  prepare  the  poor  for 
that  dangerous  enthusiasm  which  is  analogous  to  Jacobinism, 

He  objected  to  the  way  in  w^hich  Gentlemen  would  wish  the 
house  to  look  at  the  consequences  of  bull-baiting,  by  citing  par- 
ticular accidents,  and  from  them  concluding  that  the  practice  was 
cruel,  and  that  the  bull  in  baiting  was  treated  with  cruelty;  he^ 
believed  the  bull  felt  a  satisfaction  in  the  contest,  not  less  so  than  the 
hound  did  when  he  heard  the  sound  of  the  horn  which  summoned 
him  to  the  chase.  True  it  was,  that  young  bulls,  or  those  which 
were  never  baited  before,  show^ed  reluctance  to  be  tied  td  the  stake; 
but  those  bulls,  which  according  to  the  language  of  the  sport 
were  called  game  hulls,  who  were  used  to  baiting,  approached  the 
stake  and  stood  there  w^hile  preparing  for  the  contest  with  the 
utmost  composure.  If  the  bull  felt  no  pleasure,  and  was  cruelly 
dealt  with,  surely  the  dogs  had  also  some  claim  to  compassion ; 
but  the  fact  was,  that  both  seemed  equally  arduous  in  the  conffict; 
and  the  bull,  like  every  other  animal,  while  it  had  the  better  side, 
did  not  dislike  his  situation — it  would  be  ridiculous  to  say  he  felt 
no  pain — yet,  when  on  such  occasions  he  exhibited  no  sign  of 
terror,  it  was  a  demonstrable  proof  that  he  felt  some  pleasure. 

With  regard  to  the  petition  from  Stamford  against  this  bill,  it 
was  entitled  to  the  most  respectful  attention,  for  it  came  from  a 
body  of  sober  loyal  men,  who  attended  to  their  several  vocations, 
and  never  meddled  with  politics,  faithful  to  their  landlord  (the 
Marquis  of  Exeter),  with  w^hom,  however,  they  could  not  avoid 


BULL. BAITING.  37 

being  a  little  displeased  for  his  endeavours  to  deprive  them  of  their 
favourite  sport  by  supporting  this  bill.  Those  petitioners  state, 
that  this  amusement  had  been  enjoyed  by  their  town,  for  a  period 
of  five  or  six  hundred  years,  and  the  antiquity  of  the  thing  was 
deserving  of  respect — for  respect  for  antiquity  was  the  best  pre- 
servation of  the  Church  and  State — it  was  by  connecting  the  past 
with  the  present,  and  the  present  with  the  future,  that  genuine 
patriotism  was  produced  and  preserved. 

He  repeated  tnat  he  was  shocked  and  scandaUzed  at  the  manner 
in  which  the  advocates  of  this  bill  would  persuade  the  house  to 
act ;  to  prohibit  an  old  amusement  because  it  was  the  amusement 
of  the  poor ;  for  the  objection  was  not  to  the  cruelty  of  the  amuse- 
ment; if  it  were,  the  scope  of  the  bill  ought  to  be  enlarged. 
Those  Gentlemen  seemed  to  be  influenced  by  a  species  of  philo- 
sophy dictated  by  their  wives,  one  of  whom  might  be  supposed 
to  address  her  husband  thus: — "My  dear,  do  you  know,  that  after 
you  went  out  with  your  dogs  this  morning,  I  walked  into  the 
village,  and  was  shocked  to  see  a  set  of  wretches  at  a  bull-baiting, 
tormenting  the  poor  animal.  I  wish,  dear,  you  would  speak  to 
our  Member,  and  request  him  to  bring  a  bill  into  Parliament  to 
prevent  that  horrid  practice." — (A  laugh). 

Independent  of  the  injustice  of  encroaching  upon  the  few  small 
amusements  of  the  poor,  he  would  beg  the  house  to  consider  the 
consequence  of  rendering  them  discontented  or  dispirited,  by 
leaving  npthing  for  them  but  the  wide  waste  of  labour.  The 
reason  why  our  labourers  w^ere  capable  of  more  work  than  slaves, 
was  obvious ;  because  they  felt  that  they  worked  for  themselv^es ; 
and,  according  as  their  profit,  or  their  prospect  of  pleasure,  which 
was  the  same  thing,  was  increased,  just  so  did  their  labour  gene- 
rally increase  also.  Such  a  bill  as  this,  to  abridge  men's  pleasures, 
and  to  hold  out  a  kind  of  direct  hint  to  them  that  they  never 
could  labour  enough,  was  sufficient  to  Jacobinize  a  whole  country. 
In  proof  of  the  assertion  that  bull-baiting  did  not  operate  to  bru- 
talize men's  minds,  he  had  only  to  turn  the  attention  of  the  house 
to  Lancashire  and  Staffordshire,  where  that  practice  principally 
prevailed.  These  counties  were  known  to  produce  the  best  sol- 
diers in  the  army,  and  the  militia  of  Staffordshire  were  known  to 
have  been  selected,  from  their  good  behaviour,  to  do  duty  about 
the  Royal  Person;  a  pretty  good  proof  that  bull-baiting  did  not 
produce  such  effects  on  the  morals  of  the  people  as  the  Puritans 
affected  to  deplore,  but  rather  such  as  the  Jacobins  in  France  and 
England  very  sincerely  lamented.  It  was  mockery  in  men  to 
talk  of  the  suffering  of  animals  from  the  sports  of  the  lower  orders, 
while  they  themselves  were  doin<r  something  worse.  To  the 
difference  between  the  jolly  bull-baiting  peasant  and  his  demure 
gloomy  censors,  he  would  apply  the  words  of  tlie  poet — 
♦    4 


38  BULL. BAITING. 

V  .  "  Tom  struts  a  soldier,  open,  bold,  and  brave ; 

Will  sneaks  a  scrivener,  an  exceeding  knave." 

The  Right  Honourable  Gentleman  concluded  with  stating,  that 
if  the  bill  before  the  house  should  be  adopted,  he  should,  for  the 
sake  of  consistency  and  the  character  of  parliament,  conceive  it 
his  duty  to  move  for  leave  to  bring  in  a  bill  to  prohibit  hunting, 
shooting,  fishing,  and  all  the  sports  of  the  field  practised  by  the 
higher  orders. 

The  Bill  was  supported  by  Mr.  Courtenay,  Mr.  Wilberforce,  Mr.  W.  Smith, 
and  Mr.  Sheridan ;  and  opposed  by  Colonel  Grosvenor,  General  Gascoyne,  and 
Mr.  Frankland. 

The  question  being  put,  "  That  the  Bill  be  now  read  a  second  time,"  Gene- 
ral Gascoyne  rose,  and  moved  as  an  Amendment,  "  That  it  be  read  a  second 
time  this  day  three  months."    On  which  Amendment  the  house  divided : 

Ayes 64 

Noes .    51 

Majority  against  the  bill    13 

The  Bill  was  consequently  lost. 


(    39     ) 

•        MONASTIC  INSTITUTION  BILL. 

JUNE  28,   1800. 

The  order  of  the  day  being  read  on  a  Bill  for  placing  under  certain  regu- 
lations the  Monastic  Institutions  in  this  kingdom, 

Mr.  Windham  spoke  to  the  following  effect: 
Sir, 

Did  any  necessity  exist  for  a  restraining  measure  of  this  kind, 
I  know  none  more  unexceptionable  than  the  present  one  proposed. 
But  with  all  the  inquiries  I  have  been  able  to  make,  and  with  all 
the  sagacity  I  have  been  able  to  exercise,  though  I  have  even 
strained  my  eyes  to  find  out  a  plausible  or  sufficient  cause  for  the 
present  proceeding,  I  have  been  wholly  disappointed  in  my  object 
Instead  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Religion  springing  up  again  into 
importance,  its  friends  have  to  fear  a  change  of  quite  a  different 
kind.  I,  myself,  have,  upon  some  occasions,  been  considered  as 
a  pretty  good  alarmist,  though  on  the  present  one  my  feelings, 
I  confess,  are  rather  obtuse.  Whether  or  no  my  fears  for  the 
common  safety  of  Europe  may  absorb  all  other  considerations 
of  danger,  or  that  I  see  things  in  a  juster  point  of  light  than 
those  who  support  the  Bill,  I  will  not  pretend  to  say. — What, 
however,  can  be  more  absurd,  than  to  suppose  that  in  the  present 
order  of  things,  in  this  era  of  the  world,  at  the  latter  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  (or,  if  you  please,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth,)  in  the  tenth  year  of  the  French  revolution,  in  the 
general  renunciation  of  every  popish  tenet  throughout  Europe, 
when  the  fate  even  of  that  quarter  of  the  globe  is  trembling  in 
the  balance,  and  the  period  is  arrived  which  must  either  establish 
or  overturn  for  ever  the  power  of  France,  any  just  apprehension 
can  be  entertained  of  the  spread  and  dominion  of  popery  ?  Some 
Gentlemen  there  are,  of  heated  imaginations,  who  attribute  all  the 
calamities,  which  have  lately  arisen,  to  the  effects  and  operation 
of  popery.  Popery,  they  say,  produced  the  D'Alemberts,  the 
Diderots,  and  the  Voltaires,  who,  in  their  turn,  contributed  to  its 
downfall ;  and  even  our  countrymen  Hume  and  Gibbon  were  made 
infidels  by  the  horrors  of  popery.  The  opinions  of  such  persons, 
then,  it  seems,  have  produced  these  calamities ;  and  in  the  time 
of  these  calamities,  the  re-production  of  those  opinions  which 
originally  gave  birth  to  them  is  become  matter  of  serious  dread 
and  expectation.  Those  who  reason  in  this  way  make  use  of  an 
admirable  antiperistasis.    Qualities  are  said  sometimes  to  produce 


40  MONASTIC  INSTITUTION  BILL. 

their  opposites ;  thus  heat  produces  cold.  On  this  principle,  indeed, 
the  effects  of  infidelity,  with  all  its  concurrent  circumstances,  may 
be  to  produce  religion.  But,  on  taking  a  survey  of  Europe,  I 
cannot  see  any  imminent  danger  of  this  sort. 

But  what  is  the  danger  spoken  of?  Why,  there  are  thred  or 
four  thousand  emigrant  priests  in  the  country.  I  admit,  this 
argument,  taken  by  itself,  is  a  good  one ;  but  Gentlemen  ought 
to  look  further.  In  the  tin^J  of  Agricola,  the  northern  inhabitants 
of  this  island  were  held  in  disregard,  and  did  not  much  invite  the 
Roman  arms.  From  this,  they  supposed  they  were  braver  than 
their  southern  neighbours,  who  were  conquered  By  the  Romans. — 
To  apply  this  to  the  present  occasion,  I  would  say,  we  see  four 
or  five  thousand  popish  priests  in  this  country.  These  are  the 
wreck  of  three  hundred  thousand  who  once  flourished  in  France, 
but  were  suppressed.  A  few  stragglers  only  have  come  to  us, 
who  happily  survived  the  destuction  of  the  Gallic  church.  This 
general  overthrow  and  abasement  have  weakened  more  the 
Catholic  faith,  than  any  endeavours  of  the  remaining  few  w^ho 
adhere  to  it  can  efl^ect  tow^ards  its  restoration.  They  have  no 
idea  of  the  kind.  They  esteem  themselves  weak  and  fallen.  The 
supporters  of  the  present  bill  only  swell  them  into  importance, 
and  suppose  them  capable  of  performing  a  task  their  more  nume- 
rous brethren  were  unequal  to.  Those  who  have  fled  to  us  for 
protection,  are  but  miserable  remains  as  to  their  means  and 
power,  though  not  as  to  the  virtues  they  have  uniformly  displayed. 
What  danger  then  can  be  suspected  from  them  ?  Where  the 
means  are  so  disproportionate,  why  should  we  fear  the  end  ?  I 
must  consider,  therefore,  this  bill  as  wholly  useless.  Where  no 
danger  exists,  no  precaution  is  necessary — w^here  no  disease,  no 
remedy.  When  I  think  of  the  readiness  with  which  persons  are 
apt  to  call  for  the  interference  of  the  house,  I  consider  it  as  one 
of  the  evils  of  the  times.  The  courts  below  keep  up  their  price 
— there  we  find  no  frivolous  applications ;  the  experiment  is  too 
costly — parliament  only  is  cheap.  The  legislature  is  as  accessi- 
ble as  the  parish  pump :  it  may  be  worked  by  the  first  man  who 
chooses  to  put  his  hand  to  it. 

This  alone  is  a  sufficient  reason  why  the  vote  of  the  house 
should  put  a  stop  to  the  further  progress  of  the  bill.  If,  however, 
we  are  to  go  on  with  it,  let  us  consider  what  other  objections 
there  may  be.  The  form  of  an  argument  has  been  adduced  in 
its  support, 

"If  form  indeed.it  had,  \frhich  form  had  none 
Distinguishable  in  member,  joint,  or  limb," 

that  these  miserable  remains  of  the  church  of  France  will  revive 
the  monkish  superstitions. — But  how  can  this  be  the  case ;  or,  if 


MONASTIC  INSTITUTION  BILL.  41 

it  was,  what  mischiefs  could  ensue  ?  What  is  there  so  abhorrent 
in  a  convent ;  or,  what  danger  is  to  be  apprehended  from  one 
sect  more  than  another  1  I  do  not  mean  to  go  into  the  question 
of  monastic  institutions,  or  to  undertake  their  defence;  but  I 
will  say,  that  nothing  can  be  more  weak,  indecent,  or  ofiensive, 
than  the  arguments  generally  adduced  against  them.  Why  any 
person  who  voluntarily  consigns  himself  to  mortifying  penalties 
and  solitude  should  be  condemned  and  restrained  in  the  free 
exercise  of  his  wishes,  I  know  not :  piety,  to  be  sure,  may  not 
require  the  many  privations  he  lays  himself  under ;  but  let  him 
either  be  an  ascetic  or  a  maniac,  it  is  no  concern  of  mine.  The 
effect  of  his  conduct  is  confined  to  himself,  and  is  the  concern  of 
no  other  person.  In  no  one  instance  has  the  hostility  of  protestant 
divines  been  more  displayed  than  against  the  ascetics  of  the  church 
of  Rome.  Man,  by  his  nature,  perhaps,  is  more  apt  to  find  fault 
with  and  condemn  those  excessive  virtues  which  put  him  to  the 
blush,  than  the  blackest  and  most  extravagant  vices.  Every  man 
is  the  rule  of  his  own  conduct.  One  disposition  may  require  more 
mortification  than  another,  and  the  stronger  should  possess  charity 
for  the  weaker  brother.     Some  may  be  driven 

"  To  leave  a  world  where  strong  temptations  lie, 
And  when  they  cannot  conquer,  learn  to  fly." 

I  should  be  glad  to  know  why  a  society  of  ancient  maids,  who 
may  unite  together,  and  agree  not  to  go  beyond  their  garden 
walls,  are  less  respectable  or  less  virtuous  than  the  same  number 
of  ladies  dispersed  abroad,  who  collect  parties  at  whist,  or  at  any 
other  amusement. 

It  is  a  matter  worthy  of  consideration  what  researches  have 
been  carried  on  in  monasteries,  what  inventions  thence  take  their 
origin,  and  what  voyages  missionaries  from  that  school  have 
performed.  This  circumstance  makes  us  respect  the  inhabitants 
of  cloisters  and  their  institutions.  The  hope  of  a  convent  has 
been  the  support  of  many.  It  is  a  last  retreat,  where  they  shun 
the  cares  and  misfortunes,  of  life.  In  this  country,  however,  such 
an  institution  is  graced  with  no  veneration ;  its  devotees  are  not 
marked  with  any  peculiar  degree  of  sanctity.  One  great  cause, 
therefore,  of  forsaking  the  world  by  seclusion  in  these  places,  is 
wanting  in  this  country.  When  the  church  of  Rome  was  in  the 
plenitude  of  its  power,  the  proselytes  to  its  tenets  were  numerous, 
and  its  "doctrines  thus  brought  into  exercise  might  be  attended 
with  some  danger  in  this  country.  Now,  however,  when  the 
predominance  of  another  persuasion  exists,  and  in  the  degraded 
state  of  the  Catholic  church  besides,  a  papist  is  no  more  an  object 
of  fear  or  suspicion  than  any  other  sectary.  Toleration  demands 
that  a  state  should  be  indifferent  to  all  religious  opinions  which 
4*  F 


42  MONiiSTIC  INSTITUTION  BILL. 

do  not  affect  its  own  internal  tranquillity  or  safety.  A  state,  I 
own,  has  a  right  to  patrbnize  what  establishirient  it  pleases,  but 
not  to  suppress  tlic  freedom  of  opinion  or  dissent.  Some  opinions, 
it  is  true,  are  dangerous,  and  these  a  state  should  not  be  indiffer- 
ent to.  Such  were  the  opinions  of  the  United  Irishmen.  But  if 
a  set  of  nuns  choose  to  make  vows  of  celibacy,  it  is  voluntary  on 
their  part,  and  no  restraint  should  be  imposed  upon  them.  If, 
therefore,  without  any  danger  from  popery,  you  attempt  to  lay 
its  professors  under  needless  restrictions,  you  legislate  on  very 
delicate  grounds.  It  is  right  to  save  one  man  from  the  act  of 
another,  but  not  to  save  him  from  the  act  of  himself.  According 
to  the  best  information  I  have  received,  I  do  not  believe  that  the 
interior  of  a  convent  is  that  scene  of  vice  or  woe  which  it  has 
most  commonly  been  represented  to  be ;  and  if  persons  choose  to 
spend  their  lives  within  such  walls,  the  legislature  have  no  right 
to  rescue  them  from  their  own  determinations. 

By  this  bill  persons  are  to  be  prevented  from  making  vows ; 
but  there  is  no  instance,  I  believe,  of  a  woman  in  an  English 
convent  who  has  not  passed  her  novitiate  in  another  country. 
But,  to  go  back  to  the  subject  of  convents,  I  say  that  the  law 
should  not  interfere  to  prevent  converts  to  popery,  any  more  than 
to  any  other  sects  and  persuasions.  If,  indeed,  conversion  to 
popery  were  an  evil,  law  is  not  its  proper  remedy.  The  divines 
of  the  established  church  should  feed  their  flocks  wdth  spiritual 
food,  and  thus  enable  them  to  withstand  the  poison  of  delusion. 
Instead  of  this,  they  ^re  too  fond  of  raising  the  cry,  "  the  church 
is  in  danger!"  If  proselytism  exists,  it  is  a  disgrace  only  to  that 
clergyman  in  whose  parish  it  takes  place.  What,  if  they  do  their 
duty,  can  members  of  the  church  of  England  fear?  They  meet 
their  antagonists  on  more  than  equal  terms.  Should  any  one 
indeed  attempt  to  preach  up  the  rights  of  man,  or  teach  insubor- 
dination to  lawful  authority ;  to  silence  such  would  then  be  a  work 
of  necessity :  but  popery  has  nothing  in  it  of  this  dangerous  ten- 
dency, and  may  be  met  fairly  in  the  field  of  argument.  But  if  a 
line  of  conduct  be  adopted  similar  to  that  which  induces  persons 
to  apply  to  the  legislature  to  protect  themselves  by  penalties  and 
statutes,  where  they  are  entirely  careless  about  themselves,  and 
would  rather  defend  their  property  by  acts  of  parliament  than  by 
a  quickset  hedge ;  what  can  persons  thus  acting  expect,  but  that 
advantage  should  be  taken  of  their  supineness  ?  Success,  and  the 
protection  of  the  laws,  belong  rightly  to  a  different  class,  Vigi- 
lantibus  non  dormieniihus.  Penal  laws  can  never  defend  the 
country  against  popery.  I  cannot  help  making  the  remark  here, 
that  opinion  may  be  too  much  under  the  protection  oF  law%  A 
little  opposition  is  no  bad  thing:  it  makes  persons  attentive  to  their 
duty,  and  may  be  as  useful  in  the  church  as  in  the  senate.    In  the 


MONASTIC  INSTITUTION  BILL.  43 

physical  and  moral  body,  opposition  tends  to  keep  up  the  proper 
tone  of  health.  Did  the  earth  spontaneously  produce  every  thing 
for  the  use  of  man,  the  short-sighted  philosopher  might  say  it  was 
well;  but  nature  has  wisely  ordained  it  otherwise.  Every  thing 
valuable  is  to  be  acquired  and  preserved  by  labour.  In  this  point' 
of  view  I  should  deprecate  the  bill  Gentlemen  wish  to  bring  in, 
as  it  tends  to  narrow  the  field  of  intellectual  exercise  and  fair 
discussion. 

Another  objection  against  the  bill  is,  that  it  raises  prejudices  in 
the  minds  of  the  illiberal,  against  a  number  of  unoflending  persons, 
who  have  fled  to  our  shores  from  the  tempest  which  threatened 
their  destruction. — When  this  shall  subside,  they  will  be  very 
ready  to  seek  their  own  country  again,  and  carry  all  their  offen- 
sive customs  and  sentiments  along  with  them.  But  why  should 
we  send  them  back  lame  and  crippled  ?  While  they  remain  here, 
it  is  not  generous  to  mark  them  out  as  objects  of  pubKc  scorn  and 
suspicion.  An  Honourable  Gentleman  opposite  (Mr.  T.  Jones)  has 
called  this  a  nun-baiting  bill.  I,  however,  am  their  defender;  and 
the  bull  himself  turned  into  a  baiter,  is  running  furiously  among 
the  nuns.  As  to  danger  to  the  state,  every  person  must  scout  the 
idea.  If  conversion  be  the  evil  complained  of,  why  is  that  greater 
in  this  case  than  in  that  of  the  sectaries  ?  I  have  heard  it  as  an 
argument  for  the  bill,  that  if  it  will  do  no  great  good,  it  will  do 
no  hurt :  but  this  I  deny,  so  long  as  unjust  prejudice  is  liable  to 
spring  from  it.  I  therefore  vote  against  the  Speaker's  leaving  the 
chair. 

Sir  Henry  Mildmay  (with  whom  the  Bill  had  originated),  Mr.  T.  Jones, 
Mr.  Dudley  Ryder,  Mr.  Erskine,  and  Mr.  Perceval,  supported  the  Bill ;  Mr. 
Hobhouse,  Sir  William  Scott,  Mr.  Sheridan,  and  Dr.  Lawrence  opposed  it 
On  a  division,  the  numbers  were. 

For  the  Speaker's  leaving  the  Chair 52 

Against  it 2^ 

Majority    . 28 

The  Bill,  with  some  modifications,  passed  the  House  of  Commons,  but  was 
rejected  by  the  House  of  Lords. 


(    44    ) 
PEACE  OF   AMIENS. 

NOVEMBER  4th,  1801. 

On  the  preceding  evening,  the  following  address  had  been  moved  by  Sir 
Edmund  Hartopp,  was  seconded  by  Mr.  Lee  (M.  P.  for  Dungarvan),  and  passed 
the  House  of  Commons  without  a  division,  viz. 

•'That  an  humble  address  be  presented  to  His  Majesty,  thanking  His 
Majesty  for  being  graciously  pleased  to  order  the  preliminaries  of  peace  with 
France  to  be  laid  before  this  House ; — to  assure  His  Majesty  of  the  just  sense 
this  House  entertains  of  this  fresh  instance  of  his  paternal  care  for  the  welfare 
and  happiness  of  his  people ; — and  to  express  their  firm  reliance  that  the  final 
ratification  of  those  preliminaries  will  be  highly  advantageous  to  the  interests, 
and  honourable  to  the  character  of  the  British  Nation." 

In  the  course  of  the  debate,  the  terms  of  the  peace  had  been  censured  by 
Mr.  T.  Grenville,  Lord  Temple,  and  Dr.  Lawrence,  and  defended  by  Lord 
Hawkesbury,  Lord  Castlereagh,  Mr.  Banks,  Mr.  Pitt,  and  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer,  Mr.  Addington.  Mr.  Fox  also  expressed  his  satisfaction  that 
a  peace  had  been  effected.  Mr.  Windham  being  unwell,  reserved  himself  for 
the  evening  of  the  4th,  when,  on  the  report  of  the  address  being  brought  up, 
he  addressed  the  chair  in  the  following  speech : 

Sir, 

In  the  present  stage  of  this  business,  and  in  a  house  so  little 
numerous,  I  am  not  disposed  to  take  up  the  subject  in  the  way  in 
which  I  should  have  wished  to  consider  it,  had  I  been  able  with 
tolerable  satisfaction  to  myself,  to  deliver  my  sentiments  in  the 
debate  of  last  night.  Something,  however,  I  wish  to  say,  founded 
in  a  great  measure  on  what  then  took  place. 

All  that  I  heard,  and  all  that  I  saw,  on  that  occasion,  tends 
only  to  confirm  more  and  more  the  deep  despair  in  which  I  am 
plunged,  in  contemplating  the  probable  consequences  of  the  pre- 
sent Treaty. 

Notwithstanding  some  lofty  talk  which  we  heard  of  dignity 
and  firmness,  and  which  I  shall  be  glad  to  see  realized,  and  a 
happy  quotation,  expressive  of  the  same  sentiments,  from  my 
Honourable  Friend  not  now  present  (Mr.  Pitt),  the  real  amount 
of  what  was  said,  seems  to  be  little  more  than  this : — that  France 
has,  to  be  sure,  the  power  of  destroying  us,  but  that  we  hope  she 
will  not  have  the  inclination ; — that  we  are  under  the  paw  of  the 
lion,  but  that  he  may  happen  not  to  be  hungry,  and,  instead  of 
making  a  meal  of  us,  may  turn  round  in  his  den,  and  go  to  sleep. 


PEACE  OF  AMIENS.  45 

— This  is  not  stated  in  so  many  words:  but  it  will  be  difficult  to 
show,  that  it  is  not  the  fair  result  of  the  arguments. 

That  I  should  have  lived  to  see  the  day,  when  such  arguments 
could  be  used  in  a  British  House  of  Commons ! — that  I  should 
have  lived  to  see  a  House  of  Commons,  where  such  arguments 
could  be  heard  with  patience,  and  even  with  complacency  ! — The 
substance  of  the  statement  is  this.  We  make  Peace,  not  from  any 
necessity  actually  existing,  (my  Honourable  Friends,  with  great 
propriety,  reject  that  supposition,)  but  because  we  foresee  a 
period,  at  no  great  distance,  when  such  a  necessity  must  arise ; 
and  we  think  it  right,  that  provision  for  such  a  case  should  be 
made  in  time. — We  treat,  or,  to  take  at  once  the  more  appropriate 
term,  we  capitulate,  while  we  have  yet  some  ammunition  left. 
General  Menou  could  do  no  more.  General  Menou  could  do  no 
more  in  one  sense ;  but  in  another  he  did,  I  fear,  a  great  deal 
more: — a  point  to  which  I  must  say  a  word  hereafter; — he  did 
not  abandon  to  their  fate  those  whom  he  had  invited  to  follow  his 
fortunes,  and  to  look  up  to  him  as  their  protector.  Both,  however, 
capitulated ;  and  upon  the  plain  and  ordinary  grounds  of  such  a 
proceeding,  namely,  that  their  means  of  resistance  must  soon 
come  to  an  end,  and  that  they  had  no  such  hopes  of  any  fortunate 
turn  in  their  favour,  as  to  justify  a  continuance  of  their  resistance 
in  the  mean  time.  The  conduct  of  both,  in  the  circumstances 
supposed,  was  perfectly  rational :  but  let  us  recollect,  that  those 
who  stand  in  such  circumstances,  be  they  generals  or  be  they 
nations,  are,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  conquered!  I  know  not 
what  other  definition  we  want  of  being  conquered,  than  that  a 
country  can  say  to  us,  "  we  can  hold  out,  and  you  cannot ;  make 
Peace,  or  we  will  ruin  you :"  and  that  you,  in  consequence,  make 
Peace,  upon  terms  which  must  render  a  renewal  of  hostilities, 
under  any  provocation,  more  certainly  fatal  than  a  continuation 
of  that  War,  which  you  already  declare  yourselves  unable  to 
bear. 

If  such  be  the  fact,  we  may  amuse  ourselves  with  talking  what 
language  we  please ;  but  we  are  a  conquered  people.  Buonaparte 
is  as  much  our  master,  as  he  is  of  Spain  or  Prussia,  or  any  other 
of  those  countries,  which,  though  still  permitted  to  call  themselves 
independent,  are,  a&  every  body  knows,  as  completely  in  his 
power,  as  if  the  name  of  department  was  already  written  upon 
their  foreheads. — There  are  but^two  questions, — Is  the  relation 
betv^een  the  countries  such,  that  France  can  ruin  us  by  continuing 
the  War?  and  will  that  relation  in  substance  remain  the  same,  or 
rather  will  it  not  be  rendered  infinitely  worse,  by  Peace,  upon  the 
terms  now  proposed  ? — If  both  these  questions  are  answered  in 
the  affirmative,  the  whole  is  decided,  and  we  live  henceforward 
by  sufferance  from  France. 


46  PEACE  OF  AMIENS. 

Sir,  before  we  endeavour  to  estimate  our  prospects  in  this  new 
and  honourable  state  of  existence,  I  wish  to  consider  for  a  moment, 
what  the  reasonings  are,  that  have  detfirmined  our  choice,  as  to 
the  particular  mode  of  it ;  and  why  we  think  that  ruin  by  War 
must  be  so  much  more  speedy  and  certain,  than  ruin  by  Peace. 
And  here  I  will  take  pretty  much  the  statement  given  by  the 
Honourable  Gentlemen  who  argue  on  the  other  side. 

I  agree,  that  the  question  is  not,  whether  this  Peace  be  good  or 
bad,  honourable  or  dishonourable,  adequate  or  inadequate;  whether 
it  places  us  in  a  situation  better  or  worse,  than  we  had  reason  to 
expect,  or  than  we  were  in  before  the  War.  All  these  are  parts 
of  the  question,  and  many  of  them  very  material  parts ;  but  the 
question  itself  is,  whether  the  Peace  now  proposed,  such  as  it  is, 
be  better,  or  not,  than  a  continuation  of  hostilities  ? — Whether, 
according  to  a  familiar  mode  of  speech,  we  may  not  go  farther 
and  fare  worse  ? — ^Whether,  to  take  the  same  form  in  a  manner 
somewhat  more  developed  and  correct,  the  chances  of  faring 
better,  compared  with  the  chances  of  faring  worse,  and  including 
the  certainty  of  intermediate  evils,  do  not  render  it  advisable, 
upon  the  whole,  that  we  should  rest  contented  where  we  are. 

This  I  take  to  be  the  statement  of  the  question,  on  the  present, 
and  on  all  similar  occasions:  nor  do  I  know  of  any  addition 
necessary  to  be  made,  except  to  observe,  that  in  estimating  the 
terms  of  Peace  in  the  manner  here  proposed,  you  are  not  merely 
to  consider  the  physical  force,  or  pecuniary  value,  of  the  objects 
concerned,  but  also  the  effect  which  Peace,  made  in  such  and 
such  circumstances,  is  likely  to  have  on  the  character  and  esti- 
mation of  the  country;  a  species  of  possession,  which,  though 
neither  tangible  nor  visible,  is  as  much  a  part  of  national  strength, 
and  has  as  real  a  value,  as  any  thing  that  can  be  turned  into 
pounds  and  shillings,  that  can  be  sold  by  the  score  or  hundred,  or 
weighed  out  in  avoirdupoise.  Accordingly  a  statesman,  acting 
for  a  great  country,  may  very  well  be  in  the  situation  of  saying, — 
I  would  make  Peace  at  this  time,  if  nothing  more  were  in  ques- 
tion, than  the  value  of  the  objects  now  offered  me,  compared  with 
those  which  I  may  hope  to  obtain ;  but  when  I  consider  what  the 
effect  is,  which  Peace,  made  in  the  present  circumstances,  will 
have  upon  the  estimation  of  the  country ;  what  the  weakness  is 
which  it  will  betray ;  what  the  suspicions  it  will  excite ;  what  the 
distrust  and  alienation  it  will  produce,  in  the  minds  of  all  the  sur- 
rounding nations ;  how  it  will  lower  us  in  their  eyes ;  how  it  will 
teach  them  universally  to  fly  from  connexion  with  a  country, 
which  neither  protects  its  friends,  nor  seems  any  longer  capable 
of  protecting  itself,  in  order  to  turn  to  those,  who,  while  their 
vengeance  is  terrible,  will  not  suffer  a  hair  of , the  head  to  be 
touched,  of  any  who  will  put  themselves  under  their  protection; — 


PEACE  OF  AMIENS.  47 

when  I  consider  these  consequences,  not  less  real  or  permanent, 
or  extensive,  than  those  which  present  themselves  in  the  shape  of 
territorial  strength  or  commercial  resources,  I  must  reject  these 
terms,  which  otherwise  I  should  feel  disposed  to  accept,  and  say, 
that,  putting  character  into  the  scale,  the  inchnation  of  the  balance 
is  decidedly  the  other  way. 

Sir,  there  is  in  all  this  nothing  new  or  refined,  or  more  than 
will  be  admitted  by  every  one  in  words ;  though  there  seems  so 
little  disposition  to  adhere  to  it  in  fact.— If  we  refer  to  the  prac- 
tice of  only  our  own  time,  what  was  the  case  of  the  Falkland 
Islands  and  Nootka'?  Was  it  the  value  of  these  objects,  that  we 
were  going  to  War  for  ?  The  one  was  a  barren  rock,  an  object 
of  competition  for  nothing  but  seals  and  seagulls ;  the  other  a 
point  of  land  in  a  wilderness,  where  some  obscure,  though  spirited, 
adventurers  had  hoped  that  they  might  in  time  establish  a  trade 
with  the  savages  for  furs.  Were  these,  objects  to  involve  nations 
in  Wars  ?  If  there  was  a  question  of  their  doing  so,  it  was 
because  considerations  of  a  far  different  kind  were  attached  to 
them, — considerations  of  national  honour  and  dignity;  between 
which  and  the  objects  themselves,  there  may  often  be  no  more 
proportion,  than  between  the  picture  of  a  great  master,  and  the 
canvas  on  which  it  is  painted. 

If  I  wished  for  authorities  upon  such  a  subject,  I  need  go  no 
further  than  to  the  Honourable  Gentleman,  [Mr.  Fox,]  who  has 
recurred  to  a  sentiment,  produced  by  him  formerly  with  something 
of  paradoxical  exaggeration,  (though  true  in  the  main,)  namely, 
that  Wars  for  points  of  honour,  are  really  the  only  rational  and 
prudential  Wars  in  which  a  country  can  engage.  Much  of  the 
same  sort  is  the  sentiment  of  another  popular  teacher,  Junius, 
who,  upon  the  subject  of  these  very  Falkland  Islands,  says,  in 
terms  which  it  may  be  worth  while  to  quote,  not  for  the  merit  of 
the  language,  nor  the  authority  of  the  writer, — though  neither  of 
them  without  their  value, — but  to  show,  what  were  once  the  feel- 
ings of  Englishmen,  and  what  the  topics  chosen  by  a  writer, 
whose  object  it  was  to  recommend  himself  to  the  people :  "  To 
depart,  in  the  minutest  article,  from  the  nicety  and  strictness  of 
punctilio,  is  as  dangerous  to  national  honour,  as  it  is  to  female 
virtue.  The  woman  who  admits  of  one  familiarity,  seldom  knows 
where  to  stop,  or  what  to  refuse ;  and  when  the  counsels  of  a 
great  country  give  way  in  a  single  instance,  when  they  are  once 
inclined  to  submission,  every  step  accelerates  the  rapidity  of  their 
descent !" 

We  are  not  therefore,  according  to  the  present  fashion,  to  fall 
to  calculating,  and  to  ask  ourselves,  what  is  the  value  at  market 
of  such  and  such  an  object,  and  how  much  it  will  cost  us  to 
obtain  it    If  these  objects  alone  were  at  stake,  I  should  admit  the 


48  PEACE  OF  AMIENS. 

principle  in  its  full  force ;  and  should  be  among  the  first  to  declare, 
that  no  object  of  mere  pecuniary  value  could  ever  be  worth  ob- 
taining at  the  price  of  a  War:  but  when  particular  points  of 
honour  are  at  stake,  as  at  Nootka  or  the  Falkland  Islands,  (with- 
out inquiring,  whether  in  those  cases  the  point  of  honour  was 
either  well  chosen,  or  rightly  estimated ;)  and  still  more,  where 
general  impression,  W'here  universal  estimation,  where  the  concep- 
tion to  be  formed  of  the  feelings,  temper,  power,  policy,  and  views 
of  a  great  nation  are  in  question,  there  to  talk  of  calculating  the 
loss  or  profit  of  possessions  to  which  these  considerations  may  be 
attached,  by  their  price  at  market,  or  the  value  of  their  fee-simple, 
is  Hke  the  idea  of  Dr.  Swift,  when  he  is  comparing  the  grants  to 
the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  with  the  rewards  of  a  Roman  con- 
queror, and  estimates  the  crown  of  laurel  at  two-pence. 

The  first  question  for  a  great  country  to  ask  itself, — the  first  in 
point  of  order,  and  the  first  in  consequence, — is  this :  Is  the  part 
which  I  am  about  to  act  consonant  to  that  high  estimation  which 
1  have  hitherto  maintained  among  the  nations  of  the  world  1  Will 
my  reputation  sufl^er  ? — whether  that  reputation  relate  to  the  sup- 
posed extent  of  its  means,  to  the  vigour  and  wisdom  of  its  councils, 
or  to  the  uprightness  of  its  intentions.  If,  in  any  of  these  ways, 
the  country  is  to  sustain  a  loss  of  character;  if  the  eflfect  of  what 
is  proposed  be  to  render  it  less  respected,  less  looked  up  to,  less 
trusted,  less  feared;  if  its  firmness  in  times  of  trial,  its  fidelity  to 
its  engagements,  its  steady  adherence  to  its  purposes  through  all 
fortunes,  are  to  be  called  in  question ;  it  must  be  a  strong  neces- 
sity indeed,  stronger  than  any  which  I  believe  to  exist  in  the" 
f)resent  instance,  that  ought  to  induce  it  even  to  listen  to  counsels 
iable  to  be  attended  with  any  of  these  consequences.  It  must  be 
a  weighty  danger,  that,  in  the  scales  of  a  great  country,  can  be 
allowed  to  balance  the  loss  of  any  part  of  its  dignity.  What  then 
shall  we  say  of  a  country,  w^hich,  abandoning  from  the  outset 
every  consideration  of  this  sort,  will  not  wait  till  it  becomes  in- 
secure by  ceasing  to  be  respectable,  but  becomes  unrespectable 
by  ceasing  to  be  secure  ?  Which  drops  at  once  at  the  feet  of  its 
rival  ?  Which  begins  by  a  complete  surrender  of  its  security ; 
and  suffers  fame,  character,  dignity,  and  every  thing  else,  to  go 
along  with  it  ? 

Whether  such  is  the  situation  of  this  country,  we  shall  judge 
better  by  taking  a  short  view  of  the  terms  of  the  proposed  Peace. 
The  description  of  these  is  simple  and  easy: — France  gives 
nothing,  and,  excepting  Trinidad  and  Ceylon,  England  gives 
every  thing.  If  it  were  of  any  consequence  to  state  what  in 
diplomatic  language  was  the  basis  of  this  treaty,  we  must  say, 
that  it  had  no  one  basis ;  but  that  it  was  the  status  quo,  on  the 
part  of  England,  with  the  two  exceptions  in  its  favour,  of  Ceylon 


PEACE  OF  AMIENS.  49 

and  Trinidad ;  and  the  uti  possidetis,  with  the  addition  of  all  the 
other  English  conquests,  on  the  part  of  France.  But  what  may- 
be the  technical  description  of  the  treaty,  is,  comparatively,  of 
little  importance.  It  is  the  result  that  is  material,  and  the  extent 
of  power  and  territory,  now,  by  whatever  means,  atitually  remain- 
ing in  the  hands  of  France.  The  enumeration  of  this,  liable  indeed 
in  part  to  be  disputed,  but  upon  the  whole  sufficiently  correct,  may 
be  made  as  follows : 

In  Europe, — Fjrance  possesses  the  whole  of  the  Continent,  with 
the  exception  of  Russia  and  Austria.  If  it  be  said,  that  parts  of 
Germany,  and  the  Northern  courts  of  Denmark  and  Sweden,  are 
not  fairly  described  as  being  immediately  under  the  control  of 
France,  we  must  balance  this  consideration  by  remarking,  the 
influence  which  France  possesses  in  these  governments,  and  the 
commanding  position  which  she  occupies  with  respect  to  Austria, 
by  the  possession  of  Switzerland  and  Mantua,  and  those  countries 
which  have  been  considered  always,  and  twice  in  the  course  of 
the  present  War,  have  proved  to  be,  the  direct  inlet  into  the  heart 
of  her  dominions. 

In  Asia, — Pondichery,  Mahe,  Cochin,  Negapatam,  the  Spice 
Islands. 

In  Africa, — the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Goree,  Senegal. 

In  the  sea  that  is  enclosed  by  these  three  continents,  which 
connects  them  all,  and  furnishes  to  us,  in  many  respects,  our  best 
and  surest  communication  with  them, — the  Mediterranean, — every 
port  and  post  except  Gibraltar,  from  one  end  of  it  to  the  other, 
including  the  impregnable  and  invaluable  port  of  Malta ;  so  as  to 
exclude  us  from  a  sea,  which  it  had  ever  before  been  the  anxious 
jjolicy  of  Great  Britain  to  keep  in  her  hands, — and  to  render  it 
now,  truly  and  properly,  what  it  was  once  idly  called,  the  Sea  of 
France. 

In  the  West-Indies, — St.  Domingo,  both  the  French  and  Span- 
ish parts,  Martinico,  St.  Lucie,  Guadaloupe,  Tobago,  Curacoa. 

In  North  America, — St.  Pierre  and  Miquelon,  with  a  right 
to  the  fisheries  in  the  fullest  extent  to  which  they  were  ever 
claimed ;  Louisiana,  (so  it  is  supposed,)  a  word  dreadful  to  be 
pronounced,  to  all  who  consider  the  consequences  with  which 
that  cession  is  pregnant,  whether  as  it  acts  northward,  by  its 
effects  upon  the  United  States,  or  southward,  as  opening  a  direct 
passage  into  the  Spanish  settlements  in  America, 

In  South  America, — Surinam,  Demerara,  Berbice,  Essequibo, 
taken  by  us  and  now  ceded ; — Guiana,  and  by  the  effect  of  the 
Treaty,  fraudulently  signed  by  France  ^'ith  Portugal,  just  before 
the  signature  of  these  Preliminaries,  a  tract  of  country  extending 
to  the  river  Amazon,  and  giving  to  France  the  command  of  the 
entrance  into  that  river.  Whether,  by  any  secret  article,  the  evils 
5  G 


50  PEACE    OF   AMIENS. 

of  this  cession  will  prove  to  have  been  done  away,  time  will  dis- 
cover. In  fact,  (be  that  as  it  may,)  France  may  be  said  to 
possess  the  whole  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  settlements 
upon  that  Continent.  For  who  shall  say,  that  she  has  not  the 
command  of  those  settlements,  when  she  has  the  command  of  the 
countries  to  which  they  belong  ; — cum  custodit  ipsos  custodes  ? 
She  has,  in  truth,  whatever  part  of  the  Contment  of  South  America 
she  chooses  to  occupy ;  and  as  far  as  relates  to  the  Spanish  part, 
without  even  the  necessity,  a  necessity  that  probably  would  not 
cost  her  much,  of  infringing  any  part  of  the  present  treaty. 

Such  is  the  grand  and  comprehensive  circle  to  which  the  New 
Roman  Empire  may  be  soon  expected  to  spread,  now  that  Peace 
has  removed  all  obstacles,  and  opened  to  her  a  safe  and  easy 
passage  into  the  three  remaining  quarters  of  the  globe.  Such  is 
the  power  which  we  are  required  to  contemplate  without  dismay ! 
under  the  shade  of  whose  greatness  we  are  invited  to  lie  down 
with  perfect  tranquillity  and  composure  !  I  should  be  glad  to  know 
what  our  ancestors  would  have  thought  and  felt  in  this  situation ! 
what  those  weak  and  deluded  men,  so  inferior  to  the  pohticians 
of  the  present  day,  the  Marlboroughs,  the  Godolphins,  the 
Somerses,  the  King  Williams,  all  those  who  viewed  with  such 
apprehension  the  power  of  Louis  XIV. ;  what  they  w^ould  say  to 
a  Peace,  which  not  only  confirms  to  France  the  possession  of 
nearly  the  whole  of  Europe,  but  extends  her  empire  over  every 
other  part  of  the  globe.  Is  there  a  man  of  them,  who  would  not 
turn  in  his  coffin,  could  he  be  sensible  to  a  twentieth  part  of  that 
which  is  passing,  as  perfect  matter  of  course,  in  the  politics  of 
the  present  moment  ? 

But  to  all  these  mighty  dangers  we  have,  it  seems,  one  great 
security  to  oppose ;  not  that  degrading  and  bastard  security  to 
which  I  have  before  adverted,  and  to  which,  I  fear,  I  must  again 
recur, — that  France  is  lassata  if  not  satiata;  that  having  run 
down  her  prey,  she  will  be  content  to  spare  it,  and  be  willing  for 
awhile  to  leave  us  unmolested ; — but  a  rational,  sober,  well-found- 
ed security,  applicable  to  the  supposition  that  she  may  not  be 
wanting  in  the  will  to  hurt  us,  but  will  happily  not  possess  the 
power.  This  great  security,  we  are  told,  is  our  wealth.  We 
are,  it  seems,  so  immensely  rich,  our  prosperity  stands  on  so  sure 
and  wide  a  basis,  we  have  such  a  pyramid  of  gold,  so  beautifully 
constructed,  and  so  firmly  put  together,  that  we  may  safely  let  in 
all  the  world  to  do  their  worst  against  it ;  they  can  never  over- 
turn it,  and  might  spend  ages  in  endeavouring  to  take  it  to  piec^. 
We  seem  to  consider  our  commercial  prosperity,  like  those 
articles  of  property,  timber,  marble,  and  others  of  that  sort,  which, 
however  valuable,  may  be  safely  left  unguarded,  being  too 
weighty  and  bulky  to  be  carried  away. 


PEACE    OF    AMIENS.  51 

Sir,  the  first  circumstance  that  strikes  one  in  this  statement,  is, 
that  odd  inconsistency,  by  which  a  country  that  makes  Peace  on 
account  of  its  poverty,  is  to  rest  its  whole  hope  of  security  in 
that  Peace,  upon  its  wealth.  If  our  wealth  will  protect  us,  it  is 
a  great  pity  that  this  discovery  was  not  made  long  ago;  it  would 
have  sav;ed  us  many  years  of  painful  struggle ;  have  kept  in  our 
hands  a  great  additional  portion  of  these  very  means  of  protec- 
tion ;  and  have  lessened  considerably  the  dangers  against  which 
such  protection  is  wanted.  But  wealth,  I  fear,  abstracted  from 
certain  means  of  using  it,  carries  with  it  no  powers  of  protection, 
either  for  itself  or  others.  Riches  are  strength,  in  the  same  manner 
only  as  they  are  food.  They  may  be  the  means  of  procuring 
both.  But  we  shall  fall  into  as  great  a  folly,  as  in  the  fable  of 
Midas,  if  we  suppose  that  when  we  have  laid  down  our  arms, 
and  surrendered  our  fortresses,  our  wealth,  alone,  can  afford  us 
any  protection.  I  cannot,  therefore,  for  my  own  part,  understand 
what  is  meant  by  this,  unless  it  be,  that  by  superiority  of  capital, 
and  priority  of  market,  of  which  I  allow  the  effects  to  be 
immense,  we  might,  if  things  were  left  to  themselves,  in  a 
fair  competition,  in  a  fair  race,  still  keep  ahead  of  our  competi- 
tors, in  spite  of  all  the  multiplied  advantages  which  France  will 
now  possess.  This  might  be  so ;  though  it  is  by  no  means 
clear  that  it  would.  But  the  competition  will  not  be  left  to  its 
natural  course.  This  game  will  not  be  fairly  played.  Buonaparte 
is  a  player,  who,  if  the  game  is  going  against  him,  will  be  apt  to 
pick  a  quarrel,  and  ask  us  if  we  can  draw  our  swords. — And 
here,  perhaps,  it  is  time  to  remark  the  singular  fallacy,  which  has 
run  through  all  the  reasonings  of  Gentlemen  on  the  other  side ; 
that,  namely,  of  supposing  that  in  discussing  the  present  question, 
the  Peace,  such  as  it  is,  is  the  state  which  is  to  be  contrasted  with 
the  continuance  of  the  War; — they  forget,  or  choose  that  we 
should  forget,  that  this  Peace  may,  at  any  moment,  at  the  mere 
pleasure  of  the  enemy,  be  converted  into  a  new  War ;  differing 
only  from  the  other,  by  the  ground  which  we  in  the  meanwhile 
shall  have  lost,  and  the  numerous  advantages  which  the  enemy 
will  have  acquired.  There  is  not  the  least  reason  why  this  Treaty, 
if  the  enemy  should  so  please,  should  be  any  thing  more  than  a 
mere  piece  of  legerdemain,  by»which  they  shall  have  got  posses- 
sion of  Malta,  have  established  themselves  in  all  their  new  colonies, 
have  perhaps  re-entered  Egypt,  have  received  back  twenty  or  thirty 
thousand  seamen,  and  have  otherwise  put  themselves  into  a  situa- 
tion to  recommence  the  War,  with  new  and  decisive  advantages. 
If  they  do  not  immediately  take  this  course,  it  will  be,  simply,  be- 
cause they  will  hope  to  succeed  as  well  without  it ;  or,  because  they 
choose  to  defer  it  till  a  more  convenient  opportunity :  the  means 
will,  at  every  moment,  be  in  their  power. 


52  PEACE  OF  AMIENS. 

Two  suppositions  are,  therefore,  always  to  be  made,  and  two 
comparisons  to  be  instituted,  when  we  talk  of  the  merits  of  this 
Peace:  1st.  That  the  enemy  will  choose  to  adhere  to  it,  or,  2dly, 
that  they  will  break  it :  and  the  two  comparisons  to  be  formed  in 
consequence  are,  1st,  The  comparison  between  a  continuation  of 
the  War  and  a  state  of  Peace,  such  as  Peace  will  be  i^j^der  the 
present  Treaty ;  and  2dly,  a  comparison  of  the  War,  so  continued, 
with  such  a  War  as  France  may  revive  at  any  moment  after  the 
present  Treaty  shall  have  taken  effect. 

What  the  condition  and  feelings  of  the  country  would  be,  in 
this  latter  case,  namely  that  of  a  renewed  War,  I  need  hardly 
point  out.  The  dread  in  fact  of  what  they  would  be,  will  operate 
so  strongly,  that  the  case  will  never  happen.  The  country  will 
never  bear  to  put  itself  in  a  situation,  in  which  the  sense  of  its 
own  folly  will  press  upon  it  in  a  way  so  impossible  to  be  endured. 
At  all  events,  with  its  present  feelings  and  opinions,  the  country 
never  can  go  to  war  again,  let  France  do  what  she  will :  for,  if 
we  are  of  opinion,  that  War,  continued  at  present,  must  be  ruin 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  what  do  we  suppose  it  must  be,  when, 
to  replace  us  where  we  jiow  are,  we  must  begin  by  the  recovery 
of  that  list  of  places,  which  the  present  treaty  has  given  up  ? 
France,  therefore,  will  be  under  no  necessity  of  going  to  War 
with  us;  and  nothing  but  her  own  intemperance  and  insolence, 
and  an  opinion  of  our  endurance  and  weakness,  beyond  even  what 
they  may  be  found  to  deserve,  can  force  upon  us  that  extremity. 
She  has  much  surer  and  safer  means  of  going  to  work,  means,  at 
the  same  time,  sufficiently  quick  in  their  operation  to  satisfy  any 
ordinary  ambition : — she  has  nothing  to  do  but  to  trust  to  the  pro- 
gress of  her  own  power  in  Peace,  quickened,  as  often  as  she  shall 
see  occasion,  by  a  smart  threat  of  War.  I  cannot  conceive  the 
object,  which  a  judicious  application  of  these  two  means  is  not 
calculated  to  obtain.  A  Peace,  such  as  France  has  now  made, 
mixed  with  proper  proportions  of  a  seasonable  menace  of  war, 
is  a  specific,  for  the  undoing  of  a  rival  country,  which  seems  to 
me  impossible  to  fail. — Let  us  try  it  in  detail. — Suppose  France, 
by  an  arrangement  with  that  independent  power,  Spain,  similar 
to  the  arrangement  which,  in  violation  of  the  treaty  of  Utrecht, 
produced  the  surrender  of  Louisiana  and  of  the  Spanish  half  of 
St.  Domingo,  should  obtain  the  cession  (which  would  be  in  viola- 
tion of  no  treaty)  of  all  the  Spanish  settlements  in  America: 
would  you  consider  that  as  an  occasion  of  war  1  Suppose  Por- 
tugal, the  integrity  of  whose  possessions  is  in  some  sense  or  other 
guarantied  to  her,  but  who  is  not  prevented,  I  presume,  by  that 
guarantee  from  parting  with  any  of  them  that  she  pleases,  should 
choose,  in  kindness  to  France,  to  make  over  to  her  any  of  those 
settlements  which  she,  Portugal,  still  retains, — would  that,  again. 


PEACE  OF  AMIENS.  53 

be  a  cause  of  war  ?  By  these  two  ways,  without  the  infraction 
of  any  Treaty,  which  by  any  act  could  be  construed  to  be  an 
aggression,  much  less  which  we  should  be  inclined  to  treat  as 
such,  might  France  render  herself  completely  mistress  of  the 
Continent  of  South  America.  Is  there  any  commercial  claim, 
then,  that  France  could  set  up,  any  commercial  regulation  which 
she  could  introduce,  either  in  her  own  name,  or  that  of  her  allies, 
of  a  nature  the  most  injurious  and  fatal  to  our  commerce,  which 
we  should  make  a  case  of  resistance,  and  think  of  magnitude 
enough  to  involve  the  nation  in  another  war? — The  augmentation 
of  her  marine,  to  which  professedly  she  means  to  direct  all  her 
efforts,  and  the  increase  of  her  establishments  to  any  amount  that 
she  pleases ;  these  are  objects  which  it  would  be  perfectly  ridicu- 
lous to  talk  of,  or  to  suppose  that  we  should  make  the  subject  even 
of  the  most  friendly  remonstrance.  Indeed,  according  to  the 
modern  doctrines  of  not  interfering  in  the  internal  concerns  of 
another  country,  I  do  not  understand  upon  what  pretence  the 
armament  of  a  state  can  ever  become  a  subject  of  representation, 
since  nothing  surely  is  so  completely  an  internal  concern,  as  what 
any  nation  does  with  its  own  military  or  naval  forces,  upon  its 
own  soil,  or  in  its  own  harbours.  iBut  setting  aside  these  smaller 
objects,  suppose  France  was  to  re-invade  Egypt ;  was,  without 
waiting  even  for  the  form  of  a  surrender  from  the  Order,  to  take 
forcible  possession  of  Malta;  was  to  land  a  body  of  troops  in 
Greece,  and  either  in  that  way,  or  by  succours  to  Paswan  Oglow, 
was  to  overset  the  government  of  the  Porte ; — would  you  be  able, 
on  any  of  these  occasions,  to  satisfy  those  by  whose  opinions  it  is 
now  the  fashion  to  guide  the  counsels  of  states,  that  an  interest 
existed  sufficiently  strong  to  call  for  the  interference  of  this  coun- 
try, to  prevent  the  mischief,  much  less  to  redress  and  vindicate  it 
when  done  ?  Why,  Sir,  we  know  that  in  the  present  state  of 
opinions  and  feelings,  and  upon  the  principles  on  which  the 
present  Peace  has  been  made,  not  only  no  one,  but  hardly  all  of 
these  put  together,  would  drag  the  country  into  a  renewal  of  hos- 
tilities, though,  as  is  evident,  its  very  existence  might  depend 
upon  it  The  consequence  is,  that  France  is  our  mistress ;  that 
there  is  nothing  she  can  ask,  which  she  must  not  have ;  (she  has 
only  to  threaten  war,  and  her  work  is  done ;) — that  all  the  objects 
of  interest  and  ambition  which  France  can  have  in  view,  lie  open 
before  her,  to  be  taken  possession  of  whenever  she  pleases,  and 
without  a  struggle :  her  establishments  will  accumulate  round  us, 
till  w^e  shall  be  lost  and  buried  in  them ;  her  power  will  grow  over 
us,  till,  like  the  figures  in  some  of  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  we  shall 
find  all  our  faculties  of  life  and  motion  gradually  failing  and  de- 
serting us. 


54  PEACE  OF  AMIENS. 

Torpor  gravis  alligat  artus  ; 

Mollia  cinguntur  lenui  prsecordia  libro. 

If,  in  this  last  extremity,  we  should  make  any  desperate  efforts 
and  plunges,  that  might  threaten  to  become  troublesome,  and  give 
us  a  chance  of  extricating  ourselves,  she  will  call  in  the  aid  of 
her  arms,  and  with  one  blow  put  an  end  at  once  to  our  sufferings, 
and  our  existence. 

Sir,  are  these  idle  dreams,  the  phantoms  of  my  own  disordered 
imagination  ?  or  are  they  real  and  serious  dangers,  the  existence 
of  which  no  man  of  common  sense,  let  his  opinions  of  the  Peace 
be  what  they  may,  will  attempt  to  deny  ?  The  utmost  that  any 
man  will  pretend  to  say,  is,  that  he  hopes,  (and  so  do  I,)  that  the 
evils  apprehended  will  not  happen ;  and  that,  great  as  the  risk 
may  be,  he  thinks  it  preferable  to  those  risks,  which  would  attend 
a  continuation  of  the  War.  None  but  the  most  weak  or  incon- 
siderate, if  they  are  not  disaffected,  or  absorbed  and  lost  in  the 
sense  of  some  immediate  personal  interest,  will  feel,  when  they 
shall  well  understand  the  subject,  that  there  is  any  cause  of  joy 
or  rejoicing. 

Here  it  is  then,  that  I  must  advert  again  to  that  topic  of  conso- 
lation, (miserable  indeed  must  our  state  be,  when  such  are  our 
topics  of  consolation,)  to  which,  in  order  to  make  out  a  case  not 
perfectly  hopeless,  we  are  willing  to  have  recourse,  and  which, 
more  I  believe  than  any  reliance  upon  our  wealth,  does  really 
support  us,  in  the  situation  to  which  we  are  reduced.  This  is  the 
idea,  that  from  some  cause  or  other,  from  some  combination  of 
passions  and  events, — such  as  no  philosophy  can  explain,  and  no 
history  probably  furnish  an  example  of, — the  progress  of  the 
Revolution  will  stop  where  it  is ;  and  that  Buonaparte,  like  another 
Pyrrhus, — or  rather  like  that  adviser  of  Pyrrhus,  whose  advice 
was  710^  taken, — instead  of  proceeding  to  the  conquest  of  new 
worlds,  will  be  willing  to  sit  down  contented  in  the  enjoyment  of 
those  which  he  has  already. 

Sir,  the  great  objection  to  this  hope,  to  say  nothing  of  its  base- 
ness, is  its  utter  extravagance.  On  what  possible  ground  do  we 
believe  this  1  Is  it  in  the  general  nature  of  ambition  ?  Is  it  in  the 
"nature  of  French  ambition  ?  Is  it  in  the  nature  of  French  revo- 
lutionary ambition  ?  Does  it  happen  commonly  to  those,  whether 
nations  or  individuals,  who  are  seized  with  the  spirit  of  aggran- 
dizement and  acquisition,  that  they  are  inclined  rather  to  count 
what  they  possess,  than  to  look  forward  to  what  yet  remains  to 
be  acquired  ?  If  we  examine  the  French  Revolution,  and  trace 
it  correctly  to  its  causes,  we  shall  find  that  the  scheme  of  universal 
empire  was,  from  the  beginning,  that  which  was  looked  to  as  the 
real  consummation  of  its  labours ;  the  object  first  in  view,  though 


PEACE  OF  AMIENS.  55 

last  to  be  accomplished ;  the  primum  mobile  that  originally  set  it 
in  motion,  and  has  since  guided  and  governed  all  its  movements. 

The  authors  of  the  Revolution  wished  to  destroy  morality  and 
religion.  They  wished  those  things  as  ends:  but  they  wished 
them  also,  as  means,  in  a  higher  and  more  extensive  design.  They 
wished  for  a  double  empire;  an  empire  of  opinion  and  an  empire 
of  political  power :  and  they  used  the  one  of  these,  as  a  means 
of  effecting  the  other.  What  reason  have  we  to  suppose,  that 
they  have  renounced  those  designs,  just  when  they  seem  to  touch 
the  moment  of  their  highest  and  fullest  accomplishment  ?  When 
there  is  but  one  country,  that  remains  between  France  and  the 
empire  of  the  world,  then  is  the  moment,  when  we  choose  to  sup- 
pose that  all  opposition  may  be  withdrawn,  and  that  the  ambition 
of  France  will  stop  of  its  own  accord. — It  is  impossible  not  to 
see  in  these  feeble  and  sickly  imaginations,  that  fatal  temper  of 
mind,  which  leads  men  to  look  for  help  and  comfort  from  any 
source  rather  than  from  their  own  exertions.  We  are  become  of 
a  sudden  great  hopers.  We  hope  the  French  will  have  no  incli- 
nation to  hurt  us ; — we  hope,  now  Peace  is  come,  and  the  pressure 
of  War,  as  it  is  called,  taken  off,  that  the  French  Empire  will 
become  a  prey  to  dissensions,  and  finally  fall  to  pieces ; — we  hope, 
that  the  danger  to  have  been  apprehended  from  the  example  of 
the  Revolution,  is  now  worn  out ;  and  that  Buonaparte,  being  now 
monarch  himself,  will  join  with  us  in  the  support  of  monarchical 
principles,  and  become  a  sort  of  collateral  security  for  the  British 
constitution.  One  has  heard,  to  be  sure,  that  magni  animi  est 
sperare  ;  but  the  maxim,  to  have  any  truth  in  it,  must  be  confined, 
I  apprehend,  to  those  hopes  which  are  to  be  prosecuted  through 
the  medium  of  men's  own  exertions,  and  not  be  extended  to  those, 
which  are  to  be  independent  of  their  exertions,  or  rather,  as  in  the 
present  instance,  are  meant  to  stand  in  lieu  of  them. 

Of  this  description  are  all  those  expectations  which  I  have  just 
enumerated ;  one  of  which  is,  that  the  French  will  fall  into  dis- 
sensions.— Why,  Sir,  they  have  had  nothing  else  but  dissensions 
from  the  beginning.  But  of  wh^t  avail  have  such  dissensions 
been  to  the  safety  of  other  countries  ?  One  of  their  first  dissen- 
sions was  a  war  of  three  years,  called  the  war  of  La  Vendue ;  in 
which,  according  to  some  of  their  calculations,  the  Republic  lost, 
between  the  two  sides,  to  the  number  of  600,000  souls.  This 
was  surely  pretty  well,  in  the  way  of  dissension.  Yet  when 
did  this  interrupt  for  a  moment,  even  if  it  might  in  some  degree 
have  relaxed,  the  operations  of  their  armies  on  the  frontiers,  and 
the  prosecution  of  their  plans  for  the  overthrow  of  other  countries  ? 
As  for  changes  of  government,  they  have  been  in  a  continued 
course  of  them.  Since  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  the 
government  has  been  overturned  at  least  half  a  dozen  times.  They 


56  PEACE  OF  AMIENS. 

have  turned  over  in  the  air,  as  in  sport,  like  tumbler-pigeons ; — 
but  have  they  ever  in  consequence  ceased  their  flight?  The  internal 
state  of  the  country  has  been  in  the  most  violent  commotion.  The 
ship  has  been  in  mutiny ; — there  has  been  fighting  in  the  waist 
and  on  the  forecastle ; — but  in  the  midst  of  the  confusion  some- 
body has  always  been  found  to  tend  the  helm,  and  to  trim  the 
sails ;  the  vessel  has  held  her  course. — For  one,  therefore,  I  have 
no  great  confidence  in  the  effect  of  these  internal  commotions ; 
w^hich  every  day  become  less  and  less  likely,  in  proportion  as  the 
power  of  the  present  government  becomes  more  confirmed,  and 
as  the  people  of  France  become  more  and  more  bound  together 
by  the  common  feeling  of  national  glory,  and  by  the  desire  of 
consolidating  the  empire  which  they  have  seen  established.  Such 
commotions  may  undoubtedly  happen,  and  may  of  a  sudden, 
when  it  is  least  expected,  bring  about  some  change  that  is 
favourable  to  the  world.  But  it  is  curious  to  hear  these  chances 
gravely  brought  forward,  as  the  best  foundation  of  our  hopes, 
and  by  those  too,  who  a  few  weeks  ago,  while  the  war  continued, 
would  never  hear  of  them,  as  entering,  at  all,  into  calculation. 
It  seems,  that  the  chapter  of  accidents,  as  it  is  called,  which  could 
do  nothing  for  us  in  War,  may  do  every  thing  for  us  in  time  of 
Peace.  Whereas  I  should  have  thought  just  the  contrary ;  that 
chances,  such  as  are  here  intended,  were  not  only  more  likely  to 
happen  in  war,  but,  what  is  a  little  material,  might  then  be  better 
improved  and  turned  to  account.  While  War  subsists,  while 
armies  are  ready  to  act,  while  confederacies  are  in  force,  while 
intelligences  are  going  on,  while  assistance  may  be  lawfully  and 
avowedly  given,  every  chance  of  this  sort  may,  if  properly  im- 
proved, le^d  to  consequences  the  most  decisive.  In  Peace,  all 
that  fortune  can  do  for  us,  falls  dead  and  still-born.  Nobody  is 
ready,  nobody  is  authorized  to  move  a  step,  or  stretch  forth  a 
hand,  to  rear  and  foster  those  chances,  however  promising,  which 
time  and  accident  may  bring  forth.  It  is  not  an  answer  to  say, 
that  such  never  have  been  improved.  In  regulating  plans  of  future 
conduct,  we  must  consider  not  what  men  have  done,  but  what 
they  may  and  ought  to  do.  The  only  rational  idea  that  I  could 
ever  form  of  resistance  to  that  power,  which  unresisted  must  sub- 
due the  world,  was,  that  it  must  be  the  joint  effect  of  an  internal 
and  an  external  war,  directed  to  the  same  end,  and  mutually  aid- 
ing and  supporting  each  other.  All  the  powers  of  Europe  could 
not  subdue  France,  if  France  was  united ;  or  force  upon  it  a 
government,  even  were  such  an  attempt  warrantable,  really  in 
opposition  to  the  wishes  of  the  people.  On  the  other  hand,  no 
internal  efforts,  unassisted  by  force  from  without,  seemed  capable 
of  rescuing  the  country  from  the  yoke  imposed  upon  it,  so  long 
as  the  several  factions  that  governed  in  succession,  could  find 


PEACE  OF  AMIENS.  57 

means  of  securing  to  themselves  the  support  of  the  armies.  We 
are  now  required  to  beheve,  that  what  has  hitherto  failed  to  be 
performed  by  both  these  powers  together,  is  to  be  effected  by  one 
alone:  and  that  with  respect  to  any  hope  of  a  change  of  govern- 
ment in  France,  the  War  that  has  been  carrying  on  for  nine  years 
has  proved  only  an  impediment ! — Sucli  is  the  state  of  our  hopes 
and  opinions  on  that  side. 

But  we  have  another  hope,  founded  on  rather  a  contrary  sup- 
position, namely,  that  Buonaparte,  now  that  he  is  a  King  himself — 
and  a  King  he  is  so  far  as  power  can  make  one, — will  no  longer 
be  an  encourager  of  those  absurd  and  mischievous  doctrines, 
which,  however  they  may  have  helped  him  to  the  throne,  will  be 
as  little  pleasing  to  him,  now  that  he  is  fairly  seated  there,  as  to 
any  the  most  legitimate  Monarch.  Sir,  I  agree,  that  Buonaparte, 
like  other  demagogues  and  friends  of  the  people,  having  deluded 
and  gulled  the  people  sufficiently  to  make  them  answer  his  pur- 
pose, will  be  ready  enough  to  teach  them  a  different  lesson,  and 
to  forbid  the  use  of  that  language  towards  himself,  which  he  had 
before  instructed  them  in,  as  perfectly  proper  towards  others. 
Never  was  there  any  one,  to  be  sure,  who  used  less  management 
in  that  respect,  or  who  left  all  the  admirers  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution, within  and  without, — all  the  admirers  of  it,  I  mean,  as  a 
system  of  liberty, — in  a  more  whimsical  and  laughable  situation. 
Every  opinion  for  which  they  have  been  contending,  is  now  com- 
pletely trodden  down,  and  trampled  upon,  or  held  out  in  France 
to  the  greatest  possible  contempt  and  derision.  The  Honourable 
Gentlemen  on  the  Opposition  Benches  have  really  great  reason  to 
complain  of  having  been  so  completely  left  in  the  lurch.  There 
is  not  even  a  decent  retreat  provided  for  them. 

But  though  such  is  the  treatment,  which  the  principles  of  "  the 
Rights  of  Man,"  and  of  the  "  Holy  Duty  of  Insurrection,"  meet 
with  in  France,  and  on  the  part  of  him  who  should  be  their 
natural  protector,  it  is  by  no  means  the  same,  with  respect  to  the 
encouragement  which  he  may  choose  to  give  them  in  other  coun- 
tries. Though  they  use  none  of  these  goods  in  France  for  home- 
consumption,  they  have  always  a  large  assortment  by  them  ready 
for  foreign  markets.  Their  Jacobin  Orators  are  not  to  be  looked 
for  in  the  clubs  at  Paris,  but  in  the  clubs  of  London.  There,  they 
may  talk  of  cashiering  Kings,  with  other  language  of  that  sort: 
but  should  any  orator  more  flippant  than  the  rest  choose  to  hold 
forth  in  that  strain,  in  the  city  where  the  Great  Consul  resides,  in 
the  metropolis  of  liberty,  he  would  soon  put  him  to  silence,  in  the 
way  that  we  see  adopted  in  the  sign  of  the  Silent  Woman. 
Buonaparte,  being  invested,  in  virtue  of  the  Rights  of  Man,  with 
despotic  power,  can  afford  to  sanction  the  preaching  of  those 
doctrines  in  other  countries,  of  which  he  will  not  suffer  the  least 

H 


58  PEACE    OF   AMIENS. 

whisper  in  his  own.  While  he  is  at  the  head  of  an  absolute 
monarchy  in  France,  he  may  be  the  promoter  and  champion  of 
Jacobin  insurrections  everywhere  else.  The  abject  as  well  as 
wicked  nature  of  Jacobinism  in  this  country,  which,  while  it 
would  rebel  against  the  lawful  authority  of  its  own  government, 
is  willing  to  enslave  itself  to  France,  finds  no  difficulty  of  allowing 
to  him  these  two  opposite  characters :  and  I  know  no  reason  why 
we  should  suppose  him  disinclined  to  accept  them. 

I  must  confess,  therefore,  that  I  see  as  little  hope  for  us  on  this 
side,  as  I  do  on  the  other.  In  fact,  if  I  could  believe,  in  spite  of 
all  probabihty,  that  there  was  any  remission  of  that  purpose, 
which  has  never  yet  ceased  for  an  instant, — the  purpose  of 
destroying  this  country, — such  belief,  however  produced,  must  be 
instantly  done  away  by  a  view  of  the  conduct  of  France,  in  the 
settlement  of  this  very  treaty.  There  is  not  a  line  of  it,  that  does 
not  either  directly  point  to  the  destruction  of  this  country,  or,  by 
a  course  a  little  circuitous,  but  not  less  certain,  equally  tend  to  the 
same  object.  What  can  France  want  with  any  of  the  possessions 
which  she  has  compelled  us  to  surrender,  but  with  a  view  of 
rivalling  our  power,  or  of  subverting  it,  or  of  remo\ang  out  of  our 
hands  the  means  of  controlling  her  further  projects  of  ambition? 
— Of  the  first  sort  are  all  her  stipulations  for  settlements  in  South 
America  and  the  West-Indies :  of  the  second,  her  demand  of  the 
Cape  and  Cochin;  and  of  the  last,  that  most  marked  and  dis- 
graceful condition  on  our  part,  the  surrender  of  Malta.  What 
upon  earth  could  France  have  to  do  with  Malta,  but  either  as  a 
means  of  humbling  us  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  world,  by  the  surren- 
der of  it,  or  of  depriving  us  of  a  port  in  the  Mediterranean  that 
might  stand  in  the  way  of  designs  which  she  is  meditating  against 
the  countries  bordering  upon  that  sea  ?  The  miserable  pretexts 
which  are  formed  to  palliate  this  surrender,  and  the  attempt  to 
cover  it,  in  part,  by  the  show  of  delivering  that  fortress  to  the 
Order,  though  much  the  greater  part  of  the  Order  are  now  living 
in  the  dominions  of  Buonaparte,  and  many  of  them  actually 
serving  in  his  armies,  are  wholly  insufficient,  either  to  conceal  our 
shame,  or  to  disguise  the  purpose  of  the  French  in  making  this 
demand.  But  the  circumstances  of  the  negotiation,  not  less  than 
the  treaty  resulting  from  it,  show,  in  another  way,  the  folly  of 
those  hopes,  which  are  founded  upon  the  supposed  intentions  or 
characters  of  the  persons  with  whom  it  is  made.  It  does  not 
augur  very  favourably  for  the  intentions  of  a  party  in  any  trans- 
action, that  there  appear  in  every  stage  of  it  the  clearest  proofs 
of  duplicity  and  fraud. — What  do  w^e  think  of  the  artifice,  which 
signs  a  treaty  with  us,  guarantying  the  integrity  of  Portugal ;  but 
previously  to  that,  at  a  period  so  late,  as  to  make  it  sure  that  the 
Knowledge  of  the  transaction  shall  not  reach  this  country  in  time, 


PEACE  OF  AMIENS.  59 

signs  anotlier  treaty,  totally  altering  the  nature  of  that  guarantee? 
What  shall  we  think  of  the  candour  and  fairness,  which,  in  a 
treaty  with  us,  proposes,  as  a  joint  stipulation,  the  evacuation  of 
Egypt,  at  a  time  when  the  proposers  knew,  though  we  did  not, 
that  every  soldier  of  theirs  in  Egypt  was  actually  a  prisoner  to 
our  troops  ?  Where  was  their  good  faith  to  the  Turks,  when,  in 
the  same  circumstances,  they  knowing  the  fact  and  the  Turks  not, 
they  took  credit  from  the  Turks  for  this  very  evacuation  1  Why, 
Sir,  it  is  a  fraud  upon  a  level  with  any  of  those  practised  at  a 
lottery-office.  They  insure  the  ticket,  at  the  moment  when  they 
know  it  to  be  drawn.  And  are  these  the  people,  to  whose  gene- 
rosity and  forbearance,  to  whose  good  intentions  towards  this 
country,  and  above  all,  to  whose  good  faith,  we  are  to  deliver 
over,  bound  hand  and  foot,  the  interests  of  the  British  Empire, 
to  be  destroyed  or  saved,  as  they,  in  their  good  pleasure,  shall 
think  fit? 

I  say  nothing  here  on  a  topic,  however  closely  connected  with 
the  present  subject,  the  character  of  the  First  Consul  himself — a 
character  hitherto  as  much  marked  by  frauds  of  the  most  dis- 
graceful kind,  as  by  every  other  species  of  guilt ;  but  pass  on  to 
the  question,  which  meets  us  at  every  turn,  and  seems  to  stop  the 
progress  of  all  argument,  the  great  question — "  What  are  we  to 
do  ?  The  danger  is  great,  but  how  are  we  to  avoid  it  ?  War 
cannot  be  eternal,  and  what  prospect  have  we  of  reaching  a 
period,  when  it  may  be  terminated  in  circumstances  upon  the 
whole  more  favourable  than  the  present  ?" 

Sir,  the  word,  eternal,  which  in  any  use  of  it  is  sufficiently 
awful,  will  undoubtedly  not  be  least  so,  when  associated  with  the 
idea  of  War.  But  I  must  beg  leave  to  remind  the  House  of  a 
circumstance,  of  which  they  and  the  country  seem  never  to  have 
been  at  all  aware,  that  the  question  of  eternal  War,  is  one,  which 
it  is  not  left  for  us  to  decide.  It  is  a  question  which  must  be 
asked  of  our  enemies :  and  is  not  less  proper  to  be  asked,  if  we 
could  hope  that  they  would  answer  us,  at  the  present  moment, 
than  it  was  before  the  signature  of  the  preliminaries.  The  War 
depends  neither  upon  conventions  to  be  entered  into  between  the 
two  governments,  nor  upon  acts  of  hostility  which  may  be  com- 
mitted between  the  two  peoples,  by  land  or  on  the  high  seas ;  but 
on  the  existence  or  non-existence  of  that  fixed,  rooted,  determined 
purpose,  which  France  has  hitherto  had,  and  which  we  have  no 
reason  whatever  to  think  she  has  relinquished — of  accomplishing 
the  final  overthrow  of  this  country.  While  that  purpose  exists, 
and  shall  be  acted  upon,  we  are  at  War,  call  our  state  by  what 
name  you  please :  and  the  only  question  is,  whether  France  cannot 
work  as  effectually  to  her  purpose  in  Peace ;  and  if  Peace  is  made 
in  a  certain  way,  infinitely  more  effectually  than  she  can  in  what 


eO  PEACE  OF  AMIENS. 

is  professedly  and  declaredly  War.  I  would  really  wish  to  ask, 
whether  Gentlemen  have  never  heard  of  a  people  called  the 
Romans,  a  set  of  republicans  who  conquered  the  world  in  the 
old  time ;  and  whom  the  modern  Romans  take  as  their  model  in 
every  respect ;  but  in  none  more  than  in  what  relates  to  the  over- 
throw of  this  country  ?  Among  the  nations  that  fell  under  the 
Roman  yoke,  there  were  but  few  whom  they  were  able  to  fetch 
down  at  a  blow, — to  reduce  in  the  course  of  a  single  War.  All 
their  greater  antagonists,  particularly  the  state  whose  fate  is 
chosen  as  a  prototype  of  our  own,  were  not  reduced  till  after 
repeated  attacks,  till  after  several  successive  and  alternate  pro- 
cesses of  War  and  Peace :  a  victorious  War  preparing  the  way 
for  an  advantageous  Peace ;  and  an  advantageous  Peace  again 
laying  the  foundation  of  a  successful  War.  This  was  at  least  the 
conduct  of  a  great  people ;  a  people  not  to  be  put  aside  from  their 
purposes  by  every  transient  blast  of  fortune.  They  had  vowed 
the  destruction  of  Carthage ;  and  they  never  rested  from  their 
design,  till  they  had  seen  it  finally  accomplished.  The  emulators 
of  their  fortune  in  the  present  day,  are,  in  no  less  a  degree,  the 
emulators  of  their  virtues ;  at  least,  of  those  qualities,  whatever 
they  may  be,  that  give  to  man  a  command  over  his  fellows. 
When  I  look  at  the  conduct  of  the  French  Revolutionary  rulers, 
as  compared  with  that  of  their  opponents ;  when  I  see  the  gran- 
deur of  their  designs ;  the  wisdom  of  their  plans ;  the  steadiness 
of  their  execution ;  their  boldness  in  acting ;  their  constancy  in 
enduring;  their  contempt  of  all  small  obstacles  and  temporary 
embarrassments;  their  inflexible  determination  to  perform  such 
and  such  things ;  and  the  powers  which  they  have  displayed,  in 
acting  up  to  that  determination ;  when  I  contrast  these  with  the 
narrow  views,  the  paltry  interests,  the  occasional  expedients,  the 
desultory  and  wavering  conduct,  the  want  of  all  right  feeling  and 
just  conception,  that  characterize  so  generally  the  governments 
and  nations  opposed  to  them,  I  confess  I  sink  down  in  despond- 
ency, and  am  fain  to  admit,  that  if  they  shall  have  conquered  the 
world,  it  will  be  by  qualities  by  which  they  deserve  to  conquer  it. 
Never  were  there  persons,  who  could  show  a  fairer  title  to  the 
inheritance  which  they  claim.  The  great  division  of  mankind 
made  by  a  celebrated  philosopher  of  old,  into  those  who  were 
formed  to  govern,  and  those  who  were  born  only  to  obey,  was 
never  more  strongly  exemplified  than  by  the  French  nation,  and 
those  who  have  sunk,  or  are  sinking,  under  their  yoke.  Let  us 
not  suppose,  therefore,  that  while  these  qualities,  combined  with 
these  purposes,  shall  continue  to  exist,  they  will  ever  cease,  by 
night  or  by  day,  in  Peace  or  in  War,  to  work  their  natural  effect, 
— to  gravitate  towards  their  proper  centre ;  or  that  the  bold,  the 
proud,  the  dignified,  the  determined,  those  who  mill  great  things, 


PEACE    OF    AMIENS.  61 

and  will  stake  their  existence  upon  the  accomplishment  of  what 
they  have  willed^  shall  not  finally  prevail  over  those,  who  act  upon 
the  very  opposite  feelings ;  who  will  "  never  push  their  resistance 
beyond  their  convenience;"  who  ask  for  nothing  but  ease  and 
safety ;  who  look  only  to  stave  otf  tlie  evil  for  the  present  day, 
and  will  take  no  heed  of  what  may  befall  them  on  the  morrow. 
We  are  therefore,  in  effect,  at  War  at  this  moment :  and  the  only 
question  is,  whether  the  War,  that  will  henceforward  proceed 
under  the  name  of  Peace,  is  likely  to  prove  less  operative  and 
fatal,  than  that  which  has  hitherto  appeared  in  its  natural  and 
ordinary  shape.  That  such  is  our  state,  is  confessed  by  the  authors 
themselves  of  che  present  Treaty,  in  the  measures  which  they  feel 
it  necessary  to  recommend  to  the  House.  When  did  we  ever  hear 
before  of  a  military  establishment  necessary  to  be  kept  up  in  time 
of  Peace  1  The  fact  is,  that  we  know  that  we  are  not  at  Peace ; 
not  such  as  is  fit  to  be  so  called,  nor  that  in  which  we  might  hope 
to  sit  down,  for  some  time  at  least,  in  confidence  and  security,  in 
the  free  and  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  the  blessings  which  we 
possess.  We  are  in  that  state,  in  which  the  majority,  I  believe, 
of  those  who  hear  me,  are  in  their  hearts  more  desirous  that  we 
should  be,  than,  in  our  present  prostrate  and  defenceless  situation, 
they  may  think  it  prudent  to  avow — in  a  state  of  armed  truce ; 
and  tlien  the  only  questions  will  be,  at  what  price  we  purchase 
this  truce ;  what  our  condition  will  be  while  it  lasts ;  and  in  what 
state  it  is  likely  to  leave  us,  should  it  terminate  otherwise  than  as 
we  are  willing  to  suppose. 

This  brings  us  at  once  to  the  point.  If  we  are  to  come  at  last 
only  to  an  armed  truce,  would  it  not  have  been  a  shorter  and  bet- 
ter course,  to  turn  our  War  into  an  armed  truce,  into  which,  in 
fact,  it  had  pretty  much  turned  itself,  rather  than  to  take  the 
round-about  way  which  has  been  now  adopted,  of  making  Peace 
by  the  sacrifice  of  all  the  means  of  future  War,  in  order  after- 
wards to  form  an  armed  truce  out  of  that  Peace  ?  Let  us  state 
the  account,  and  consider  the  loss  and  profit  on  either  side. 

The  evils  of  War  are,  generally  speaking,  to  be  comprised 
under  three  heads :  the  loss  of  lives  and  the  consequent  atfliction 
brought  upon  friends  and  families;  the  loss  of  money,  meaning, 
by  that,  money  expended  in  a  way  not  to  be  beneficial  to  the 
country  that  raises  it;  and  the  loss  of  money  in  another  sense, 
that  is  to  say,  money  not  got ;  by  which  I  mean  the  interruption 
given  to  national  industry,  and  the  diminution  of  the  productions 
thence  arising,  either  by  the  number  of  hands  withdrawn  from 
useful  labour,  (which  is  probably,  however,  but  little  material,)  or 
by  the  embarrassments  and  restraints  which  in  a  state  of  War 
impede  and  clog  the  operations  of  commerce.  I  do  not  mean, 
that  there  are  not  in  War,  evils  wJjich  may  be  said  not  to  be  in- 
6 


62  PEACE  OF  AMIENS. 

eluded  properly  under  any  of  the  above  heads;  among  which 
may  be  numbered,  the  distress  arising  from  sudden  changes  of 
property,  even  when  the  persons  who  lose,  and  those  who  acquire, 
are  equally  parts  of  the  same  community.  This,  however,  is  an 
evil  that  will  be  more  felt  at  the  beginning,  than  in  the  later 

{)eriods  of  a  War ;  and  will,  in  fact,  be  likewise  felt,  though  in  a 
ess  degree,  by  a  transition  even  from  War  to  Peace.  The  enume- 
ration now  made,  however,  may  be  sufficiently  correct  for  the  pre- 
sent purpose.  And,  with  this  in  our  hands,  let  us  consider,  in 
what  so  very  violent  a  degree,  the  present  armed  truce,  or  Peace, 
if  you  choose  to  call  it  so,  differs  from  w^hat  might  have  been  our 
state,  in  the  case  so  much  dreaded  and  deprecated,  of  a  continua- 
tion of  the  War. 

To  take  the  last  first, — the  loss  of  national  wealth  by  the  inter- 
ruption given  to  commerce  and  industry;  such  is  the  singular 
nature  of  this  War,  such  the  unexampled  consequences  with 
which  it  has  been  attended,  that  it  becomes  a  question,  and  one 
in  itself  of  the  most  anxious  and  critical  importance,  on  which 
side  of  the  account  the  consequences  of  Peace  in  this  respect  are 
to  be  placed  ;  whether,  instead  of  balancing  the  dangers  of  Peace, 
if  such  there  are,  by  accessions  which  it  wall  bring  to  our  wealth 
and  commerce,  we  are  not  rather  called  upon  to  prove  some 
great  advantages  which  Peace  will  give  us  in  respect  of  security, 
in  order  to  balance  the  diminution  likely  to  be  produced  by  it  in 
our  commercial  opulence.  That  our  commerce  will  suffer  at  the 
long  run,  admits,  I  fear,  of  no  doubt.  If  my  apprehensions  are 
just,  it  is  in  the  diminution  of  our  manufactures  and  commerce, 
that  the  approaches  of  our  ruin  will  first  be  felt :  but  is  any  one 
prepared  to  say  that  this  may  not  happen  in  the  first  instance  1 
We  have,  at  present,  subject  to  the  inconveniences  which  War 
produces,  nothing  less  than  the  commerce  of  the  whole  world. 
There  is  no  part  of  the  world  to  w^hich  our  goods  do  not  pass 
freely  in  our  own  ships ;  while  not  a  single  merchant-ship,  with 
the  enemy's  flag  on  board,  does,  at  this  moment,  swim  the  ocean. 
Is  this  a  state  of  things  to  be  lightly  hazarded  ?  Does  the  hope 
of  bettering  this  condition,  even  in  the  minds  of 'those  most  san- 
guine, so  much  outweigh  the  fear  of  injuring  it,  that  these  oppo- 
site chances  can,  upon  the  whole,  be  stated  otherwise  than  as 
destroying  each  other ;  and  that  of  consequence,  in  the  compari- 
son of  War  and  Peace,  the  prospect  of  increased  industry  and 
commerce,  which  in  general  tells  so  much  in  favour  of  Peace, 
must  not  here  be  struck  out  of  the  account  ?  On  this  head  the 
question  between  Peace  and  War  stands,  to  say  the  least  of  it, 
evenly  balanced. 

The  next  of  these  heads,  the  first,  indeed,  in  point  of  conse- 
quence, but  the  next  in  the  order  in  which  it  is  here  convenient  to 


PEACE  OF  AMIENS.  63 

consider  them,  is  the  loss  of  lives,  and  the  effect  which  War  is 
likely  to  have  on  private  and  individual  happiness.  No  man  can 
pretend  to  say,  that  War  can  continue  upon  any  footing,  however 
restricted  the  circle  of  hostilities,  without  the  lives  of  men  being 
liable  to  be  sacrificed ;  and  no  such  sacrifice  can  be  justified,  or 
reconciled  to  the  feelings  of  any  one  but  by  that  which  must 
justify  every  such  sacrifice,  however  great  the  extent — the  safety 
and  essential  interests  of  the  State.  But  if  ever  there  was  a 
War  in  which  such  sacrifices  seemed  likely  to  be  few,  not  as  an 
effect  of  any  choice  of  ours,  but  by  the  necessary  course  of 
events,  it  was  that  which  we  should  have  had  to  carry  on  in 
future  with  the  Republic  of  France. 

The  great  and  destructive  operations  of  War,  the  conflict  of 
fleets  or  armies,  or  the  consumption  of  men  in  unwholesome 
climates  and  distant  expeditions,  had  ceased  of  themselves. 
I  know  not  what  expeditions  w^e  should  have  had  to  prosecute, 
unless  new  cases  should  have  arisen,  similar  to  that  of  the  ever- 
memorable  one  of  Egypt ;  where,  the  same  motives  existing,  we 
should  be  sorry,  indeed,  not  to  have  the  means  of  acting  upon 
them.  But  in  general,  our  fleets  would  have  remained  quietly  at 
their  stations,  and  our  armies  have  hved  at  home:  the  whole 
question  reduces  itself  to  a  mere  question  of  expense;  and  that 
again  pretty  much  to  a  mere  question  of  establishment. — The 
great  heads  of  war  expenditure,  the  army  extraordinaries,  would, 
in  most  parts,  have  ceased ;  and  in  the  rest,  have  been  greatly 
reduced.  The  chief  question  will  be,  not  between  an  ordinary 
Peace  establishment  and  a  War,  such  as,  from  circumstances, 
ours  ha^  hitherto  been,  involving  expeditions  to  all  parts  of  the 
globe ;  but  between  a  Peace  establishment,  such  as  that  which  is 
now  declared  to  be  necessary,  and  a  War,  which  had  become, 
and  was  likely  to  continue,  merely  defensive ;  in  which  we  should 
have  had  nothing  to  do,  but  to  maintain  a  competent  force  with 
little  prospect  of  being  obliged  to  make  use  of  it.  The  advocates 
for  the  present  Peace  must  find  themselves  always  in  an  awkward 
dilemma,  between  economy  and  safety.  We  make  Peace  in 
order  to  save  our  money:  if  we  reduce  our  establishments,  what 
becomes  of  our  security  ?  if  we  keep  up  our  establishments,  what 
becomes  of  our  savings  ?  Whatever  you  give  to  one  object,  is 
unavoidably  taken  from  the  other.  The  savings  of  the  present 
Peace,  therefore,  can  be  looked  for  only  between  the  narrow 
limits  of  a  high  Peace  and  a  low  War  establishment ;  or,  to  state 
the  case  more  correctly,  between  a  high  Peace  establishment  and 
a  War,  reduced  in  the  manner  that  I  have  described.  I  wish 
that  a  correct  estimate  were  formed  of  the  difference,  in  point  of 
expense,  between  these  two  states;  recollecting  always  that 
among  the  expenses  of  Peace  are  to  be  counted  the  provisions 


64  PEACE  OF  AMIENS. 

necessary  against  the  new  dangers  brought  by  the  Peace  itself; 
the  new  dangers  for  example,  with  which  Jamaica,  and  all  our 
West-India  Islands  are  threatened  by  the  establishment  of  the 
French  in  Saint  Domingo,  and  other  parts  in  that  quarter  of  the 
world ;  the  new  dangers  to  which  our  empire  in  the  East  is  ex- 
posed, by  the  re-entry  of  the  French  into  the  peninsula  of  India, 
and  the  cession  to  them,  for  such  in  effect  it  is,  of  the  Cape  and 
Cochin  ;  in  general,  by  the  free  passage  now  given  to  their  ships 
and  armies  into  every  part  of  the  world,  and  the  establishment 
of  them  everywhere  in  the  neighbourhood  of  our  most  valuable 
possessions. 

Against  these  dangers  War  provided,  as  it  were,  by  its  own 
single  act.  The  existence  of  our  fleets  upon  the  ocean,  with  an 
Admiralty  order  "  to  burn,  sink,  and  destroy,'^  shut  up  at  once,  as 
under  lock  and  key,  all  those  attempts,  which  are  now  let  loose, 
and  require  as  many  separate  defences  as  there  are  parts  liable  to 
be  attacked.  A  fleet  cruising  before  Brest,  therefore,  was  not  to 
be  considered  as  so  much  clear  expense,  to  be  charged  to  the 
account  of  the  War ;  without  deducting  the  expense  of  additional 
troops  and  additional  ships,  which  the  absence  of  the  fleet  might 
require  to  be  kept,  for  instance  in  the  West  Indies. 

With  respect  to  home  defence.  Considering  the  little  reliance 
to  be  placed  upon  the  Government  in  France,  now  subsisting ;  the 
still  greater  uncertainty  with  respect  to  any  future  Government 
(such  as  may  arise  at  any  moment) ;  and  the  increased  defence 
necessary  on  land,  in  proportion  to  the  diminution  of  our  force 
by  sea ;  I  know  not  how  we  can  remain  secure  with  a  military 
establishment  much  less  considerable,  than  that  which  we  should 
have  had  to  maintain  here  in  the  case  of  War. — So  much  for  the 
expenses  of  Peace. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  must  consider,  what  the  reductions  are 
that  might  be  made  in  the  expense  of  War,  beyond  those, 
which  the  very  scheme  and  shape  of  the  War  itself  would  una- 
voidably produce. 

The  expenses  of  our  army,  as  at  present  established,  are  exces- 
sive :  but  what  should  hinder  us  from  adopting  some  of  those 
expedients,  by  which  a  country  not  more  considerable  than  Prussia, 
under  the  regulations  introduced  by  a  former  great  monarch,  is 
made  capable  of  maintaining  a  military  establishment  superior 
to  that  of  Great  Britain? — The  chief  of  those  expedients,  and 
that  which  we  could  best  imitate,  is,  the  putting  at  all  times  the 
half  of  the  army  upon  the  footing  of  militia,  to  be  exercised  only 
for  a  month  or  two,  and  to  be  at  home  for  the  remainder  of  the 
year.  Other  expedients  might  be  suggested,  if  this  were  the 
proper  occasion  for  discussing  them. 

It  is  true,  as  may  be  observed,  that  such  a  reduction  of  expense. 


t  J, 


PEACE   OF  AMIENS.  65 

if  it  can  be  at  all  effected,  may  be  apj)lied  not  less  in  tinne  of  Peace 
than  in  time  of  War;  and  in  a  comparison,  therefore,  between 
the  two,  must  be  counted  on  both  sides.  But  that  circumstance, 
as  is  plain,  does  not  do  away  the  efiect  of  what  is  here  stated.  If 
both  sides  are  reduced,  and  reduced  at  all  proportionably,  the 
absolute  difference,  which  is  what  we  are  here  considering,  will 
be  reduced  also ;  not  to  mention  that,  with  a  view  to  what  will  be 
the  effect  of  the  measure  in  other  ways,  such  a  reduction  may  be 
better  applied  to  a  large  establishment,  than  it  can  to  a  small  one. 
If  an  army  of  80,000  men,  for  instance,  may,  for  the  moment,  be 
reduced  to  half,  because  the  remaining  40,000  will  still  be  a  suffi- 
cient force,  it  is  not  to  be  concluded,  that  a  proportionate  reduc- 
tion might  be  made  in  an  army  of  only  half  that  number,  when 
the  remainder,  left  on  an  emergency  for  the  defence  of  the  coun- 
try, would  be  no  more  than  twenty  thousand.  Consider,  there- 
fore, when  the  reductions  capable  of  being  made,  or  certain  of 
themselves  to  happen,  in  a  state  of  War,  such  as  War  might  be 
expected  to  be  if  continued  from  the  present  time,  and  the  new 
and  extraordinary  expenses  incident  to  this  Peace,  shall  have 
been  fairly  calculated,  to  what  the  difference  between  the  two 
states  will  amount ;  and  taking  then  this  difference  at  its  utmost, 
compare  the  money  so  saved,  with  all  the  evils  and  dangers  which 
Peace,  as  now  proposed,  will  give  rise  to.  Or,  if  the  modern 
fashion  is  to  prevail,  and  money  alone  to  be  considered,  compare 
the  value  of  the  Sinking  Fund  created  by  this  saving,  with  the 
difference,  in  point  of  mere  expense,  of  the  circumstances  in  which 
we  shall  be  placed  at  the  commencement  of  any  future  War, 
should  France  choose  to  put  us  under  this  necessity.  By  the  result 
of  these  comparisons,  must  the  question  be  decided. 

Should  it  so  happen,  (and  who  shall  say,  that  it  will  not  ?)  that 
our  commerce,  instead  of  increasing,  or  remaining  where  it  is, 
should  fall  off;  that  our  manufactures  should  decline ;  that,  from 
these  and  other  causes, — such  as  a  great  emigration,  and  con- 
siderable transfer  of  public  property; — and  above  all  from  the 
great  loss  of  territorial  revenue,  the  income  of  the  state  should 
be  lessened,  to  a  degree  equal  only  to  this  proposed  saving,  then 
we  shall  have  incurred  all  the  dreadful  difference  to  be  found  in 
our  situation  in  case  of  the  renewal  of  War,  and  all  the  no  less 
serious  dangers  during  the  continuance  of  Peace,  absolutely  for 
nothing. 

I  select  this  only  as  the  case  which  may  be  considered  as  the 
most  probable.  In  argument,  to  be  sure,  having  already  agreed 
to  take  at  par,  our  prospects  with  respect  to  the  increase  or 
decrease  of  our  commerce  and  manufactures,  I  am  not  at  liberty 
to  insist  on  this  case,  or  upon  the  still  more  fatal  one  of  a  greater 
and  more  extensive  decrease,  without  allowing  those  who  argue 
6*  I 


66  PEACE    OF    AMIENS. 

on  the  other  side,  to  avail  themselves  of  the  supposition,  that  the 
sources  of  national  vv^ealth  may  possibly  be  in  a  great  degree 
augmented. 

At  all  events,  however,  and  whatever  be  the  extent  of  these 
expected  savings,  and  the  improvement  to  be  made  in  consequence 
in  our  finances,  we  are  to  estimate  the  evils  and  dangers  which 
are  to  be  placed  in  the  opposite  scale,  the  chief  of  which  I  have 
endeavoured  to  point  out,  though  in  a  very  hasty  and  summary 
manner,  in  the  observations,  with  which  I  have  already  troubled 
the  House.  They  may  be  classed,  generally  under  three  heads  : — 
The  ascendency,  v^hich  it  is  feared,  France  may  in  time  acquire, 
even  in  those  sources  of  greatness,  which  we  seem  inclined  to 
consider  as  a  substitute  for  all  others,  our  manufactures  and  com- 
merce ;  supposing,  as  I  am  here  doing,  that  Peace  continues  with- 
out interruption,  and  even  without  any  great  advantage  being 
taken,  of  the  threat  of  a  renewal  of  hostihties.  Secondly,  the 
effect  to  be  produced,  in  a  peace  so  constituted,  by  the  continued 
use  of  this  menace, — an  engine  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  calcu- 
late the  force,  applied,  as  it  may  be,  to  every  point  on  which  the 
interests  of  the  countries  are  ofjposed,  and  for  the  accomplishment 
of  every  object,  which  France  may  wish  to  attain.  Thirdly  and 
lastly.  War  itself;  begun  of  course  at  such  moment,  as  France 
shall  judge  most  advantageous  to  her,  and  w^hen  by  a  due  improve- 
ment of  the  preceding  period  of  Peace,  Great  Britain  shall  have 
been  placed  in  a  situation  to  be  least  capable  of  resisting  its  efiects. 
On  these  points,  having  spoken  to  each  already,  as  far  as  the 
occasion  seems  to  admit,  though  far  short  of  what  the  subject 
demands,  I  shall  detain  the  House  no  longer,  but  leave  to  every 
Gentleman  to  form  his  own  judgment  on  the  extent  and  reality  of 
these  dangers,  and  finally  to  settle  the  comparison  between  these 
(with  others  connected  with  them)  and  the  continuance  of  the 
War,  such  as  War  from  this  time  might  be  expected  to  prove. 
The  only  head  of  danger,  to  which  I  wish  now  to  speak,  is  one 
of  a  quite  different  nature ;  but  so  serious,  so  certain,  so  imminent, 
so  directly  produced  by  the  Peace  itself,  that  I  must  not  omit  to 
say  a  few  w^ords  upon  it.  This  is  the  danger  now  first  commencing; 
and  which  may  be  conveyed  in  a  single  word,  but  that,  I  fear,  a 
word  of  great  import — Intercourse.  From  this  moment  the  whole 
of  the  principles  and  morals  of  France  rush  into  this  country 
without  let  or  hindrance,  with  nothing  to  limit  their  extent,  or  to 
control  their  influence.  While  the  War  continued,  not  only  the 
communication  was  little,  or  nothing,  but  whatever  contagion 
might  be  brought  in  by  that  communication,  found  the  country 
less  in  a  state  to  receive  it.  The  very  heat  and  irritation  of  the 
War  was  a  preservative  against  the  infection.  But  now  that  this 
infection  is  to  come  upon  us  in  the  soft  hour  of  Peace ;  that  it  is 


PEACE  OF  AMIENS.  (57 

to  mix  with  our  food  ;  that  we  are  to  take  it  into  our  arms;  that 
it  is  to  be  diffused  in  the  very  air  we  breathe ;  what  hope,  can 
we  suppose,  remains  to  us  of  escaping  its  effects  ? — This,  I  used 
formerly  to  be  taught,  before  the  weight  of  taxes  had  lessened 
our  apprehensions  of  French  fraternity,  was  one  of  the  conse- 
quences most  to  be  dreaded  in  Peace,  in  whatever  form  it  should 
come,  short  of  the  restoration  of  some  Government,  not  founded 
on  Jacobinical  principles.  But  somehow  or  another,  the  very  idea 
of  this  danger  seems  long  since  to  have  vanished  from  our  miilds. 
We  are  now  to  make  Peace  in  the  very  spirit  of  peace,  and  to 
throw  ourselves  without  reserve  into  the  very  arms  of  France. 
With  respect,  indeed,  to  one  part  of  the  danger,  the  principles  of 
France, — meaning  by  that  the  political  principles, — we  are  told, 
that  all  danger  of  that  sort  is  at  an  end ;  that  in  this  country,  as 
everywhere  else,  the  folly  of  the  revolutionary  principles  is  so 
thoroughly  understood,  that  none  can  be  found  to  support  them. 
Jacobinism  is,  as  it  were,  extinct :  or,  should  it  still  exist,  we  shall 
have,  as  our  best  ally  against  it,  Buonaparte  himself. 

Sir,  I  have  already  stated  what  my  confidence  is  in  that  ally. 
I  know  that  neither  he  personally,  nor  any  other  of  the  free 
governments  that  have  subsisted  in  France,  have  ever  suffered 
these  doctrines  of  Jacobinism  to  be  used  against  themselves.  But 
I  must  again  ask,  on  what  grounds  we  suppose,  that  France  has 
renounced  the  use  of  them,  with  respect  to  other  countries  ?  We 
have  heard  less,  indeed,  of  late,  of  her  principles,  because  we 
have  heard,  and  felt,  more  of  her  arms.  For  the  same  reason, 
we  may  possibly  hear  little  of  them  in  future.  But  do  they  there- 
fore cease  to  exist?  During  the  whole  course  of  the  Revolution, 
France  has  sometimes  employed  one  of  these  means,  and  some- 
times the  other.  Sometimes  the  arms  have  opened  a  way  for  the 
principles,  at  others  the  principles  have  prepared  the  object,  as  an 
easy  conquest  to  the  arms : — In  the  flight  of  this  chain-shot,  some- 
times one  end  has  gone  foremost,  and  sometimes  the  other,  and 
at  times  they  may  have  struck  their  object  at  once :  but  the  two 
parts  alike  exist,  and  are  inseparably  linked  together. 

Nothing,  therefore,  can,  in  my  mind,  be  more  idle  than  this 
hope  of  the  extinction  of  Jacobinism,  either  as  an  instrument  to 
be  used  by  France,  should  her  occasions  require  it,  or  as  a  prin- 
ciple ever  to  be  eradicated  out  of  any  community,  in  which  it  has 
once  taken  root.  However  true  it  may  be,  that  the  example  of 
France  ought  to  serve  as  the  strongest  antidote  to  its  poison,  and 
that  it  does  so,  in  fact,  in  the  minds  of  many ;  yet  it  is  equally  true, 
,that,  in  another  view,  and  to  many  other  persons,  it  operates  in  a 
directly  contrary  way, — not  as  a  warning,  but  as  an  incitement. 
What  I  am  now  speaking  of,  is,  however,  not  the  danger  of  the 
political  principles  of  France,  but  the  still  surer  and  more  dreadful 


• 


58  PEACE  OF  AMIENS. 

danger,  of  its  morals.  What  are  we  to  think  of  a  country,  that 
having  struck  out  of  nnen's  minds,  as  far  as  it  has  the  power  to 
do  so,  all  sense  of  religion,  and  all  belief  of  a  future  life,  has 
struck  out  of  its  system  of  civil  polity,  the  institution  of  marriage  ? 
That  has  formally,  professedly,  and  by  law,  established  the  con- 
nexion of  the  sexes,  upon  the  footing  of  an  unrestrained  concu- 
binage? that  has  turned  the  whole  country  into  one  universal 
brothel  ?  That  leaves  to  every  man  to  take,  and  to  get  rid  of,  a 
wife,  (the  fact,  I  believe,  continues  to  be  so,)  and  a  wife,  in  like 
manner,  to  get  rid  of  her  husband,  upon  less  notice  than  you  can, 
in  this  country,  of  a  ready-furnished  lodging  ? 

What  are  we  to  think  of  uniting  with  a  country,  in  which  such 
things  have  happened,  and  where  for  generations  the  effects  must 
continue,  whatever  formal  and  superficial  chariges  prudence  and 
policy  may  find  it  expedient  to  introduce  in  the  things  themselves? 

Do  we  suppose  it  possible,  that,  with  an  intercourse  subsisting, 
such,  as  we  know,  will  take  place  between  Great  Britain  and 
France,  the  morals  of  this  country  should  continue  what  they 
have  been  ?  Do  we  suppose  that  when  this  Syrus  in  Tibenm  de- 
Jluxii  Orontes,  when  that  *  revolutionary  stream,'  the  Seine,  charg- 
ed with  all  the  colludes  of  Paris, — with  all  the  filth  and  blood  of 
that  polluted  city, — shall  have  turned  its  current  into  the  Thames, 
that  the  waters  of  our  fair  *  domestic  flood '  can  remain  pure  and 
wholesome,  as  before  ?  Do  we  suppose  these  things  can  happen  ? 
Or  is  it,  that  we  are  indifferent,  whether  they  happen  or  not ;  and 
that  the  morals  of  the  country  are  no  longer  any  object  of  our 
concern  ? 

Sir,  I  fear,  the  very  scenes  that  we  shall  witness,  even  in  the 
course  of  the  present  winter,  will  give  us  a  sufficient  foretaste  of 
what  we  may  expect  hereafter ;  and  show,  how^  little  the  morals 
of  the  country  will  be  protected  by  those  w^ho  should  be  their 
natural  guardians,  the  higher  and  fashionable  orders  of  society. 
In  what  crowds  shall  we  see  flocking  to  the  hotel  of  a  Regicide 
Ambassador,  however  deep  in  all  the  guilt  and  horror  of  his  time, 
those  whose  doors  have  hitherto  been  shut  inflexibly  against  every 
Frenchman ;  whom  no  feeling  for  honourable  distress,  no  respect 
for  suffering  loyalty,  no  sympathy  with  fallen  grandeur,  no  desire 
of  useful  example, — and  in  some  instances  I  fear,  no  gratitude  for 
former  services  or  civilities,  have  ever  been  able  to  excite  to  show 
the  least  mark  of  kindness  or  attention  to  an  emigrant  of  any 
description ;  though  in  that  class  are  to  be  numbered  men,  who 
in  every  circumstance  of  birth,  of  fortune,  of  rank,  of  talents, 
of  acquirements  of  every  species,  are  fully  their  equals;  and 
whom  the  virtue  that  has  made  them  emigrants,  has,  so  far  forth, 
rendered  their  superiors !    A  suite  of  richly  furnished  apartments, 


PEACE  OF  AMIENS.  69 

and  a  ball  and  supper,  is  a  trial,  I  fear,  too  hard  for  the  virtue  of 
London. 

It  is  to  this  side,  that  I  look  with  greatest  apprehension.  The 
plague  with  which  we  are  threatened,  will  not  begin,  like  that  of 
Homer,  with  inferior  animals,  among  dogs  and  mules,  but  in  the 
fairest  and  choicest  part  of  the  creation ;  with  those,  whose  fine- 
ness of  texture  makes  them  weak ;  whose  susceptibility  most 
exposes  them  to  contagion ;  whose  natures  being  most  excellent, 
are,  for  that  very  reason,  capable  of  becoming  most  depraved ; 
who,  being  formed  to  promote  the  happiness  of  the  world,  may, 
when  "strained  from  that  fair  use,"  prove  its  bane  and  destruction ; 
retaining,  as  they  will  still  do,  much  of  that  empire  which  nature 
intended  for  them,  over  the  rninds  and  faculties  of  the  other  half 
of  the  species.  "  The  woman  tempted  me,  and  I  did  eat,"  will 
be  to  be  said,  I  fear,  of  this  second  fall  of  man,  as  it  was  of  the 
first.  Sir,  we  heard  much,  last  year,  of  the  necessity  of  new 
laws  to  check  the  growing  progress  of  vice  and  immorality.  I 
suppose  we  hardly  mean  to  persist  in  any  such  projects.  It  will 
be  too  childish  to  be  busying  ourselves  in  stopping  every  little 
crevice  and  aperture,  through  which  vice  may  ooze  in,  when  we 
are  going  to  open  at  once  the  flood-gates,  and  admit  the  whole 
tide  of  French  practices  and  principles,  till  the  morals  of  the  tw^o 
countries  shall  have  settled  at  their  common  level. 

I  must  beg  here,  not  to  be  told,  that  of  this  kind  of  argument 
the  only  result  is,  that  we  should  never  make  Peace  with  France 
at  all,  until  the  monarchy  should  be  restored.  The  argument  im- 
plies no  such  thing.  That  no  kind  of  Peace  with  France  will  be 
safe,  till  then,  I  am  not  in  the  least  disposed  to  deny :  but  the 
nature  of  human  affairs  does  not  admit  of  our  getting  always 
what  we  may  think  most  admirable.  We  must  take  up  often  with 
what  is  far  short  of  our  ideas,  either  of  advantage  or  safety.  The 
question  at  present  is,  whether  in  either  of  those  views,  we  ought 
to  take  up  with  the  present  Peace :  and  among  the  evils  incident 
to  it,  and  immediately  resulting  from  it,  I  state  one,  which,  in  con- 
junction with  others,  is  to  be  weighed  against  its  advantages ; 
namely,  the  havoc  Hkely  to  be  made  by  it  in  our  principles  and 
morals.  If  any  one  should  be  of  opinion,  that  this  consideration 
is  of  so  much  weight,  that  War,  almost  upon  any  terms,  is  prefer- 
able to  Peace  with  a  state,  founded  upon  a  declared  Atheism,  and 
filled  with  all  the  abominations  and  pollutions  certain  to  result 
from  such  an  origin,  it  is  not  my  business  to  dispute  with  him : 
but  that  is  not  the  way  in  which  the  argument  is  applied  here ; 
nor  is  it  indeed  applied  in  any  way,  otherwise  than  as  a  consider- 
ation, making  part  of  the  case,  and  to  which  every  body  is  to 
allow  what  weight  he  shall  think  proper.  The  misfortune  of  the 
country  has  been,  that  it  has  never  seen,  and  felt,  fully,  the  extent 


70  PEACE  OF  AMIENS. 

of  its  danger.  The  country, — speaking  of  it  in  general,  and  not 
with  a  view  to  particular  places,  or  classes  of  people,  upon  whonm 
the  pressure  of  the  War  has  borne  with  peculiar  severity, — has 
been  so  rich,  so  prosperous,  so  happy;  men  have  enjoyed  here  in 
so  superior  a  degree,  and  with  such  perfect  freedom  from  molest- 
ation, all  the  blessings  and  comforts  of  life,  that  they  have  never 
been  able  to  persuade  themselves,  that  any  real  harm  could  befall 
them.  Even  those,  who  have  clamoured  most  loudly  about  the 
dangers  of  the  country,  and  have  given,  at  times,  the  most  exag- 
gerated representations  of  them,  have  really,  and  when  their 
opinions  come  to  be  examined,  never  described  this  danger  as  any 
thing  truly  alarming.  For  their  danger  has  always  been  a  pro- 
visional and  hypothetical  danger,  such  as  we  should  be  liable  to, 
if  we  did  not  conform  to  such  and  such  conditions :  but  as  these 
conditions  were  always  in  our  power,  and  are  now,  as  we  see, 
actually  resorted  to,  our  real  and  absolute  danger  was,  in  fact, 
none  at  all.  "  You  will  be  ruined,  if  you  continue  the  War ;  but, 
make  Peace,  and  you  are  safe  :"  and  unquestionably,  as  there  can 
hardly  have  been  a  period,  when  a  Peace,  such  as  the  present, 
was  not  in  our  power, — if  such  a  Peace  can  give  us  safety,  there 
never  was  a  period,  when  we  could  properly  be  said  to  have  been 
in  danger.  We  had  a  port  always  under  our  lee ;  so  that  if  it 
came  to  overblow,  or  the  ship  laboured  too  much,  we  had  nothing 
to  do,  but  to  put  up  our  helm,  and  run  at  once  into  a  place  of  safe- 
ty. But  my  ideas  of  the  danger  have  always  been  of  a  far  dif- 
ferent sort.  To  me  it  has  ever  seemed,  that  the  danger  was  not 
conditional  but  absolute :  that  it  was  a  question,  whether  we  could 
be  saved  upon  any  other  terms  ;  whether  we  could  weather  this 
shoal  upon  either  tack.  The  port  appeared  to  me  to  be  an  ene- 
my's port ;  w^here,  though  we  might  escape  the  dangers  of  the 
sea,  we  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  savages,  who  would  nev- 
er suffer  us  to  see  again  our  native  land,  but  keep  us  in  a  state  of 
thraldom,  far  more  to  be  dreaded  than  the  utmost  fury  of  the 
waves. 

I  have  never  pretended  to  say,  that  there  were  not  dangers  in 
War,  as  unquestionably  there  are  great  evils ;  I  have  said  only 
that  there  were  evils  and  dangers,  not  less  real  and  certain,  in 
Peace,  particularly  in  a  Peace,  made  on  such  terms  as  the  present. 
For  terms  of  Peace,  in  spite  of  what  we  hear  talked,  have  some- 
thing to  do  with  rendering  our  situation  more  or  less  secure,  even 
in  those  respects,  in  which  they  are  supposed  to  operate  least.  In 
general,  though  terms,  however  advantageous,  would  not  secure 
us  against  the  mischiefs  of  French  fraternity,  and  the  infusions  of 
French  principles  and  morals,  yet  they  would  make  a  little  differ- 
ence, I  apprehend,  as  to  the  effect  which  Peace  would  produce 
in  the  feelings  of  Europe ;  as  to  the  air  of  success  and  triumph 


PEACE   OF    AMIENS.  71 

which  it  would  give  to  the  enemy,  and  of  defeat  and  hunniliation, 
which  it  would  impress  upon  us ;  as  to  the  consequences  resulting 
from  thence,  even  with  respect  to  the  propagation  of  French 
principles,  but  certainly  as  to  the  confirmation  of  French  power ; 
and,  above  all,  as  to  the  situation  in  which  we  should  stand,  should 
France  choose  to  force  us  again  into  a  War.  The  port  of  Malta, 
strong  as  it  is,  would  not,  literally,  serve  as  a  bulwark  to  stop  the 
incursions  of  Jacobinism :  figuratively,  it  would  not  be  without 
its  effect  in  that  way :  yet  there  would  be  some  difference,  I  con- 
ceive, at  the  beginning  of  a  War,  whether  we  were  in  possession 
of  Malta  or  not ;  and  in  the  meanwhile,  the  knowledge  of  that 
difference,  in  the  minds  of  the  enemy,  and  of  ourselves,  would  be 
quickly  felt,  in  any  discussions  which  might  take  place  between 
us,  in  time  of  Peace. 

The  dangers  of  Peace,  therefore,  are  augmented  a  hundred-fold 
by  terms  at  once  so  degrading  and  injurious,  as  those  to  which 
we  have  submitted :  on  any  terms  on  which  it  could  have  been 
concluded,  it  would  have  had  its  dangers,  and  dreadful  ones  too; 
France  remaining  a  revolutionary  government,  and  being,  as  it 
is,  in  possession  of  Europe.  Whether  the  evil  must  not  ultimate- 
ly have  been  submitted  to ;  whether  the  hopes  of  change,  either 
from  coalitions  without,  or  commotions  within,  might  not  have 
become  so  small,  and  the  evils  of  War,  however  mitigated,  so 
great,  that  we  must  have  made  up  our  minds,  after  taking  the  best 
securities  against  those  dangers  that  we  could,  finally  to  have 
acquiesced  in  them,  is  a  separate  question,  which  I  will  not  now 
discuss.  But  the  time,  in  my  opinion,  was  not  come  when  such 
unqualified  acquiescence  on  our  part  was  requisite ;  when  we 
were  to  cease  to  enquire  what  those  securities  were ;  or  when  we 
ought  to  have  taken  up  with  such  securities,  if  securities  they  can 
be  called,  as  are  oflfered  by  the  present  treaty.  The  great  misfor- 
tune has  been,  that  this  question  of  Peace  has  never  yet  been  fully 
and  fairly  before  the  country.  We  have  been  taken  up  with  the 
War;  that  was  the  side  of  the  alternative  next  to  us; — and  have 
never  yet,  till  it  was  too  late,  had  our  attention  fairly  directed,  or, 
I  must  say,  fairly  summoned,  to  the  dreadful  picture  on  the  other 
side.  If  we  had,  we  should  never  have  heard,  except  among  the 
ignorant  and  disaflfected,  of  joy  and  exultation  through  the  land, 
at  a  Peace  such  as  the  present. 

Here,  Sir,  I  have  nearly  closed  this  subject.  One  only  topic 
remains,  a  most  important  one  indeed,  but  which  I  should  have 
been  induced,  perhaps,  on  the  present  occasion,  to  pass  over  in 
silence,  if  in  one  part  of  it  I  did  not  feel  myself  called  upon,  by 
something  of  a  more  than  ordinary  duty. 

When  a  great  military  Monarch  of  our  time  was  at  the  lowest 
ebb  of  his  fortunes,  and  had  sustained  a  defeat,  that  seemed  to 


72  PEACE  OF  AMIENS. 

extinguish  all  his  remaining  hopes,  the  terms  of  his  letter,  written 
from  the  field  of  battle,  were — "  We  have  lost  every  thing,  but 
our  honour."  Would  to  God,  that  the  same  consolation,  in  cir- 
cumstances liable  to  become  in  time  not  less  disastrous,  remained 
to  Great  Britian !  I  should  feel  a  far  less  painful  load  of  depres- 
sion upon  my  mind,  than  weighs  upon  it  at  this  moment.  But  is 
our  honour  saved  in  this  transaction  ?  Is  it  in  a  better  plight  than 
those  two  other  objects  of  our  consideration,  which  I  have  before 
touched  upon,  our  dignity  and  our  security?  I  fear  not.  I  fear 
that  we  have  contrived  to  combine  in  this  proceeding,  all  that  is 
at  once  ruinous  and  disgraceful ;  all  that  is  calculated  to  undo  us, 
in  reputation  as  well  as  in  fortune,  and  to  deprive  us  of  those 
resources,  which  high  fame  and  unsullied  character  may  create, 
*'  even  under  the  ribs  of  death,"  when  all  ordinary  means  of  relief 
and  safety  seem  to  be  at  an  end.  I  am  speaking  here,  not  of  the 
general  discredit  that  attaches  to  this  precipitate  retreat  and  flight 
out  of  the  cause  of  Europe,  and  of  all  mankind  ;  but  of  the  situ- 
ation in  which  we  stand  with  respect  to  those  allies,  to  whom 
"v<^e  were  bound  by  distinct  and  specific  engagements.  I  must 
be  very  slow  to  admit  that  construction,  which  considers  as  a 
breach  of  treaty  any  thing  done  by  a  contracting  power,  under 
a  clear  bond  fide  necessity,  such  as  the  other  party  itself  does  not 
pretend  to  dispute.  If  an  absolute  conquest  of  one  of  the  parties 
to  an  alliance  does  not  absolve  the  other  from  the  obligation  w^hich 
it  has  contracted,  so  neither  can  a  timely  submission,  made  in 
order  to  avert  such  conquest,  when  the  remaining  party  itself 
shall  not  be  able  to  describe  that  submission  as  injurious  either  to 
her  own  interest,  or  to  that  of  the  common  cause.  If  we  were 
not  in  a  state  to  say  to  Sardinia,  that  it  was  better  for  us  that  she 
should  continue  her  resistance,  rather  than  accept  the  terms  offer- 
ed her ;  then,  I  say,  we  are  not  in  a  state  to  consider  her  submis- 
sion as  a  forfeiture  of  the  claims  which  she  had  upon  us.  We 
have  left  Sardinia,  however,  without  an  attempt  to  relieve  her, 
without  even  a  helping  hand  stretched  out  to  support  or  to  cheer 
her,  under  that  ruin  which  she  has  brought  upon  herself,  with  no 
fault  on  her  part,  while  adherins^  faithfully  to  her  treaty  with  us. 
I  must  call  that  adherence  faithful,  w^hich  has  continued  as  long 
as  we  ourselves  could  say,  that  it  w^as  of  any  use. — The  case  of 
Sardinia  is,  w^ith  no  great  variation,  the  case  of  Holland  also. 
Both  powers  were  our  allies ;  both  are  ruined,  while  adhering  to 
that  alliance ;  both  are  left  to  their  fate.  But  Sardinia  and  Hol- 
land are  two  only  of  our  allies;  and  placed  in  circumstances  of 
peculiar  difficulty.  There  w^ere  others,  it  may  be  said,  more  ca- 
pable of  being  assisted,  for  whose  security  and  protection  every 
thing  has  been  done,  that  the  most  scrupulous  fidelity  could  re- 
quire.   Naples,  Portugal,  and  Turkey,  wn'll  attest,  to  the  end  of 


PEACE  OF  AMIENS.  73 

time,  the  good  faith  of  Great  Britain ;  and  show  to  the  world  that 
she  is  not  a  power,  who  ever  seeks  her  own  safety  by  abandoning 
those  with  whom  shehasembarked  hi  a  common  cause.  Sir,  if  I  were 
forced  to  make  a  comparison  between  tiie  instances,  in  which  we 
plainly  and  openly  desert  our  allies,  and  those  in  which  we  affect 
to  protect  them,  I  should  say,  without  hesitation,  that  those  of  the 
former  class  were  the  least  disgraceful  of  the  two ;  because  our 
protection  is  in  fact  nothing  else  but  a  desertion,  with  the  addition 
of  that  ridicule  which  attaches  upon  things,  that  endeavour  to  pass 
for  the  reverse  of  what  they  really  are. 

The  protection  which  we  yield  to  these  unfortunate  powers,  is 
much  of  the  same  sort  with  that  which  Don  Quixote  grives  to  the 
poor  boy,  whom  he  releases  from  the  tree ;  when  he  retires  with 
perfect  complacency  and  satisfaction,  assuring  him,  that  he  has 
nothing  more  to  fear,  as  his  master  is  bound  by  the  most  solemn 
promise  not  to  attempt  to  exercise  against  him  any  further  severity. 
We  know,  Sir,  what  respect  was  paid  to  this  promise,  as  soon  as 
the  knight  was  out  of  sight ;  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  foretell,  what 
respect  will  be  paid  by  Buonaparte,  (without  waiting  even,  I  am 
afraid,  till  my  Honourable  Friends  shall  be  out  of  sight,)  to  this 
solemn  stipulation  and  pledge,  by  which  we  have  provided  so 
effectually  for  the  security  of  the  dominions  of  our  good  and 
faithful  allies. 

The  ridicule  of  this  provision,  which  in  any  case  would  be  suf- 
ficiently strong,  has,  undoubtedly,  in  the  case  of  Turkey,  some- 
thing of  a  higher  and  livelier  relish ;  Turkey  being  the  power,  in 
whose  instance,  and  with  respect  to  precisely  the  same  party,  the 
total  insufficiency  and  nullity  of  such  engagements  has  been  so 
strikingly  manifested,  and  is  still  kept  so  fresh  in  our  memories,  by 
the  very  operations  with  which  the  War  has  closed. 

So  much  as  to  our  conduct  towards  those  powers,  with  whom 
we  stood  in  the  relation  of  allies,  according  to  the  usual  diplomatic 
forms;  and  whom  the  common  policy  of  Europe  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  consider  under  these  and  similar  relations. 

But  there  was  another  body  of  allies,  not  ranked  indeed  among 
the  European  powers,  nor  possessing  much,  perhaps,  of  a  corporate 
capacity,  but  who,  as  men,  acting  either  separately  or  together, 
were  equally  capable  of  becoming  objects  of  good  faith,  and  in 
fact  had  so  become,  though  by  means  different,  in  point  of  form, 
from  those  which  engaged  the  faith  of  the  country,  in  any  of  the 
instances  above  alluded  to : — These  persons  were,  the  Royalists 
of  France,  wheresoev^er  dispersed,  but  particularly  that  vast  body 
of  them  which  so  long  maintained  a  contest  against  the  Republic, 
in  the  West ;  where  they  formed  the  mass  of  the  inhabitants  of 
four  or  five  great  provinces,  far  exceeding,  both  in  extent  and 
population,  the  kingdom  of  Ireland.  I  mention  these  particulars 
7  K 


74  PEACE  OF  AMIENS. 

of  their  force  and  numbers,  not  because  they  are  material  to  the 
present  purpose,  but  because  they  serve  to  obviate  that  delusion 
of  the  understanding,  by  which  things,  small  in  bulk,  and  filling 
but  little  space  in  the  imagination,  are  apt  to  lose  their  hold  on 
our  interests  and  affections.  The  mention  of  them  may,  moreover, 
not  be  unnecessary  in  this  House,  where,  I  fear,  from  various 
causes,  all  that  relates  to  the  Royalists  is  a  perfect  terra  incognita, 
as  little  known  or  considered,  as  the  affairs  of  a  people  in  another 
hemisphere.  The  Royalists  were,  however,  a  great,  numerous, 
and  substantive  body,  capable  of  maintaining  against  the  Republic 
a  War,  confessed  by  the  Republicans  themselves  to  have  been 
more  formidable  and  bloody,  than  most  of  those  in  which  they 
had  been  engaged;  and  of  terminating  that  War  by  a  Peace, 
which  showed  sufficiently  what  the  War  had  been,  and  what  the 
fears  were,  which  the  Republic  entertained,  of  its  possible  final 
success.  But  let  the  numbers  and  powers  of  the  Royalists  have 
been  what  they  might ;  had  their  affairs  been  still  less  considered ; 
had  they  been  more  disowned,  discountenanced,  and  betrayed, 
than  in  many  instances  they  were ;  had  more  such  garrisons  as 
those  of  Mentz  and  Valenciennes  been  suffered  to  be  sent  against 
them ;  had  they  been  less  the  real,  primary  defenders  and  repre- 
sentatives of  that  cause,  w^hich  the  Allies  professed  to  support ; 
still  there  w^ere  our  formal  Proclamations,  issued  at  various 
periods,  not  expressly  engaging  indeed  to  make  stipulations  for 
them  in  case  of  a  Peace,  but  calling  generally  for  their  exertions, 
and  promising  succour  and  protection,  to  all  those  who  should 
declare  themselves  in  favour  of  the  ancient  order  of  things,  and 
of  their  hereditary  and  rightful  Monarch.  What  I  am  to  ask,  is, 
have  we  acted  up  to  the  spirit,  or  even  the  letter,  of  our  own  pro- 
clamations ?  or  to  the  spirit  of  that  relation,  in  which  the  nature 
of  the  War  itself,  independent  of  any  proclamations,  placed  us 
with  respect  to  these  people  ?  I  am  compelled  to  say,  (I  say  it 
with  great  reluctance,  as  well  as  with  great  grief,)  I  fear  we  have 
done  no  such  thing.  I  fear,  that  a  stain  is  left  upon  our  annals, 
far  deeper  than  that,  which,  in  former  times,  many  were  so 
laudably  anxious  to  w^ash  away,  in  respect  to  the  conduct  of  this 
country  towards  the  Catalans.  The  Catalans  were  not  invited  by 
any  declarations  more  specific  than  those  which  we  have  made 
to  the  Royalists :  their  claim  upon  us  was  in  some  respects  more 
doubtful.  Yet,  so  far  were  they  from  being  passed  over  in  silence 
in  the  terms  of  the  Peace ;  so  far  were  they  from  being  abandoned 
to  their  fate,  left  to  the  merciless  persecution  of  their  enemies, 
that  a  stipulation  was  made  for  a  full  and  complete  amnesty  for 
them ;  and,  far  more  than  that,  a  provision,  that  they  should  be 
put  upon  the  same  footing,  and  enjoy  the  same  privileges,  with 
that  province  w^hich  was  in  fact  the  most  favoured  under  the 


PEACE  OF  AMIENS.  75 

Spanish  monarchy.  Yet,  because  more  was  not  done ;  because 
they  were  not  placed  in  the  situation  of  enjoying  all  that  they 
asked ; — much  of  it,  perhaps,  having  more  of  an  imaginary  than 
a  real  value  ; — because  in  a  part  where  their  claim  was  more  dis- 
putable, perfect  and  entire  satisfaction  was  not  given  them ;  did 
a  large  and  respectable  majority  of  this  House  think  it  necessary 
to  institute  a  solemn  inquiry, — the  intended  foundation  of  proceed- 
ings still  more  solemn, — in  order  to  purge  themselves  and  the 
country,  as  far  as  depended  on  them,  from  the  shame  of  what 
they  deemed  a  breach  of  the  national  faith. 

By  what  purgations,  by  what  ablutions,  shall  we  cleanse  our- 
selves from  this  far  deeper  and  fouler  blot,  of  having  left  to  perish 
under  the  knives  of  their  enemies,  without  even  an  effort  to  save 
them,  every  man  of  those  whom  we  have  affected.,  as  it  must  now 
appear,  to  call  our  friends  and  allies ;  with  whom  we  were  bound, 
by  interests  of  far  higher  import  than  those  of  a  disputed  succes- 
sion ;  who  were  the  assertors  with  us  of  the  common  morality  of 
the  world ;  who  were  the  true  depositaries  of  that  sacred  cause, 
the  very  priests  of  that  holy  faith,  with  whom  we  had  joined,  as 
it  were,  in  a  solemn  sacrament;  and  who,  on  all  these  grounds, 
but  chiefly  for  the  sin  of  having  held  communion  with  us,  are  now, 
as  might  be  expected,  doomed  by  the  fanatics  of  rebellion,  to  be 
the  objects  of  never-ceasing  hostility,  to  be  pursued  as  offenders, 
whose  crimes  can  only  be  expiated  by  their  destruction  1 

I  agree  with  what  has  been  said  by  my  Honourable  Friend  [the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer],  that  Peace  once  made,  all  commu- 
nication with  this,  or  any  other,  class  of  people,  hostile  to  the 
French  Government,  must  completely  cease.  Whatever  the 
Government  is,  or  whatever  its  conduct  may  be  with  respect  to 
us,  if  we  think  fit  to  make  Peace  with  it,  that  Peace  must  be  reli- 
giously kept.  I  am  not  for  curing  one  breach  of  faith,  by  another. 
But  was  nothing  to  be  done,  in  the  final  settlement  of  that  Peace; 
and  still  more  during  the  time  which  has  elapsed  since  the  first 
commencement  of  the  negotiations'?  I  wish  a  satisfactory  answer 
could  be  given  to  those  inquiries.  I  wish  it  were  true,  that,  for 
months  past,  numbers  had  not  been  perishing  throughout  the 
Royalist  provinces,  the  victims  of  their  loyalty  and  honour; — 
(men  hunted  down,  Hke  wild  beasts,  for  acts,  which  that  Govern- 
ment may  call  crimes,  but  which  we,  I  hope,  have  not  yet  learned 
so  to  characterize ;) — simply  for  want  of  such  means,  as  might 
have  enabled  them  to  eflfect  their  escape,  and,  after  the  loss  of 
every  thing  but  what  their  own  minds  must  bestow,  to  have  sought 
an  asylum  in  some  foreign  land. 

Sir,  I  would  gladly  draw  a  veil  over  these  facts.  But  our  shame 
is  too  flagrant  and  glaring,  to  be  concealed :  the  cry  of  this  blood 
is  too  loud  to  be  stifled.  I  beg  to  wash  my  hands  of  it  The  share 


76  PEACE  OF  AMIENS. 

which  I  have  happened  to  have  in  the  affairs  of  this  illustrious 
and  unfortunate  people ;  the  interest  w^hich  I  have  always  taken 
in  their  cause ;  make  me  doubly  anxious  to  vindicate  myself  from 
any  participation  in  the  guilt  of  having  thus  abandoned  them.  I 
wish  I  could  vindicate,  in  like  manner,  the  Government  and  the 
Country.  Among  all  our  shames,  it  is  that  of  the  most  fatal  nature, 
and  of  which,  possibly,  we  shall  longest  rue  the  effects. 

Sir,  I  have  done.  I  have  stated,  as  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  do, 
what  my  apprehensions  are,  as  to  the  nature  and  consequences 
of  the  present  Peace.  If  the  evils  which  I  impute  to  it,  are  not 
to  be  found  there,  if  the  dangers  which  I  apprehend  should  not 
come  to  pass,  no  one  will  more  rejoice  in  my  error  than  myself: 
those  who  differ  from  me  will  have  nothing  to  complain  of;  I  shall 
have  alarmed  myself;  I  shall  not,  probably,  even  have  to  reproach 
myself  with  having  succeeded  in  alarming  them.  But  if  any 
there  should  be  (there  are  none  I  am  sure  in  this  House),  who 
should  say,  that  my  fears  are  not  imaginary ;  that  they  think  of 
this  Peace  as  I  do ;  that  they  apprehend  it  idll  ruin  the  country ; 
but  that  they  hope  the  country  may  last  long  enough  to  serve 
their  turn ;  that  being  traders,  they  think  the  trade  of  the  country 
may  be  lost ;  that,  being  manufacturers,  they  believe  its  manufac- 
tures may  decline ;  but  that  for  this  they  care  but  little,  provided 
the  Peace  in  the  mean  time  shall  prove  advantageous  to  them  ; — 
to  all  such,  if  any  there  can  be,  there  could  be  but  one  answer, — 
that  they  are  a  disgrace  to  their  country  and  to  their  species ; 
and  that  he  must  be  as  bad  as  they,  who,  upon  such  terms,  could 
seek  to  merit  their  good  opinion,  or  could  solicit  their  favour.  I 
trust,  however,  that  no  such  men  are  to  be  found ;  but  that  all 
who  rejoice  in  the  present  Peace,  do  it  under  a  persuasion,  that 
the  good  which  they  may  hope  to  derive  from  it,  individually,  is 
not  to  be  obtained  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  final  welfare  and  safety 
of  their  country. 

The  arguments  contained  in  the  above  Speech  were  supported  by  Dr.  Lau- 
rence, Mr.  William  Elliot,  and  Mr.  C.  Wynne ;  and  replied  to  by  Mr.  Wilber- 
force,  Mr.  Yorke  (Secretary  at  War),  and  Mr.  Addington  (Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer) ; — after  which  the  address  was  carried  witliout  a  division* 


(    77     ) 
ARMY    OF    RESERVE. 

JUNE  20th,  1803. 

The  following  speech  was  delivered  by  Mr.  Windham,  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  in  disapprobation  of  the  plan  proposed  by  the  Ministers  for  raising 
50,000  men  in  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  by  way  of  ballot  or  mili- 
tary conscription.  The  plan  described  by  the  Secretary  at  War  was  as  fol- 
lows :  a  body  of  50,000  men,  to  be  called  the  Army  of  Reserve,  was  to  be 
immediately  raised  by  baTlot,  according  to  the  following  quotas : — the  counties 
of  England  and  Wales  31,000,  London  and  the  Tower  Hamlets  3000,  Scot- 
land 6000,  and  Ireland  10,000.  The  conscripts  were  allowed  to  find  substitutes, 
and  the  term  of  service  was  four  years,  with  an  extension  as  to  place,  to  any 
part  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  the  Islands  of  Jersey  and  Guernsey.  The 
officers,  to  be  commissioned  by  the  King,  were  to  come  from  the  half-pay  list 
of  the  Army,  from  the  Marines,  from  the  East  India  Company's  Service,  from 
persons  who  had  served  as  officers  in  Volunteer  Yeomanry  Corps  in  Ireland 
during  the  late  Rebellion,  and,  if  necessary,  from  the  Recruiting  Staff".  Such 
were  the  outlines  of  the  plan  to  which  Mr.  Windham  made  the  objections  that 
will  be  found  in  the  following  Speech : 

Mr.  Speaker — Sir, 
The  Honourable  Gentleman  has  introduced  this  measure  in  a 
manner  perfectly  suitable  to  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion,  and 
to  the  impression  which  such  an  occasion  was  likely  to  produce 
on  his  mind. — I  wish  the  measure  itself  had  been  equally  suitable 
to  the  manner  of  its  introduction,  or  to  the  circumstances  out  of 
which  it  has  arisen.  But,  alas !  it  has  fallen  miserably  short  both 
of  the  occasion  and  of  the  expectation  which  I  had  allowed  my- 
self to  form  of  it.  Instead  of  helping  us  out  of  our  difficulties, 
it  serves  only  to  confirm  a  most  material  part  of  them,  and  for 
the  rest,  to  give  us  but  very  imperfect  and  inadequate  assistance. 
This  grand  measure,  of  which  so  much  expectation  has  been 
raised,  turns  out,  at  last,  to  be  nothing  more  than  a  mere  addition 
to  the  Militia,  with  all  the  evils  incident  to  that  system,  perverted 
and  misapplied  as  it  has  been  for  a  period  of  several  years  past. 
In  addition  to  70,000  men  raised  or  raising  according  to  that  system, 
upon  the  population  of  Great  Britain,  and  of  18,000  so  raised  in 
Ireland^  we  are  now  to  have  10,000  more  for  Ireland,  and  40,000 
for  Great  Britain,  making  in  the  whole  the  number  of  138,000, 
of  which  18,000  (the  original  militia  in  Ireland)  are  to  be  raised 
by  bounty  in  the  first  instance,  and  the  rest  to  be  raised  by  ballot, 
with  the  privilege  of  exemption  from  personal  service,  on  the  con- 
7* 


78  ARMY  OF  RESERVE. 

dition  of  finding  a  substitute.  Does  any  man  dream  after  this, 
that  it  is  possible  for  Great  Britain  to  have  an  army?  The  hope 
is  utterly  childish.  The  recruiting  of  the  British  army  has,  as 
every  body  knows,  long  stood  still.  An  army  not  recruited  must, 
by  degrees,  waste  away.  In  spite  of  all  the  hopes,  which  some 
may  indulge  of  transferring  men  hereafter  by  new  bounties  from 
the  force  thus  raised  to  the  regular  army — a  most  uncertain  and 
ineligible  method — the  army  must  unavoidably  stand  still  for  the 
present,  and  one  may  venture  to  say,  under  the  influence  of  such 
a  system,  is  not  likely  to  be  again  put  in  motion. 

This,  therefore,  is  my  great,  leading,  and  fundamental  objection 
to  this  measure,  that  it  destroys  all  hope,  now  and  hereafter,  of  a 
force  truly  regular — that  it  completely  cuts  up  the  army.  This  it 
effects,  not  so  much  by  the  raising  of  so  many  men — a  measure 
which  at  the  present  moment  I  am  not  prepared  to  object  to ; 
but,  by  admitting  the  principle  of  substitution.  That  a  compul- 
sory levy  cannot  be  made  without  a  power  of  commutation  of 
some  sort  or  other,  I  am  ready  to  allow. — The  grievance  would 
be  utterly  intolerable.  But  I  hoped,  as  the  Hon.  Gentleman 
knows,  that  another  mode  might  have  been  adopted,  namely,  that 
of  commutation  of  service  for  a  fixed  fine ;  which  fine  should  be 
paid,  not  into  the  hands  of  the  corps  for  the  purpose  of  being  laid 
out  in  providing  a  substitute,  with  all  the  effect  which  such  an 
additional  demand  must  have  in  raising  the  rate  of  the  bounty, 
but  should  be  paid  to  Government,  to  be  employed  by  them  in  any 
way  they  should  think  proper,  or,  if  you  choose  to  give  it  an  ap- 
propriation, for  the  providing  a  recruit  for  the  army.  The  great 
point  is  to  abolish  the  present  competition,  under  which  it  is 
impossible  that  the  army  can  stand;  and  with  this  view,  my 
meaning  would  certainly  be,  not  merely  to  abolish  this  competi- 
tion so  far  as  it  would  nrise  from  the  body  now  proposed  to  be 
raised,  but  universally  for  the  whole  of  the  militia,  old  or  new. 
There  should  be  no  recruiting  but  for  the  army.  The  militia,  and 
every  force  raised  by  ballot,  should  consist  of  nothing  but  the 
balloted  men,  so  far  as  they  would  go.  To  insure  the  service  of 
them,  as  far  as  I  could,  or  as  far  as  they  were  of  a  description 
to  make  their  service  desirable,  I  would  impose  a  fine,  greater 
or  less,  as  might  ultimately  be  thought  right ;  but  I  would  sooner 
leave  the  service  incomplete,  than,  in  order  to  complete  it,  intro- 
duce that  fatal  principle  of  substitution ;  wrong  in  a  constitutional 
view,  if  that  were  now  worth  attending  to,  but  far  more  wrong 
and  perfectly  fatal  from  the  effect  which  it  must  have  of  destroy- 
ing all  possibility  of  recruiting  the  army. 

That  it  is  the  militia  system,  extended  as  it  has  been,  of  late 
years,  and  changed  as  it  is  in  its  nature  and  character,  that  has 
eat  out  the  army,  nobody  can  reasonably  doubt.     What  is  there 


ARMY  OF  RESERVE.  79 

in  the  condition  of  this  country  that  should  make  it  incapable  of 
having  an  army,  in  some  degree,  at  least,  proportionate  to  its 
population  l  or  prevent  its  having  now^  vs^hat  it  -has  had  in  all 
former  times  1  That  the  militia  system,  as  carried  on  of  late, 
would  and  must  prevent  this,  is  perfectly  obvious.  I  want  to 
know  what  ground  there  is  for  concluding  that  there  are  any 
other  causes,  if  these  were  removed,  which  must  equally  produce 
the  same  effect  ?  When  we  say,  therefore,  that  we  can  get  no 
men  for  the  army,  the  answer  is  that  we  have  never  fairly  tried. 
Let  the  experiment  be  bond  fide  made.  Abolish  the  competition : 
and,  in  order  to  meet  the  effects  of  the  change  thus  produced, 
begin  now,  what  the  Honourable  Gentleman  says  must  be  begun 
some  time  or  other,  and  put  your  army  on  that  new  footing, 
which,  without  being  necessary  for  its  improvement,  for  I  know 
not  what  improvement  it  wants,  may  be  necessary  to  maintain 
its  numbers.  The  first  of  these  measures,  as  it  has  always  ap- 
peared to  me,  is  to  change  the  condition  of  service  from  life  to 
term  of  years ; — a  measure  on  which,  if  I  cannot  say,  that  mili- 
tary men  are  unanimous,  I  may  safely  say,  that  they  are  nearly 
so,  and  to  which  I  certainly  have  never  heard  any  objection  that 
could  at  all  be  set  in  competition  with  the  advantages  to  be  expect- 
ed from  it.  Its  advantages,  indeed,  if  they  really  exist,  are  of 
that  sort  which  must  take  place  of  every  other  consideration. 
The  first  merit  of  a  book,  says  a  great  critic,  is  to  make  itself 
read.  The  first  merit  in  the  constitution  of  an  army  is  to  provide 
that  it  should  continue  an  army. — Let  the  army,  therefore,  at  this 
moment,  and  not  at  any  time  of  future  peace,  and  with  a  view  to 
wars  that  may  then  be  future,  be  put  upon  that  footing,  in  which, 
in  conjunction  with  other  changes,  it  may  hope  to  be  recruited 
as  it  has  hitherto  been,  and  may  release  us  from  this  dreadful  and 
unheard-of  state  of  being  engaged  in  a  war,  without  an  offensive 
and  disposable  force.  With  all  the  disadvantages  which  the 
very  memory  of  the  bounties  heretofore  given,  will  not  fail  to 
produce,  even  when  the  bounties  themselves,  to  this  inordinate 
amount,  shall  be  given  no  longer,  I  should  not  despair  of  seeing 
our  army  gradually  restored,  and  the  service  again  go  on,  as  it 
did  in  all  former  times. 

It  is  in  conformity  to  these  views  that  my  judgment  must  be 
regulated  upon  the  present  measure.  As  a  levy  of  so  many  men 
on  the  principle  of  ballot  I  may  submit  to  it.  Government  declar- 
ing it  to  be  necessary,  because  the  urgency  of  the  case  seems  to 
leave  me  no  option,  and  hardly  time  to  consider  the  question.  But 
as  a  ballot  including  the  further  principle  of  substitution,  I  must 
formally  protest  against  it,  because  it  tends  to  produce  effects, 
which  no  consideration  of  present  advantage  could,  perhaps,  jus- 
tify the  incurring ;  but  which,  likewise,  in  my  opinion,  render  the 


80  ARMY  OF  RESERVE. 

measure  perfectly  ill-calculated  to  meet  even  the  present  danger. 
I  may  accept  the  ballot  for  the  sake  of  the  immediate  force  which 
it  will  produce/however  disadvantageous  I  may  think  it  in  various 
other  respects  ;  but  I  must,  at  least,  endeavour  to  disarm  it  of  its 
chief  mischief,  by  recommending  that  the  terms  of  exemption 
from  service  should  be  a  fixed  fine,  as  I  would,  for  the  same 
reason,  extend  that  principle  to  every  other  part  of  the  militia. 

But  here  I  must  make  my  formal  complaint  of  the  Government, 
which,  by  its  neglect,  its  delays,  its  total  want  of  all  foresight  and 
precaution,  has  brought  us  to  a  state  in  which  no  measure  that  is 
presented  to  us,  can  be  fairly  judged  of.  We  are  in  straits  in 
which  we  have  no  room  to  turn  ourselves.  The  danger  presses 
upon  us  so  immediately,  that  we  have  not  time  to  consider  what 
is  best :  we  must  take  up  with  what  is  first  presented  to  us.  Why 
has  this  measure  been  delayed  to  the  present  time  ?  Why  has  it 
only  now  been  discovered  that  a  force,  of  the  sort  here  proposed, 
would  finally  become  necessary,  and  why,  if  such  necessity  was 
foreseen,  has  the  time  and  manner  of  raising  it  only  now  been  sub- 
mitted to  this  House  ?  Above  all,  why  was  the  country  reduced 
to  its  present  defenceless  state,  immediately  upon  the  signature  of 
the  Treaty  of  Amiens,  in  spite  of  what  must  have  been  obvious, 
one  should  have  thought,  to  every  common  observer  of  what  the 
Ministers  now  tell  us,  they  themselves  saw;  namely,  that  the 
peace  which  they  had  made  was  no  peace ;  but  was  open,  at 
every  moment,  to  such  a  rupture  as  that  which  has  now  happened. 
In  this  state  did  they  think  it  right  to  dismantle  our  fleets,  to  re- 
duce considerably  our  army,  to  discharge  troops,  which,  in  six 
weeks  after,  they  wished  to  have  back,  or  which,  if  they  did  not 
wish  to  have  back,  as  the  Honourable  Gentleman's  gestures  would 
seem  to  indicate,  it  is  only  a  new  proof  how  little  they  understood 
the  real  nature  of  their  situation.  All  this  was  done  for  the  mise- 
rable purpose  of  deluding  the  people  with  the  false  idea  of  the 
blessings,  as  they  were  called,  of  Peace,  and  of  the  money  they 
were  to  save  by  thus  parting  wdth  all  the  means  of  safety. 

Leaving  these  reflections  for  the  present,  though  I  trust  never 
forgetting  them,  let  us  turn  to  the  consideration  of  the  measure 
immediately  before  us:  and  this,  perhaps,  we  cannot  properly 
judge  of  without  taking  into  our  view  the  larger  principles  on 
which  measures  of  this  sort  must  depend.  We  are  in  a  new  and 
unprecedented  state  of  things,  in  which  new  dangers  exist,  and 
new  modes  of  resistance  must  be  resorted  to  if  we  w^ould  hope 
not  to  be  overcome  by  them.  If  we  proceed  in  the  old  beaten 
course,  if  we  think  that  what  saved  us  heretofore  must  be  suffi- 
cient to  save  us  now,  our  destruction  is  inevitable. 

The  great  desideratum  which  we  have  to  make  good,  the  great 
problem  which  we  have  to  propose  to  ourselves,  is  to  find  the  means 


ARMY  OF  RESERVE.  81 

by  which  that  natural  force,  which,  in  this  as  in  all  similar  instan- 
ces, is  on  the  side  of  those  attacked,  may  be  so  applied  as  to 
overcome  the  superior  advantages  of  anotlier  kind  which  may  be 
found  on  the  side  of  the  enemy. — If  the  enemy  could  bring  with 
him  an  army  not  more  considerable  than  that  which  we  should 
have  to  oppose  him,  great  as.  the  object  is  at  stake,  much  as  I 
should  advise  that  even  in  that  case  no  precautions  should  be 
omitted,  yet  such  is  my  confidence  in  the  excellence  of  British 
troops,  such  are  the  proofs  which  they  have  given  of  their  capaci- 
ty to  contend  with  and  to  overcome  upon  any  thing  like  equal 
terms  the  troops  with  whom  they  would  have  to  deal,  that  even 
without  those  subsidiary  aids,  which  yet  it  would  not  be  right  to 
neglect,  I  should  feel  perfectly  at  ease  about  the  event. 

But  we  are  to  calculate  upon  the  supposition,  a,  supposition  far 
from  inconsistent  with  the  probability  of  the  fact,  that  the  enemy 
may  be  able  to  land  an  army  in  this  country  greater  either  than 
ift  whole  of  our  regular  force,  or  at  least  than  that  part  of  it 
which  could  immediately  be  collected  to  oppose  them.  The  ques- 
tion then  is,  how  shall  this  deficiency  be  supplied  ?  And  here  we 
have,  as  the  foundation  of  our  hopes,  this  leading  fact,  that  in  the 
case  of  every  invaded  country,  but  certainly  of  every  invaded 
island,  the  physical  force  is  always  on  the  side  of  the  invaded. 
No  country,  probably,  was  ever  invaded  by  a  force  superior  in 
number  to  the  portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  country  capable 
of  bearing  arms.  It  certainly  will  not  happen  to  us  to  be  so. 
Were  the  enemy  to  find  the  means  of  putting  on  shore  in  differ- 
ent parts,  a  body  of  a  hundred  thousand  men,  a  supposition  not 
likely,  but  by  no  means  to  be  rejected  as  impossible,  the  popula- 
tion of  this  very  town  would  yield  a  force  that  ought  to  make  no 
difliculty  of  contending  with  them. — There  is  no  question  there- 
fore of  the  sufficiency  of  physical  force:  but,  though  we  are 
abundantly  satisfied  of  this  truth,  to  a  degree  indeed  that  leads  us 
often  into  a  childish  and  boastful  confidence,  let  us  not  overlooks 
another  truth,  not  less  important  and  certain,  that  in  the  conduct 
of  human  affairs  it  is  rarely  the  physical  force  which  determines 
the  event.  If  it  did  so,  no  country,  as  appears  by  what  is  just 
said,  would  ever  fall  a  prey  to  invasion.  Hanover  would  at  this 
time  be  an  independent  country.  It  was  not  for  want  of  inhab- 
itants capable  of  bearing  arms  that  that  country  yielded  up  with- 
out a  blow,  its  laws,  its  government,  its  liberties,  its  property,  to 
the  handful  of  men,  comparatively  speaking,  who  marched  against 
it  under  General  Mortier.  It  is  thus,  in  other  instances.  A  battle 
is  fought,  a  fortress  is  taken,  and  the  country  submits.  If  we  have 
a  mind  to  pursue  this  truth,  in  cases  of  a  different  sort, — by  what 
means  do  all  the  governments  of  the  earth  subsist  ?  By  possess- 
ing the  physical  force  ?   Quite  the  contrary :  the  physical  force 


82  ARMY  OF  RESERVE. 

is  always  on  the  side  of  the  governed.  Governments,  with  all 
their  establishments  of  senates  and  magistrates,  and  ministers  and 
officers,  and  even  with  the  armies  which  they  may  have  at  their 
disposal,  are  nothing,  in  point  of  numbers,  compared  with  the  in- 
habitants at  large :  yet  thus  weak  in  physical  force,  these  govern- 
ments are  able,  fortunately  for  the  peace  and  happiness  of  the 
world,  to  hold  in  subjection  those  inhabitants,  and  that  not  only 
in  countries  w^here  the  general  sentiment  may  be  supposed  to  go 
-with  the  government,  and  the  submission  of  consequence  to  be 
voluntary,  as  in  these  happy  realms,  but  in  countries  such  as  that 
of  France  at  this  moment,  where  of  50  or  60  millions  or  more, 
whom  Bonaparte  may  have  at  his  disposal,  there  are  not  probably 
as  many  thousands  who  really  wish  him  well  or  submit  to  his 
government  on  any  other  principle  than  that  of  fear.  This  truth, 
therefore,  the  jacobinism  of  modern  times  chose  as  the  foundation 
of  all  its  operations,  the  scope  and  object  of  which  was  to  apply 
the  physical  force  of  every  country  to  the  subversion  of  its  gov- 
ernment. 

We  are  in  circumstances,  when  we  must  prosecute  a  similar 
enquiry  for  a  very  opposite  purpose  ;  and  must  endeavour  to  find 
out  how  the  physical  means  of  a  great  country  may  be  employed, 
not  for  the  overthrow  of  its  government,  but  to  save  itself  from 
the  incursion  of  foreign  armies.  And  we  may  venture  to  say, 
that  if  these  means  can  be  gradually  discovered  and  brought  into 
use,  the  discovery  will  form  an  epoch  in  human  affairs  hardly  less 
important,  and  certainly  much  more  satisfactory,  than  that  which 
was  produced  by  the  discovery  above  alluded  to,  of  the  art  of 
overthrowing  governments. 

We  are  now  in  the  state  of  being  compelled  to  try  what  can 
be  done  towards  effecting  this  great  desideratum ;  in  which  if  we 
cannot  succeed  better  than  has  been  done  in  most  of  the  countries 
of  Europe,  in  Hanover,  in  Holland,  in  Flanders,  in  Italy,  in  Swit- 
zerland, the  fate  of  this  country  will  hang  on  nothing  but  chance. 
We  must  form  our  judgment  of  the  present  measure  by  its  tenden- 
cy to  carry  those  endeavours  into  effect. — The  general  course  of 
the  proceeding,  in  the  minds  of  his  Majesty's  Mini.sters,  seems  to 
have  been  this — A  regular  force,  a  force  consisting  of  troops  of 
the  line,  is  confessedly  the  best ;  but  circumstances,  and  above  all 
the  urgency  of  the  case,  will  not  allow  of  this  being  obtained  in 
time.  Not  being  able  therefore  to  obtain  the  best,  you  must  do 
what  the  law  directs  in  the  case  of  evidence,  you  must  get  the 
next  best.  This  next  best  is  a  Militia,  or  a  force  raised  upon  the 
principles  now  proposed.  There  will  therefore  be  three  species 
of  force  in  the  country,  1st,  the  Regulars,  2dly,  the  Militia,  and 
3dly,  the  Volunteers,  and  other  corps  of  that  description ;  and 
these  being  to  be  taken,  in  point  of  preference,  in  the  order  in 


ARxMY  OF  RESERVE.  83 

which  they  are  here  enumerated,  the  Regulars  being  to  be  con- 
sidered as  better  than  the  Militia,  and  the  Militia  than  the  Volun- 
teers— the  masculine  more  worthy  than  the  feminine,  and  the 
feminine  more  worthy  than  the  neuter ;  you  must  do  this,  as  all 
persons  must  do  in  similar  circumstances,  you  must  take  the  sec- 
ond when  you  cannot  get  the  first,  and  the  third -when  you  cannot 
get  either  of  the  other  two. 

All  this,  so  stated,  is  perfectly  true.  I  am  willing  to  admit,  not 
only  that  the  Regulars  are  better  than  the  Militia,  which  no  intel- 
ligent Militia  officer  will  feel  at  all  disposed  to  deny ;  but  that 
Militia,  in  equal  numbers,  are  better  than  any  other  species  of 
force  of  an  establishment  still  less  regular. — But  in  the  application 
of  this  to  the  support  of  the  present  measure  there  is  a  complete 
fallacy ;  for  it  is  not  what  the  option  would  be  between  these  de- 
scriptions of  force  supposing  them  all  before  us,  or,  putting  one 
out  of  the  question,  what  would  be  the  choice  between  the  re- 
maining two ;  but  whether  you  wdll  begin  by  raising  that  which 
you  do  not  consider  as  best,  and  thereby  produce  a  state  of  things 
in  which  to  obtain  the  best  shall  be  no  longer  practicable.  From 
the  language  held  about  the  comparative  value  of  these  objects 
you  would  suppose  a  course  to  be  taken  the  very  reverse  of  that 
actually  pursued ;  you  would  suppose  the  higher  bounty  given  for 
the  best  force :  and  that  it  was  only  when  hopes  on  that  side  were 
nearly  exhausted,  that  you  laid  out  your  endeavours  on  a  force 
confessedly  less  eligible.  But  just  the  contrary.  You  give  your  fifteen 
guineas  for  service  in  the  MiUtia;  and  ten  or  five  for  service  in  the 
army  :  and  then  you  exclaim,  that  you  are  obliged  to  have  recourse 
to  Militia,  because  you  can  get  no  army. — This  statement,  therefore, 
when  applied  thus  generally,  can  by  no  means  be  admitted.  All  that 
can  be  said  is,  that  in  the  mode  proposed,  and  by  a  continuance  of 
the  Militia  system,  you  will,  for  a  time,  raise  your  men  faster,  and 
will  within  that  same  time  produce  a  greater  force.  The  question  will 
then  be,  how  far  the  superior  quantity  will  compensate  the  differ- 
ence of  quality ;  and  how  far  present  advantages  must  be  made 
to  outweigh,  in  the  actual  circumstances,  all  consideration  of  ob- 
jects, even  of  the  highest  consequence,  in  future. 

In  this  view  it  may  be  necessary  to  say  a  word  or  two,  on  the 
difference  that  must,  for  ever,  subsist  between  troops  of  the  line, 
and  every  other  species  of  troops  serving  upon  the  footing  of  a 
Militia.  It  is  as  little  pleasant  to  me,  as  to  any  other  gentleman, 
to  be  making  comparisons,  that  can  rarely  be  satisfactory  to  both 
parties,  and  to  be  remarking  perpetually  to  officers  of  the  Militia, 
that,  after  all  their  zeal,  all  their  intelligence,  all  their  honourable 
sacrifices,  all  their  meritorious  exertions,  and  with  all  the  well- 
founded  vanity  which  they  may  feel  at  the  success  of  their  endea- 
vours :  a  success  far  exceedinj^  all  that  the  founders  of  the  Militia 


84  ARMY  OF  RESERVE. 

ever  ventured  to  promise  themselves ;  the  service  in  which  they 
have  thus  laboured,  cannot,  by  the  very  nature  of  it,  ever  attain 
to  all  the  (|ualities  which  belong  to  regular  troops.  It  is  no  reproach 
to  them  that  this  should  be  so ;  because  it  is  no  reproach  to  any 
one  that  he  cannot  alter  the  nature  of  things ;  at  the  same  time  I 
do  not  say  that  th^  reflection  may  not  be  in  some  small  degree 
painful :  it  may  be  painful  to  those  who  have  done  so  much,  to 
think  that  it  should  not  be  possible  for  them  to  do  every  thing ; 
that  they  must  find  in  the  nature  of  the  subject  those  limits  which 
they  do  not  find  in  their  own  zeal  or  talents. — The  difference 
between  the  two  services,  is  founded  on  the  eternal  difference 
that  must  subsist  between  troops,  who  always  remain  at  home, 
and  those  who  are  placed  from  time  to  time  in  distant  stations ; 
between  troops  who  have  seen  service,  and  those  who,  generally 
speaking,  have  not ;  between  troops  commanded  by  officers,  who 
have  never  acted  with  them  in  difficulties  and  dangers,  who  have 
never  shown,  because  they  have  had  no  opportunity  of  showing, 
their  title  to  command  by  the  valour  which  they  have  displayed, 
who  can  pretend  to  no  experience,  who  can  bring  no  authority 
from  former  reputation ; — and  troops,  whose  officers  possess  in 
themselves  all  these  sources  of  ascendency,  and  all  these  claims 
to  respect.  There  is,  moreover,  a  sort  of  soldier  character,  ari- 
sing from  a  thousand  causes,  and  acquired  insensibly  in  the  course 
of  regular  service,  which  wdll  easily  be  distinguished  by  discern- 
ing eyes,  and  will  furnish  in  general  a  marked  discrimination 
between  the  Militia  soldier,  and  the  soldier  of  the  line.  These 
circumstances  must  of  course  enter  into  account  when  we  are 
regulating  our  choice  betw^een  the  two  services,  and  founding  our 
measures  on  the  mixed  consideration  of  numbers  in  each,  com- 
pared with  their  respective  qualities. — However  confident  I  may 
feel  that  our  Militia  force  will  prove  a  most  valuable  part,  should 
the  enemy  come,  of  the  national  defence,  however  certain  I  am 
that  in  the  day  of  action  Militia  regiments  w^ill  be  found  who  will 
have  distinguished  themselves  not  less  than  the  choicest  troops  we 
have,  I  can  never  say,  generally,  that  a  force  of  that  description 
is  to  be  put  upon  a  level  with  that  of  the  regular  army. 

I  have  been  surprised,  therefore,  to  hear  it  urged,  that  while  a 
certain  number  of  men  must  be  kept  at  home  for  the  defence  of 
the  country,  it  was  a  matter  of  indifference  w^hether  our  army  to 
that  amount  was  composed  of  Militia  or  Regulars.  I  thought  I 
had  heard  upon  other  occasions  high  hopes  expressed  of  the  se- 
curity which  the  country  must  derive  from  the  return  of  those 
veteran  legions,  who  had  so  crowned  themselves  with  glory,  and 
established  the  military  fame  of  the  country,  in  Egypt  and  other 
places.  But  according  to  this  idea,  they  could  do  no  more  for 
us  than  any  other  equal  number  of  troops,  who '  had  never  seen 


ARMY  OF  RESERVE.  85 

an  enemy.  But  is  even  this  the  only  difference  between  Regulars 
and  Militia,  between  a  disposable  and  an  undisposable  force  ? 
Though  the  circumstances  of  the  war  may,  at  one  time,  require 
a  force  of  a  certain  amount  to  be  kept  within  the  kingdom,  the 
next  moment  may  set  a  great  part  of  it  at  liberty;  and  is  it  of  no 
consequence  that  its  constitution  should  be  such  as  to  make  it  in- 
capable of  avaiUng  itself  of  that  liberty  ?  Nay,  if  even  that 
should  be  so,  and  that  in  point  of  fact  the  power  of  sending  it 
abroad  w^as  one  of  which  no  use  could  be  made,  is  it  indifferent 
whether  the  enemy  is  apprized  or  not  of  that  truth,  and  whether 
he  is  enabled  to  calculate  his  plans  upon  the  previous  knowledge, 
that  the  force  existing  in  the  country  can,  in  no  case,  be  sent 
against  him  ?  If  the  evils  with  which  we  have  to  struggle,  if  the 
dangers  which  threaten  us,  are  ever  to  end,  it  must  be  by  some 
change,  from  within  or  from  without,  which  shall  be  made  in 
that  power  w4iich  has  sworn  our"  destruction,  and  which,  till  she 
is  destroyed  herself,  will  never  cease  in  her  endeavours  to  accom- 
plish it.  And  what  must  be  the  counsels,  and  what  the  situation 
of  this  country,  if  we  are  voluntarily  to  place  ourselves  in  a  situ- 
ation, in  which  it  shall  be  impossible  for  us  to  co-operate  in  produ- 
cing any  such  change,  or  in  availing  ourselves  of  it,  if  it  should  hap- 
pen by  other  means  1  If  such  is  our  situation,  or  such  are  our  ideas, 
there  is  no  difficulty  in  predicting  that  we  must  ultimately  perish. 
In  every  view,  therefore,  either  of  what  is  to  be  looked  to  here- 
after, or  is  necessary  in  the  present  moment,  I  must  condemn  a 
measure,  of  which  both  the  immediate  effect,  and  final  tendency, 
is  to  deprive  the  country  of  a  regular  army,  that  is  to  say,  of  the 
best  means  for  home  defence,  and  of  the  only  means  of  effectual 
and  finally  successful  war. — And  here  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
advert  to  another  measure  of  less  extent,  but  of  the  same  general 
character,  and  which,  as  far  as  it  goes,  is  a  revival  of  that  system 
unhappily  adopted  in  the  beginning  of  the  last  war,  and  from  the 
effects  of  which  the  army  has  not  yet  recovered ;  namely,  that 
of  raising  men  for  rank.  Notwithstanding  all  the  modifications 
and  temperaments  introduced  into  it  by  the  Honourable  Gentle- 
man, the  effects  of  it,  as  far  as  the  measure  extends,  will  be  much 
the  same  as  in  the  former  instance.  No  prohibitions  will  ever 
restrain  officers  placed  in  those  circumstances,  from  giving  more 
than  the  regulated  bounty.  In  fact,  it  is  notorious  that  they  do  give 
more ;  the  effect  of  the  measure  therefore,  in  this  respect,  is  only 
to  add  to  the  competition  against  the  army  already  subsisting,  and 
to  raise  the  rate  of  bounty  against  the  other  recruiting  parties ; 
against  the  ordinary  recruiting,  you  may  say,  of  the  same  regi- 
ment So  that  it  can  hardly  be  considered  as  adding  a  man  to 
the  army. — On  the  other  hand,  if  money  is  not  to  be  employed  in 
raising  these  men,  money  I  mean  beyond  the  rate  of  bounty 
8 


86  ARMY  OF  RESERVE. 

allowed  by  the  regulation,  then  what  are  you  to  rely  upon? — 
Upon  a  hope  ten  times  more  fatal  in  the  accomplishment  of  it,  in 
my  opinion,  than  any  effect  likely  to  result  from  the  increase  of 
the  rate  of  bounty;  namely,  that  a  certain  number  of  British 
officers,  forgetting  that  delicacy  of  sentiment,  and  nice  sense  of 
honour,  which  so  peculiarly  mark  the  character  of  officers  in 
our  service,  and  make  them  what  they  are,  will  become,  what  is 
called,  able  recruiters,  that  is  to  say,  men  versed  and  expert  in 
the  noble  art  of  crimping,  one  of  the  most  degrading  employments, 
and  most  inconsistent  with  all  upright  and  liberal  feelings,  that 
can  well  be  conceived. 

Such  is  the  state  of  the  measures  offered  to  us  at  last  by  His 
Majesty's  government,  in  this  most  awful  crisis  of  our  affairs, 
with  a  view  of  averting  the  dreadful  dangers  with  which  we  have 
to  struggle.  I  have  stated  already  the  changes  which  I  should 
wish  to  see  introduced  into  these  measures,  and  the  course  which 
I  would  pursue  with  respect  to  those  parts  of  general  defence  of 
which  we  have  here  been  treating.  If  a  body  of  men  must  be 
raised  by  ballot,  of  which  I  do  not  care  to  give  a  decisive  opinion, 
let  the  numbers  be  confined  to  the  mere  men  balloted,  and  let 
the  sums  paid  as  penalties  for  exemption  be  laid  out  not  for  com- 
pleting these  corps,  but  for  augmenting  the  recruiting  fund  for  the 
service  of  the  army. — Let  the  same  be  done  for  the  militia  univer- 
sally. If  government  have  a  mind  to  procure  substitutes,  in  any 
instance,  for  the  old  militia,  let  it  take  the  providing  these  substi- 
tutes into  its  own  hands,  so  as  to  see  that  no  increase  be  thence 
made  to  what  it  should  fix  for  the  rate  of  bounty.  Let  the  con- 
dition of  service  in  the  army  be  changed  so  as  to  make  the 
engagement  for  term  of  years  instead  of  for  life,  with  such  in- 
creasing advantages  held  out,  at  the  close  of  succeeding  periods, 
(as  well  by  certain  privileges  to  be  then  enjoyed,  as  by  bounties 
and  increase  of  pension,)  as  might  be  most  likely  to  ensure  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  service  of  the  men  once  engaged. — To  these 
changes  should  be  added  a  total  abolition  of  drafting,  not  silently 
introduced,  and  adopted  merely  in  practice,  but  so  declared 
beforehand,  as  that  its  benefits  might  be  felt  in  the  recruiting.  In 
general,  in  this  as  in  many  other  regulations  that  might  be  pro- 
posed, the  maintaining,  or  rather  the  creating,  an  army  would  be 
my  object,  conceiving  that  even  for  purposes  of  mere  defence,  a 
small  portion  of  truly  regular  troops,  in  conjunction  with  the 
undisciplined  efforts  of  the  country,  may  be  set  in  balance  against 
a  very  large  proportion  of  troops  imperfectly  formed. 

Thus  far  I  have  been  considering  only,  what  may  be  called  the 
embodied  force  of  the  country.  But  will  this  force,  increase  it, 
constitute  it,  how  you  will,  be  sufficient  ?  And  must  not  a  new 
and  larger  fund  be  resorted  to,  namely,  that  which  will  embrace 


ARMY  OF  RESERVE.  87 

all  the  strength,  energy,  zeal,  talents,  faculties  mental  and  corpo- 
real, of  the  country?  If  we  think  that  we  can  be  protected  by 
any  of  the  ordinary  means  of  war,  by  trusting  our  defence  to 
men,  dressed  as  soldiers,  and  hired  or  compelled  to  defend  us, 
bating  the  chances,  by  sea  or  otherwise,  that  may  interpose  to 
defeat  the  enemy's  projects  in  the  first  instance,  we  are  Httle  less 
than  undone.  This  embodied  force,  be  it  good  or  bad,  can  go  but 
a  very  little  way.  You  cannot  have  it,  if  you  wait  to  the  last 
moment;  to  call  it  forth  beforehand,  to  the  necessary  amount, 
would  be  an  evil  which  the  state  of  society  in  this  country  could 
never  endure.  This  evil  will  be  felt  to  a  fearful  extent  in  the 
present  measure ;  without,  at  the  same  time,  any  adequate  advan- 
tage being  derived  from  it.  The  whole,  indeed,  of  this  measure 
is  of  that  sort  of  which  the  examples  are  so  numerous,  and  which 
are  calculated  more  for  show  than  use.  We  hear  often  of  parlia- 
mentary grounds,  and  in  cases  where  parliamentary  grounds 
would  seem  to  be  something  distinct  from  grounds  of  reason  and 
common  sense.  In  the  same  manner  we  meet  occasionally  with 
what  may  be  called  parliamentary  measures:  that  is  to  say, 
measures  which  in  skilful  hands  will  make  an  imposing  figure  in 
a  statement,  particularly  when  addressed  to  persons  wholly  un- 
conversant  with  the  subject ;  but  will  never  pass  upon  experienced 
and  intelligent  men,  and  will  be  found  utterly  to  fail  in  practice :  a 
sort  of  show-goods,  such  as  will  appear  to  sufficient  advantage 
in  a  shop-w^indow,  but  will  never  bear  the  eye  of  a  dealer,  and 
will  be  found  wholly  unfit  for  wear.  At  all  events,  you  must  have 
recourse  to  other,  and  more  extensive  means.  You  must  prepare 
the  country:  you  must  put  the  country  in  a  situation  in  which  its 
patriotic  zeal,  its  native  courage,  its  various  and  abundant  ener- 
gies, may  have  a  way  to  operate  and  produce  their  natural  effects. 
The  general  plan,  which  presents  itself  to  me  for  that  purpose, 
and  on  which  a  thousand  others  might  be  engrafted,  according  as 
circumstances  varied,  or  future  views  developed  themselves, 
would  be  instantly  to  distribute  the  country,  or  such  parts  of  it 
as  you  wished  immediately  to  prepare  (for  one  merit,  at  least,  of 
this  plan  is,  that  you  may  take  as  much  or  as  little  of  it  as  you 
please)  into  small  divisions  of  two  or  three  contiguous  parishes 
each,  according  to  the  population,  stationing  an  officer  in  each, 
with  a  small  deposit  of  arms  and  ammunition,  and  whose  office 
it  should  be,  in  concert  with  all  the  zeal,  intelligence,  and  influence 
which  he  might  find  in  the  neighbourhood,  to  train  those  who 
should  voluntarily  oflTer  themselves,  to  such  parts  of  military 
training  as  they  would  be  alone  capable  of,  and  as  are,  after  all, 
by  far  the  most  important.  It  would  never  enter  into  my  idea,  to 
introduce  into  bands  of  this  sort  any  of  the  foppery  of  dress,  or 
any  distinctive  dress  at  all;  a  riband,  or  even  a  handkerchief 


Sg  ARMY  OF  RESERVE. 

round  the  arm,  to  distinguish  those,  who  were  receiving  this  in- 
struction, from  the  crowd  that  might  occasionally  accompany 
them,  is  all  that  would  be  necessary.  Those  essential  parts  of 
military  training,  as  they  seem  to  be  thought,  a  fife  and  a  drum, 
the  marching  in  rank  and  in  file,  the  wheeling  backwards,  the 
eyes  right  and  eyes  left,  whatever  may  be  their  value  on  other 
occasions, — a  point  that  I  do  not  presume  to  meddle  with — must 
here,  however  reluctantly,  be  given  up.  Firing  at  a  mark,  learn- 
ing, indeed,  to  fire  at  all,  which  (thanks  to  the  game  laws)  few 
of  our  peasantry  are  acquainted  with ;  some  instruction  in  the 
manner  of  cleaning  arms,  much  instruction  in  the  methods  of 
lining  hedges,  firing  from  behind  trees,  retiring  upon  call,  and 
resuming  a  new  station ;  these  are  all  the  heads  of  discipline  to 
which  I  should  propose  them  to  be  exercised. 

It  is  not,  indeed,  very  well  ascertained  what  proportion  these 
may  bear,  (a  very  deficient  one,  no  doubt,)  to  the  whole  of  what 
is  required  of  soldiers ;  nor  how  far  much  of  that  which  use  and 
prejudice  have  taught  us  to  consider  as  essential,  might  be  dispensed 
with,  though  possibly  not  without  some  disadvantage,  even  in 
regular  armies.  It  is  not  very  clear,  that  troops  in  the  Duke  of 
Marlborough's  time,  were  required  in  marching  to  move  all  of 
them  the  same  leg  at  once.  Much  of  the  modern  practice  was 
introduced  under  the  authority  of  the  great  King  of  Prussia,  who 
adapted  his  system  to  his  own  mode  of  warfare — the  warfare  of 
large  armies  in  open  countries^and  might  himself  possibly  be 
aware,  that  many  of  its  rules,  though  upon  the  whole  desirable, 
were  not  of  that  importance  which  his  less-informed  imitators 
have  since  ascribed  to  them.  The  French,  whose  authority  at 
this  time  it  is  not  for  Europe  to  dispute,  have  changed  back  much 
of  what  was  then  introduced,  and  have  got  nearer  in  some  respects 
to  what  was  the  old  practice,  but  more  nearly  perhaps  to  what 
was  the  practice  in  the  late  American  war :  and  though  with  them 
the  eternal  difference  between  trained  and  untrained;  between 
regular  and  irregular ;  (what  are  called  irregular  being  with  them 
perfectly  regular  troops  in  their  own  kind)  between  veteran  and 
disciplined  soldiers  and  hasty  levies,  is  perfectly  understood ;  yet 
the  mode  of  warfare  introduced  by  them  countenances  much 
more  than  heretofore,  the  utility  of  such  armed  and  partially 
instructed  bodies,  as  that  which  I  have  presumed  to  recommend. 

The  measure  is,  at  least,  good  as  far  as  it  goes.  It  draws  no 
man  from  his  home ;  it  puts  no  man  in  a  state  of  painful  con- 
straint ;  it  stops  no  man  in  his  business,  so  as  to  leave  his  family 
to  distress,  or  to  become  a  charge  upon  the  public.  It  has  the 
fnrther  merit  of  not  interfering  with  any  thing  else,  so  as  to  pre- 
vent any  man  from  entering  the  army,  or  navy,  or  militia,  or 
serving  the  state  in  any  other  way. 


ARMY  OF  RESERVE.       -  89 

Expense  I  would  have  none.  The  pay  of  the  officer,  the  price 
of  the  powder  consumed,  the  hire  of  the  store-house  for  depositing 
the  arms  in  cases  where  the  parish  church  could  not  be  made  to 
serve  the  purpose,  with  such  an  allowance  to  the  men,  as  was  a 
mere  equivalent  for  their  lost  time,  these  would  be  the  whole,  or 
nearly  the  whole,  of  the  expenses  incident  to  the  plan,  which  cer- 
tainly could  not  be  thought  objectionable  on  that  score. 

So  much  as  to  its  negative  merits.  As  to  its  advantages,  it 
provides  for  a  distribution  of  arms  whenever  the  time  shall  come, 
and  it  prepares  the  people  in  a  certain  degree  for  the  use  of  them. 
It  fills  the  country  with  powder  and  ball ;  and  it  instructs  those  in 
whose  custody  they  are  placed,  to  what  hands,  when  the  emer- 
gency shall  call  for  it,  they  may  be  entrusted  to  the  greatest 
advantage  and  with  most  safety.  The  officer,  aided  by  the  leading 
gentlemen,  by  the  clergyman,  by  the  principal  yeomen  and  others, 
and  having  continued  intercourse  with  the  lower  orders,  will  soon 
be  able  to  forni  a  tolerable  judgment  of  those  on  whom  he  may 
rely,  upon  such  an  occasion,  and  those  who,  from  feebleness  or 
otherwise,  are  less  worthy  of  such  confidence.  But  the  greatest, 
possibly,  of  all  the  advantages  which  I  should  be  inclined  to  hope 
from  this  plan  is,  that  it  will  produce  that  most  important  of  all 
preparations,  the  preparation  of  the  mind.  It  seems  to  be  almost 
the  only  way,  (I  must  think  the  most  effectual,)  in  which  the 
people  will  be  thoroughly  impressed  with  a  conviction  of  the 
danger.  The  present  measure  will,  I  confess,  prove  a  powerful 
instructor  as  far  as  inconvenience  goes :  but  inconvenience  is,  at 
least,  not  the  pleasantest  w^ay  of  conveying  instruction.  But  the 
present  measure  will  never  instruct  the  people  in  this,  that  it  must 
be  on  their  own  exertions,  that  they  must  depend  for  salvation. 
One  main  object  of  the  measure  is,  that  its  tendency  is  the  direct 
reverse.  In  the  other  way,  both  a  sense  of  the  danger,  and  a 
knowledge  of  the  means  necessary  to  be  employed  against  it,  will 
be  carried  into  every  farm-house  and  every  cottage.  It  will  be 
the  conversation  of  the  village  green,  of  the  church  porch,  and, 
what  is  not  the  least  perhaps,  of  the  ale-house.  Men  will  be  turn- 
ing their  thoughts  to  what  they  can  do  upon  the  occasion,  will  be 
calling  up  the  memory  of  former  exploits,  will  be  counting  upon 
their  newly-acquired  means  and  knowledge,  and  above  all  will  be 
familiarizing  their  minds  to  the  object  It  is  not  to  be  told  how 
nnuch  of  military  knowledge  (which  is  nothing  more  than  the 
application  of  common  sense  to  situations,  new  indeed,  but  soon 
capable  of  being  comprehended),  will  spring  up  under  this  culti- 
vation, in  situations  wnere  apparently  it  was  to  be  least  expected. 
An  officer  stationed  in  this  way,  if  only  by  promoting  military 
conversation,  will  become  a  source  of  instruction  by  no  means  to 
be  despised.  Every  day  of  exercise  or  walk  into  the  fields  will 
8*  M 


90  ARMY  OF  RESERVE. 

be  a  sort  of  clinical  lecture.  If  the  officer  be  an  intelligent  man, 
and  has  seen  service,  he  will  soon  find  himself  surrounded  by 
people,  who  will  have  acquired  under  his  instructions  reasonably 
good  military  ideas,  and  have  qualified  themselves,  should  the 
occasion  arise,  to  render  him  very  useful  assistance. 

This  sort  of  armed  force,  not  confined,  like  the  volunteers 
hitherto  raised,  to  small  troops  in  towns,  and  who  (without  dis- 
paragement be  it  spoken)  consist  for  the  most  part  of  persons, 
who  from  bodily  force,  habits,  and  situation  of  life,  cannot  gene- 
rally be  expected  to  support  the  fatigues  of  military  service, — this 
sort  of  armed  force,  co-extensive  with  the  active  population  of 
the  country,  though  it  cannot  of  itself  stop  the  march  of  an  army, 
must  produce  an  immense  effect,  aided  by  troops  of  yeomanry, 
whose  utility  will  be  very  great,  in  co-operation  with  such  resist- 
ance as  we  expect  from  forces  of  a  different  description.  When 
we  talk  of  the  diflference  to  armies  of  acting  in  a  friendly  or  a 
hostile  country,  we  certainly  do  not  suppose  that  difl^erence  to 
be  less,  because  the  hostile  country  happens  to  be  prepared  and 
armed. 

But  every  preparation  of  this  sort  has  hitherto,  by  His  Majesty's 
ministers,  been  completely  neglected.  We  are,  for  aught  we 
know,  within  two  months  of  invasion,  and  the  measure  now  just 
brought  forth,  is  the  only  measure  except  the  calling  out  of  the 
militia,  which  they  appear  to  have  thought  of. — But  they  do,  it 
seems,  immense  things  in  secret. — True  dignity  shows  itself  in 
calm !  Why,  Sir,  what  these  measures  can  be,  of  which  the 
country  knows  nothing,  it  is  not  very  easy  to  comprehend ;  and 
therefore  one  a  little  distrusts  the  nature  of  this  calm. — There  are 
different  sorts  of  calm.  There  is  the  calm  of  confident  and 
complacent  hope,  and  the  calm  of  despair.  The  calm  of  men, 
who  having  passed  the  first  agitation  of  danger,  have  settled  their 
minds  to  a  determined  resistance  to  it ;  and  the  calm  of  those, 
who  are  only  tranquil,  because,  from  ignorance  or  insensibility, 
they  are  wholly  incredulous  of  its  approach.  I  wish  the  Honour- 
able Gentlemen's  calm  may  not  be  that  of  a  wretched  lodger, 
who,  hearing  a  noise  below,  instead  of  manfully  getting  up  tp 
resist  the  robbers,  only  hides  his  head  in  the  bed  clothes,  and 
hopes  they  may  go  off  with  their  other  booty  without  coming  into 
his  apartment. 

Their  secrecy  too  is  altogether  as  whimsical  an  idea.  They 
observe,  I  suppose,  that  Buonaparte  is  very  secret ;  and  judging 
him,  as  they  well  may,  to  be  a  great  Captain,  they  conceive,  by 
imitating  his  secrecy,  that  they  shall  appear  to  be  great  Captains 
themselves.  But  they  forget  the  difference  between  attack  and 
defence.  A  man  who  means  to  surprise  his  enemy  does  very  right 
to  keep  his  intentions  secret ;  but  it  is  not  altogether  so  proper  on 


ARMY  OF  RESERVE.  91 

the  part  of  him  who  means  only  not  to  be  surprised.  An  officer 
who  was  about  to  surprise  a  post  by  a  night  attack,  would  do 
very  well  not  to  tell  his  soldiers,  whither  he  was  leading  them ; 
but  it  would  be  odd,  if  the  officer  on  the  other  side  was  to  say  to 
the  next  in  command,  "I  have  intelligence  that  we  shall  be 
attacked  to-night ;  but  remember  this  is  only  for  yourself.  Don't 
say  a  word  to  the  guard ;  secrecy  is  the  very  soul  of  military 
operations." — There  is  another  rather  material  difference,  that 
Buonaparte  has  nothing  to  do  but  to  issue  his  orders  with  a  cer- 
tainty that  they  will  be  punctually  obeyed,  whether  the  army  hke 
them  or  not,  whether  they  are  called  upon  to  execute  them  at  a 
longer  or  shorter  notice,  or  whether  they  have  any  conception  or 
not  of  the  general  purpose  which  they  are  meant  to  answer.  But 
the  army  here  to  be  applied  to,  is  the  people  of  Great  Britain, 
who,  besides  that  they  may  debate  a  little  upon  the  orders  which 
they  receive,  must  act  in  a  great  degree  from  their  own  impulse 
and  discretion,  and  who  will  never  be  brought  to  act  at  all,  if  they 
themselves  are  not  previously  made  sensible  of  the  danger. — I,  for 
one,  will  not  pay  them  so  bad  a  compliment  as  to  suppose  that 
they  are  not  fit  to  be  trusted  with  this  secret.  I  disclaim  the 
notion,  I  renounce  "  as  impious  and  heretical"  that  "  damnable 
doctrine,"  that  to  blind  the  people  as  to  their  true  situation,  to 
conceal  from  them  the  reality  of  the  danger,  is  the  only  way  to 
keep  up  their  courage.  If  this  is  really  their  state,  then  is  the 
country  in  a  deplorable  way  indeed :  but  changed  as  the  people 
of  this  country  are,  by  a  thousand  causes,  and  under  the  influence 
of  a  sort  of  language  and  policy  w^hich  has  prevailed  for  so  many 
years,  I  will  never  believe,  that  they  must  be  lulled  into  a  false 
security,  be  exposed  to  all  the  dreadful  dangers  of  a  surprise,  (the 
effects  of  which  no  man  can  calculate,)  because,  to  show  them 
their  danger,  would  be  to  dismay  them.  How  do  we  combine 
this  with  all  the  vaunting  and  high-flown  compliments,  which  we 
are  for  ever  paying  them?  Are  they  only  brave,  when  they 
believe  there  is  no  danger  ?  I  reject  the  imputation.  Their  safety 
depends  upon  their  exertions ;  and  their  exertions  must  be  stimu- 
lated, as  I  am  confident  they  will  be  stimulated,  by  a  sense  of 
their  danger. 

In  addition  to  those  exertions  which  the  people  themselves  must 
make,  and  on  which  must  rest  our  chief  hopes,  there  is  much  that 
ministers  themselves  ought  to  be  diligently  employed  about,  but  to 
which  I  must  suspect  no  attention  has  been  given.  Every  officer 
of  note  and  character  in  the  country  ought  to  be  called  upon  for 
his  opinion :  not  an  opinion  given  in  conversation,  and  with  an 
obliging  acquiescence,  perhaps,  to  the  presumed  notions  or  wishes 
of  the  person  he  is  talking  to,  but  such  as  must  stand  in  evidence 
against  him,  and  on  whicli  his  military  judgment  and  credit  will 


92  ARMY  OF  RESERVE. 

be  at  stake.  Innumerable  measures  of  precaution  are  likewise 
necessary,  and  which  would  not  be  the  less  useful,  because  they 
would  be  attended  with  no  expense  or  distress  to  the  country.  I 
do  not  object  to  the  present  measure  on  account  of  the  expense 
and  inconvenience  which  attend  it,  great  as  they  will  be.  What- 
ever is  necessary  must  be  done,  let  the  hardship  be  what  it  will. 
But  I  beg  that  we  may  not  invert  the  proposition,  as  many  are 
apt  to  do,  and  suppose  that  whatever  is  burthensome  and  oppres- 
sive, must  therefore  be  efficacious.  I  suspect  the  present  measure 
to  be  of  that  character ;  possibly  in  all  its  parts ;  but  unquestion- 
ably I  must  object  to  it,  in  that  part,  which  goes  in  the  first 
instance,  and  finally,  as  I  believe,  to  make  it  impossible  for  us  to 
have  an  army. 

After  a  debate  in  which  Mr.  Addington  (Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer)  vin- 
dicated the  proposed  measure,  and  Mr.  Pitt  approved  the  principle  of  it,  but 
objected  to  some  of  its  provisions,  the  address  which  had  been  moved  by  the 
Secretary  at  War  was  put,  and  carried  without  a  division. 


(   93   ) 

DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

DECEMBER  9th,  180a 

Mr.  Bragge,  Secretary  at  War,  moved  that  the  House  should  resolve  itself 
into  a  Committee -of  Supply  on  the  Army  Estimates,  vi^hich  included,  amongst 
other  provisions,  the  sum  of  730,000^.  for  the  Volunteer  Corps  of  Great  Britain. 
On  the  question  being  put  on  the  first  resolution, 

Mr.  Wi\DHAM  began  by  adverting  to  the  manner  in  which  the 
business  had  been  opened  by  the  Honourable  Secretary,  which, 
he  said,  though  very  proper  at  any  ordinary  time,  and  though 
possibly  very  proper  then,  was  so  different  from  the  view  which 
he  felt  himself  compelled  to  take  of  the  subject,  that  his  observa- 
tions, he  feared,  would  appear  very  little  to  arise  out  of  the  state- 
ments which  the  House  had  just  heard.  His  view  of  the  subject 
went  to  the  general  defence  of  the  country  both  present  and  to 
come.  Under  that  notion,  the  difficulty  was  to  know  where  to 
begin,  or  how  to  confine  the  discussion  within  such  bounds  as  he 
should  wish  to  prescribe  to  it.  It  was  impossible,  in  the  course 
of  such  an  inquiry,  not  to  bring  forward  many  points  that  must 
bear  hard  upon  the  Honourable  Gentlemen  opposite.  He  could 
not  arraign  the  measures  of  the  time  without  arraigning  the  con- 
duct of  those,  by  whom  these  measures  were  planned ;  nor  could 
he  suffer  his  mind  to  be  so  engrossed  and  absorbed,  as  seemed  to 
be  the  case  with  many,  by  the  mere  business  of  defence,  as  to 
lose  all  thought  about  the  conduct  and  character  of  those  to  whom 
the  national  affairs  were  entrusted.  This  last,  though  in  some 
respects  a  secondary  consideration,  inasmuch  as  it  must  be  found- 
ed on  a  previous  examination  of  public  measures,  was,  neverthe- 
less, a  very  important  and  necessary  one,  was  connected  with 
every  part  of  the  subject,  and  might  serve,  perhaps,  as  well  as 
any  that  could  be  chosen,  to  present  the  subject  in  that  point  of 
view,  in  which  it  was  most  important  to  consider  it.  His  own 
general  opinion  on  this  head,  he  could  not  better  describe,  than  in 
some  lines  which  gentlemen  might  have  seen  on  Inn  windows 
and  shutters,  where  the  writer,  speaking  of  the  faults  of  men  and 
women,  and  allowing  that  many  faults  belong  to  men,  concludes, 
most  injuriously  and  ungallantly, 

Poor  women  have  but  two : 


There's  nothing  good  tliey  say,  and  nothing  right  they  do. 


94  DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

These  lines,  however  bad  the  poetry,  and  however  false  the 
sentiment  in  its  original  application,  were,  he  was  sorry  to  say, 
perfectly  descriptive  of  his  opinion  of  His  Majesty's  present 
ministers.  That  he  might  not  seem  to  say  this  at  random,  with- 
out foundation  or  proof,  he  would  beg  only  to  take  a  short  view 
of  their  conduct,  as  applicable  to  the  actual  state  of  things.  If 
he  were  to  proceed  strictly  in  this  inquiry,  though  by  no  means 
unjustly,  he  should  take  up  their  conduct  from  the  moment  of  the 
Treaty  of  Amiens.  It  was  from  that  period,  according  to  the 
opinion  of  many  at  the  time,  according  to  their  own  opinion,  as 
declared  since,  that  measures  of  precaution  and  defence  ought  to 
have  begun.  They  who  had  declared  that,  from  the  moment  of 
the  signature  of  that  treaty,  the  conduct  of  the  enemy  was  a  con- 
tinued series  of  violence,  insult,  and  aggression  ;  they  whose  par- 
tisans had  told  us,  that  he  must  be  *  nature's  fool,'  and  not  the 
Honourable  Gentleman's,  who  could  ever  believe  in  the  durability 
of  that  treaty;  they  certainly  could  not  refuse  to  accept  the  Treaty 
of  Amiens,  as  the  period  from  which  the  defence  of  the  country 
ought  to  have  been  a  subject  never  absent  from  their  minds.  But 
as  he  did  not  wish  to  deal  hardly  with  the  Honourable  Gentlemen, 
as  it  would  be  mean  and  niggardly  to  be  sparing  of  concessions 
where  the  materials  of  charge  existed  in  such  abundance,  he 
would  be  content  to  date  his  examination  from  a  much  more 
recent  period,  and  to  leave  out  all  the  intervening  space  between 
the  Treaty  of  Amiens,  and  the  8th  of  March,  the  day  on  which 
His  Majesty's  message  was  brought  to  parliament.  He  would 
suppose  it  to  have  been  perfectly  right  that,  from  the  moment 
peace  was  made,  no  matter  with  what  circumstances,  you  were 
to  proceed  according  to  the  established  rule  in  such  cases,  were 
to  reduce  your  army,  dismantle  your  fleet,  dispose  of  all  your 
stock  and  implements  of  war,  sell  off*  gun-boats  for  little  more 
than  the  value  of  the  old  iron,  refuse  for  five  guineas  men  whom 
you  would  be  happy  now  to  get  back  for  fifty ;  discharge  others, 
whom  you  could  not  get  back  at  all.  All  this  he  would  conclude 
to  be  right,  and  that,  without  the  observance  of  these  accustomed 
forms,  ministers  would  never  have  been  able  to  persuade  the  coun- 
try, or  to  satisfy  themselves,  that  the  peace  which  they  had  made 
•was  a  real  peace,  and  r^\  a  mere  make-believe.  He  would  con- 
sider their  conduct  only  during  the  period  subsequent  to  the  8th 
of  March.  The  establishments  of  the  country  were  then  happily 
brought  to  the  standard  at  which  it  is  proposed  they  should  remain ; 
all  the  reductions  had  been  completed ;  no  subsequent  alteration 
had  taken  place ;  a  vote  in  parliament  might  have  passed,  but 
nothing  more :  all  the  means  of  defence  were  as  much  to  be  re-col- 
lected as  if  the  country  had  never  been  at  war.  Giving  ministers 
full  credit  for  the  completely  defenceless  state  in  which  the  coun- 


DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  95 

try  then  was,  he  would  proceed  to  consider,  what  the  change 
was  which  they  had  since  effected,  and  what  the  means  which 
they  had  possessed  for  that  purpose;  so  that  by  a  comparison  of 
the  means  possessed,  and  the  work  done,  a  judgment  might  be 
formed  as  to  the  degree  of  blame  or  merit  ascribable  to  their 
conduct. 

And  here  he  would  wish  to  adopt  a  method,  such  as  was  often 
employed  on  other  subjects,  where,  when  the  quantum  of  objects 
could  not  be  ascertained  with  exactness,  means  were  resorted  to 
for  assigning  at  least  a  maximum  or  minimum.  He  had  heard, 
where  in  the  case  of  exorbitant  election-charges,  in  a  bill  for 
cockades  for  instance,  the  candidate  had  offered  to  pay  for  all 
the  ribands  that  could  be  proved  to  have  been  in  the  shop  for 
the  last  six  months ;  or,  where  the  charge  was  for  liquor,  instead 
of  attempting  to  calculate  the  number  of  drinkers,  and  the  average 
quantity  they  migiit  severally  have  drunk,  he  had  proposed  not 
only  to  pay  for  all  that  had  been  in  the  cellar  within  a  certain 
time,  but  to  gaiige  the  house,  and  to  give  credit  for  all  that  could 
have  been  contained  in  it,  supposing  it  to  have  been  one  entire 
cistern  of  liquor  from  the  cellar  to  the  garret.  He  would  pursue 
a  course  somewhat  similar  in  estimating  the  merit  of  the  exertions 
of  the  Honourable  Gentlemen.  Instead  of  saying  *  so  much  ought 
to  have  been  done  in  recruiting,  so  much  in  completing  the  militia, 
so  much  in  procuring  defence  other  ways,'  he  would  rather  beg 
the  house  to  take  a  general  view  of  the  means  possessed  by  the 
country,  of  the  manner  in  which  ministers  had  the  disposal  of 
these  means,  of  the  time  they  have  had  to  employ  them,  and 
comparing  the  whole  with  the  result,  to  determine  in  their  own 
minds,  whether  the  affairs  of  the  country,  in  this  most  critical 
concern  of  its  defence,  had  or  had  not  been  placed  in  proper 
hands.  Let  the  several  heads  of  comparison,  as  he  had  enume- 
rated them,  be  considered  more  in  detail.  The  means  of  the 
country,  in  its  first  and  greatest  article,  the  basis  of  all  the  rest, 
was  a  population  of  fifteen  millions.  The  time,  as  he  had  agreed 
to  take  it,  from  the  8th  of  March,  was  nine  months,  or  three 
quarters  of  a  year.  The  wealth  of  the  country  was,  he  must 
confidently  say,  for  this  purpose  unlimited.  There  was  nothing 
that  the  country  was  not  willing  to  do  in  the  way  of  personal 
service,  or  to  contribute  in  the  way  of  money..^  It  was  long, 
indeed,  before  the  Honourable  Gentlemen  thought  fit  to  call  upon 
them.  Whether  it  was  that  they  feared  to  alarm  the  holders  of 
omnium,  according  to  their  own  original  account,  or  whether  they 
distrusted  the  zeal  of  the  country,  according  to  the  explanation 
given  of  their  intentions,  in  their  second  edition,  when  they  had 
had  the  assistance  of  a  learned  commentator  (Mr.  Sheridan) ; 
whichever  of  these  was  the  case  with  respect  to  them,  the  result 


96  DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

of  the  fact  was,  that  the  country  was  no  sooner  told  of  its  danger, 
and  summoned  to  rouse  in  its  defence,  than  it  obeyed  the  call 
with  an  alacrity  which  tlie  Honourable  Gentlemen  have  since 
confessed  themselves  to  have  been  unprepared  for.  *  They  did 
not  call  spirits  from  the  vasty  deep,*  which  refused  to  answer  to 
their  bidding. — On  the  contrary,  the  Honourable  Gentlemen  had 
no  sooner  began  to  try  for  this  zeal,  had  hardly  begun  to  sink  this 
well,  before  the  national  feeling  rose  so  fast  upon  them,  that  they 
found  themselves  in  danger  of  being  overwhelmed  by  it,  and 
begged  for  God's  sake  to  be  pulled  up  again.  They  had  no  sooner 
turned  this  cock,  than  it  spurted  in  their  faces.  They  had  nothing 
to  plead,  therefore,  on  the  score,  that  the  country  did  not  second 
their  efforts,  that  it  withheld  its  assistance,  that  it  kept  back  its 
milk,  as  it  were :  the  country  was  ready  to  yield  its  resources  to 
any  amount  for  which  they  would  have  declared  it  necessary  to 
call  for  them. 

So  far  as  to  the  means  which  they  possessed.  But  were  the 
means  employed  inconsiderable,  or  not  abundantly  sufficient  to 
prove  the  improvident  management  of  those  who  had  the  admin- 
istration of  them  ?  The  money  expended  for  the  army  of  reserve 
alone,  and  that,  too,  in  mere  bounties,  could  not  be  estimated  at 
less  than  1,000,000/.  For  the  volunteers,  the  Honourable  Gentle- 
man had  just  said,  that  the  estimate  for  the  ensuing  year  must  be 
700,000/. ;  and,  therefore,  for  the  year  now  closed,  in  which,  if 
some  articles  were  less,  others  were  considerably  greater,  could 
not,  he  conceived,  be  less  than  1,000,000/.  This,  as  the  sum  ad- 
vanced by  government  to  that  object ;  to  which,  if  he  was  to  add, 
as  undoubtedly  he  must  add,  the  part  contributed  by  individuals, 
he  certainly  should  be  within  the  mark,  when  he  stated  the  whole 
expense  incurred  for  volunteers  at  not  less  than  2,000,000/. 

Here,  then,  "was  a  sum  of  at  least  3,000,000/.  expended  in 
little  more  than  the  mere  creation  of  a  force ;  and  that  in  a  way, 
for  the  greater  part  of  it,  infinitely  more  oppressive  than  if  raised 
by  a  general  tax.  What  then,  they  were  to  ask,  was  the  force 
created  1  And  upon  this  occasion  the  statement  of  the  Honoura- 
ble Gentleman  had  something  very  grand  and  imposing,  perfectly 
in  the  style  of  many  statements,  which  were  heard  in  that  House. 
The  safety  of  the  country  was  provided  for,  it  might  be  said,  by 
a  vast  mass  of  armed  force  amounting  to  not  less  than  500,000 
men.  He  was  far  from  sure  that  the  numbers  might  not  even 
exceed  these  limits.  But,  of  course,  it  was  not  to  bo  supposed, 
that  they  were  to  take  this  statement  merely  as  it  stood  in  words, 
without  inquiring  a  little,  what  this  mass,  this  fabric  consisted  of; 
how  much  of  it  was  of  solid  masonry,  part  of  the  old  standing  force 
of  the  country ;  how  much  was  of  a  later  date  and  Jess  regular  con- 
struction ;  how  much  might  be  composed  of  materials  still  more 


DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  97 

recently  collected,  and  more  hastily  put  together,  and  be  liable, 
in  consequence,  to  various  cracks  and  settlements ;  and  what  por- 
tion of  it  was  mere  lath  and  plaster,  not  distinguishable,  perhaps, 
by  the  eye,  and  seeming  to  be  a  continuation  of  the  same  front, 
but  no  more  the  same  with  it  in  reality,  than  one  of  the  new  tem- 
porary barracks,  of  which  they  might  expect  to  hear  so  much 
soon,  was  to  be  considered  as  a  building  of  the  same  sort  with 
St.  Paul's  or  Westminster  Abbey.  It  would  be  found,  upon 
examination,  and  when  this  great  edifice  came  to  be  properly 
surveyed,  that  a  very  small  part,  indeed,  was  regular  army; 
that  a  large  portion  of  it  was  militia ;  that  another  less  consi- 
derable part  was  army  of  reserve ;  but  that  three-fourths  of  the 
whole  was  the  mere  levy  in  mass,  moulded  into  the  form,  and 
known  under  the  title  of,  volunteer  corps.  This  was  not  what 
would  have  been  understood,  at  least  without  explanation,  in  a 
report  of  the  force  of  France,  or  Austria,  or  Prussia,  or  any  other 
military  power.  Of  the  two  first  descriptions  of  force  here  enu- 
merated, it  was  not  necessary  to  say  much.  The  regular  army  was 
what  they  had  always  known  the  regular  army  to  be,  and  never 
more  known  it  to  be,  than  during  the  whole  of  the  period  of  the 
late  war.  The  militia  had  long  been  wrought  to  a  high  degree 
of  excellence,  and  was  at  that  time  perhaps  in  as  great  perfection  as 
it  was  possible  for  troops  to  attain,  of  whom  neither  officers  nor 
men  could  have  the  benefit  of  actual  service.  Of  the  army  of 
reserve  the  character  must  be  for  some  time  continually  changing, 
according  to  their  progress  in  training,  and  according  to  the 
manner  in  which  the  men  were  disposed  of,  either  as  selected, 
and  incorporated  into  old  battalions  ;  making,  however,  a  very  in- 
commodious mixture  of  men  serving  upon  different  tenures;  or 
as  put  together  in  battalions  by  themselves.  But  in  neither  way 
could  they  be  considered,  for  some  time  at  least,  as  fit  to  be 
classed  with  the  regular  troops ;  nor  would  it  be  possible  at  any 
time  for  those  so  to  class  them,  who  refused  to  admit  to  the  de- 
scription of  a  soldier,  any  man  whose  engagement  of  service  did 
not  extend  to  term  of  life.  It  would  be  curious,  indeed,  if  those 
who  resisted  most  pertinaciously,  and  at  the  hazard  even  of  having 
no  army,  every  attempt  to  change  the  service  of  the  line  from 
life  to  term  of  years,  should  now  find  out  that  soldiers  serving 
both  for  term  of  years  and  for  service  within  the  realm  only, 
were  entitled  to  reckon  as  part  of  the  regular  army.  But  a  great 
portion  of  these  were,  for  the  present,  good  for  no  service  either 
without  or  within  the  realm.  They  were  men  newly  collected 
together  with  their  pockets  full  of  money,  or  who  had  only 
emptied  them  by  a  continued  course  of  intoxication,  and  had 
not  yet  got  their  grass-flesh  off,  had  not  got  the  beer  out  of 
their  bellies  which  they  had  been  swilling  for  weeks,  many  of 
9  N 


98  DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

them  at  the  rate  of  fifty  guineas  a  man.  As  for  those  who  were 
left  behind  in  what  were  called  the  reserved  battalions,  they,  for 
the  most  part,  were  so  left  behind  and  reserved,  because  no  one 
thought  it  worth  his  while  to  take  them,  and  were  of  a  sort  which 
no  time  or  drilling  could  ever  render  serviceable ;  time,  indeed^ 
being  with  many  of  them  the  last  thing  wanted,  as  the  very  ob- 
jection to  be  urged  was,  that  they  were  already  past  the  age  of 
service.  The  last  and  most  important,  certainly  the  most  exten- 
sive head  of  force,  was  that  which  comprised  the  great  body  of 
inhabitants  to  whom  arms  had  been  given  or  promised,  the  gene- 
ral collection  of  the  volunteer  corps.  In  speaking  of  these 
bodies,  it  was  as  well,  perhaps,  to  attempt,  though  the  attempt 
was  sure  to  be  fruitless,  to  obviate  the  misrepresentation, 
which,  he  was  aware,  was  lying  in  wait,  to  seize  upon  every 
word  he  should  utter,  (which  "  hush'd  in  grim  repose  expects  his 
evening  prey,")  by  observing,  that  what  he  had  to  condemn  in 
these  institutions  was  not  the  individuals,  but  the  system  :  that  in 
speaking  of  a  body  of  400,000  men,  he  certainly  did  not  mean  to 
say  that  they  were  all  useless,  or  worthless,  or  of  a  character  he 
knew  not  what,  that  was  to  make  them  run  away  at  the  sight  of 
an  enemy.  He  certainly  should  not  be  inclined  to  say  this  of  any 
400,000  men,  taken  at  random  from  among  the  inhabitants  of  this 
country,  and  must  necessarily  be  less  inclined  to  say  so,  of  a  body 
which,  from  the  manner  of  its  being  combined,  must  contain  a 
greater  proportion  of  the  zeal,  spirit,  youth,  courage,  and  patriot- 
ism of  the  country,  than  any  other  of  equal  numbers  taken  with- 
out rule  or  selection.  To  impute,  therefore,  to  any  one  a  purpose 
of  censuring  the  volunteers  individually,  was  too  childish  to  be 
deserving  of  notice.  As  little  could  he  intend  to  say,  that  the 
body  of  volunteers,  as  at  present  constituted,  were  of  no  use. 
Four  hundred  thousand  men  with  arms  in  their  hands,  and  con- 
sisting, for  the  most  part,  of  persons  within  certain  ages,  could 
not  be  so  combined,  as  not  to  be  capable  of  being  useful.  All  that 
he  meant  to  say  was,  that  these  corps  must  be  forever  unsuited  to 
the  sort  of  service  on  which  it  was  intended  to  employ  them  ;  and 
that  the  methods  pursued  with  them  were  calculated  to  render 
them  as  little  useful  as  it  was  possible  for  such  an  assemblage  of 
men  to  be.  The  idea  was,  as  had  been  long  foreseen,  and  long 
deprecated,  to  combine  these  into  companies,  regiments,  and  bri- 
gades, and  to  endeavour  to  make  regular  soldiers  of  them.  He 
was  of  opinion  that  you  never  could  make  regular  soldiers  of 
them ;  and  that  the  attempt  to  do  so  was  founded,  in  every  re- 
spect, upon  false  views,  both  of  the  nature  of  those  corps  and  of 
the  military  service  in  general.  He  grounded  this  opinion  upon 
circumstances,  certainly  having  nothing  injurious  in  them  to  the 
characters  of  persons  acting  in  volunteer  corps.  -  It  was  no  re- 


DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  99 

proach  to  any  one,  that  he  was  of  an  age,  or  size,  or  state  of 
health,  that  did  not  admit  of  his  performing  the  duties  of  a  sol- 
dier ;  that  he  was  the  father  of  a  family,  and  could  not  be  spared 
from  the  care  and  superintendence  of  those  who  looked  to  him  at 
every  moment  as  their  protector  and  guide ;  that  he  was  engaged 
in  a  business  which  he  could  not  leave  without  ruin,  and  without 
ruin  to  those  whom  it  was  his  duty  to  support  There  was  no 
reproach  in  all  this,  but  there  was  a  great  deal  in  it,  which  must 
prevent  corps,  consisting,  for  the  most  part,  of  men  so  circum- 
stanced, from  either  performing,  for  any  length  of  time,  the  duties 
of  soldiers  employed  on  service,  or  from  acquiring  the  expertness 
and  habits  by  which  those  duties  must  be  performed.  These 
were  truths  which  would  not,  probably,  be  much  disputed.  All 
the  world  would  agree,  that  to  talk  of  giving  to  citizens  and 
householders  ("  to  resiant  inhabitants  paying  scot  or  lot,")  to  men 
engaged  in  professions  and  callings,  who  were  compelled  to  live 
on  one  spot,  were  tied  down  by  the  care  of  families,  who  rejected 
military  control,  were  serving  without  pay,  were  officered  in  a 
great  measure  by  persons  of  their  own  description  if  not  of  their 
own  choosing — that  to  talk  of  giving  to  such  men  the  charac- 
ter and  qualities  of  regular  soldiers,  was  the  greatest  of  all  ab- 
surdities. Yet  this,  which  every  one  would  agree  in,  which  no 
one  would  be  hardy  enough  to  deny,  was  the  utmost  that  had 
ever  been  said,  in  disparagement,  as  it  was  called,  of  the  volun- 
teers. All  the  rest  was  a  mere  military  question,  by  which  the 
volunteers  were  not  at  all  affected.  Once  admit  that  collections 
of  men,  such  as  he  had  just  described,  were  not  capable  of  being 
formed  into  regular  regiments,  that  is  to  say,  regiments  possessing 
the  properties  which  were  looked  for  in  troops  of  the  line,  and  it 
then  became  a  question,  to  be  decided  on  general  military  princi- 
ples, and  in  which  the  volunteers  were  no  longer  concerned,  how 
far  corps  of  a  certain  acknowledged  inferiority  ought  to  be  em- 
ployed in  certain  services,  or  to  be  placed  in  certain  situations. 

And  here  a  great  mistake  seemed  to  prevail  of  supposing,  that 
whatever  possessed  in  itself  a  certain  degree  of  force,  or  strength, 
must,  by  its^  addition  to  any  thing  of  the  same  description, 
produce  a  degree  of  force,  more  than  would  be  found  in  either 
of  the  parts  separately :  that  strength  added  to  strength,  would 
always  produce  strength.  This  was  evidently  not  so.  If  -the 
addition  supposed  was  not  judiciously  made,  weakness,  instead 
of  strength,  might  be  the  consequence.  No  one  could  doubt  that 
a  regiment  of  four  or  five  hundred  men,  volunteers  or  others, 
must  possess  some  power  of  annoying  an  enemy.  But  was  it 
sure  that  your  line  would  be  strengthened,  and  your  general 
power  of  annoying  and  defeating  the  enemy  be  increased  by  such 
addition  ?    He  would  take  an  example  from  a  profession  with 


100  DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY, 

which  the  House  and  he  were,  in  general,  probably  less  acquainted 
than  they  were  even  with  mihtary  affairs,  but  which  might  happen 
to  be  more  familiar  to  them  in  this  particular  view.  What  was 
the  reason  that  in  naval  actions,  frigates,  and  even  fifty-gun  ships, 
were  not  suffered  to  make  part  of  the  Hue  ?  Was  it,  Uiat  fifty- 
gun  ships,  or  even  frigates,  were  of  no  force  ?  That  their  balls 
did  not  hit  hard  ?  That  some  of  their  guns  were  not  even  heavier 
than  a  part  of  those  which  formed  the  battery  of  a  ship  of  the 
line  ?  By  no  means.  It  was,  he  must  conclude,  because  a  hne  of 
battle  at  sea  was  a  species  of  machine  so  constructed,  as  to  re- 
quire a  certain  proportionate  strength  in  all  its  parts,  the  failure 
of  any  one  of  which  would  draw  after  it  the  failure  of  all  the 
rest.  The  same  was  the  case  with  an  army.  There  also  was  a 
line,  and  which,  as  might  be  collected  from  the  very  expression 
of  "  regiments  of  the  line,'  could  be  formed  only  of  troops  trained 
to  a  certain  degree  of  discipline  and  regularity.  To  form  it 
otherwise,  to  put  into  the  line  corps  which,  from  want  of  expe- 
rience or  instruction,  might  not  maintain  the  part  of  the  action 
allotted  to  them,  would  not  only  be  to  endanger  the  whole  by  that 
particular  failure,  but  might,  in  a  thousand  other  ways,  embarrass 
the  operations  of  an  army,  and  defeat  the  plans  of  a  commander. 
Manoeuvres  must  be  calculated  upon  supposed  qualifications  in  the 
troops  and  officers,  who  are  to  execute  them.  What  must  be  the 
situation  of  a  general,  if,  when  directing  the  execution  of  any 
pressing  service — a  hill,  suppose,  to  be  occupied,  a  post  to  be 
maintained,  a  wood  to  be  defended,  a  redoubt  to  be  stormed — in 
a  crisis  which  left  no  leisure  for  deliberation  or  inquiry,  he  must 
be  comparing  the  characters  of  the  different  corps  under  his 
command,  and  be  exposed,  at  last,  to  the  uncertainties  of  troops, 
whose  composition  was  unknown,  whose  conduct  in  a  day  of 
action  was  to  be  tried  for  the  first  time,  and  who,  in  the  mode  of 
service  now  proposed  for  them,  might  involve,  in  their  defeat  or 
miscarriage,  the  discomfiture  of  the  whole  army.  These  were 
not  objections  to  volunteers  in  general :  so  far  from  it,  that  he,  on 
the  contrary,  had  always  contended  for  them,  to  a  far  greater 
extent,  though  on  a  far  less  expensive  footing,  than  Ihat  on  which 
they  were  now  established.  His  objections  went  only  to  volun- 
teers, moulded  into  the  forms  and  destined  for  the  sort  of  service 
which  government  had  now  assigned  them.  It  was  government 
which  had  given  them  this  most  false  direction ;  which,  by  dress- 
ing them  in  red  coats,  had  betrayed,  at  once,  the  character  in 
which  they  meant  to  consider  them,  and  the  use  they  meant  to 
put  them  to, — a  use  for  which  they  could  never  be  made  fit.  This 
was  the  point  on  which  he  wished  to  insist.  Other  objections  to 
the  present  system  he  should  not  now  dwell  upon;  nor  consider 
what  might  be  the  future  danger  arising  to  the  state  from  bodies 


DEFENCE  OF  THE  CX)UNTRY.  101 

of  armed  men,  subject  to  no  regular  authority,  governed  by- 
committees  and  sub-committees,  and  having  more  the  character 
of  debating  societies,  than  of  schools  of  military  discipline.  He 
was  considering  them  merely  as  part  of  the  defence  of  the  coun- 
try against  a  foreign  enemy,  and,  in  this  viev^^,  he  must  recall  to 
the  attention  of  the  House — first,  the  immense  reduction  to  be 
made  in  our  force,  when,  oUt  of  five  or  six  hundred  thousand, 
four  were  understood  not  to  be  soldiers,  but  only  armed  inhabit- 
ants ;  and  next,  when  these  armed  inhabitants  were  prepared  and 
fashioned  in  a  manner  so  little  judicious,  as  in  the  plan  now  pur- 
sued. When  to  this  was  added,  that  by  the  exemptions  given, 
contrary  to  the  intentions  of  ministry,  and  by  the  mere  effect  of 
haste  and  oversight,  numbers  had  latterly  flocked  into  these  corps, 
as  a  refuge  from  other  service,  and  that  so  large  a  portion  of  the 
active  population  of  the  country  was  thereby  locked  up,  and 
withdrawn  from  the  service  either  of  the  army  of  reserve  or  mi- 
litia (the  regular  recruiting  was  out  of  the  question ;)  he  would 
leave  to  the  House  to  judge  what  credit  was  to  be  given  to  the 
Honourable  Gentlemen  on  this  head  of  the  account.  The  whole 
return,  the  whole  force  produced  by  the  Honourable  Gentlemen, 
after  three  millions  expended,  and  with  the  command  of  an  un- 
limited credit,  was  first  400,000  volunteers,  such  as  he  had  de- 
scribed, and  whose  formation  operated,  as  he  had  described,  in 
repect  to  the  other  services ;  secondly,  a  militia,  excellent  in  its 
kind,  but  incomplete,  and  rendered  more  difficult  to  be  completed 
by  the  effect  of  the  measure  above  referred  to ;  thirdly,  twenty,  or 
six  and  twenty  thousand  army  of  reserve ;  fourthly  and  lastly, 
an  addition  (as  he  should  have  said,)  of  5000,  or  (as  he  now  un- 
derstood from  the  Honourable  Gentlemen)  of  7000  men  to  the 
regular  army !  This  was  all  that  the  Honourable  Gentlemen  had 
produced  at  the  end  of  nine  months,  and  as  the  fruit  of  all  their 
labour  and  travail.  This  was  all  that  the  nation  had  got,  in  re- 
turn for  its  large  contributions,  its  ready  sacrifices,  its  heavy 
expense,  both  of  patience  and  money.  Five,  or  seven  thousand 
men  to  the  regular  army,  five  or  seven  pints  of  reasonably  good 
soup,  was  the  whole  that  these  state-cooks  had  been  able  to  pro- 
duce, after  all  their  simmerings  and  boilings,  all  the  hams  and 
chickens,  and  pounds  of  beef,  which  they  had  melted  down,  and 
the  bills  which  they  had  run  up  in  consequence,  at  the  different 
shops. 

Thus  far  he  had  gone  in  considering  what  a  great  philosopher 
of  old  would  have  called  the  lioing  instruments  of  our  defence. 
The  inanimate  instruments  must  not  be  overlooked,  though  he 
should  say  but  little  to  all  the  objects  which  that  class  would  com- 
prise, such  as  works,  fortresses,  preparations  by  sea  and  land, 
every  thing  in  short  that  wisdom  and  foresight  could  provide  or 
9* 


102  DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

could  arrange,  towards  making  the  approach  of  an  enemy  diffi- 
cult, or  giving  force  and  efficacy  Jo  the  action  of  those  who  were 
preparing  to  resist  him.  In  all  this  he  feared  a  dreadful  deficien- 
cy. Much  as  might  be  wanting  in  Hving  means,  the  want  of 
judgment  and  ability  in  the  application  of  those  means,  the  want 
of  a  presiding  mind  either  to  create  resources,  or  to  turn  to  account 
those  already  existing,  was,  he  feared,  not  less  conspicuous.  He 
would  not  attempt  to  enter  into  a  criticism  either  upon  the  general 
distribution  of  the  forces,  which  so  far  as  it  was  built  upon  a  sys- 
tem of  concentration,  or  of  collecting  the  force  into  great  masses, 
for  the  protection  of  vital  parts,  he  certainly  approved,  nor  would 
he  offer  any  opinion  as  to  the  considerable  works  going  on  at 
Chelmsford  and  Chatham,  having,  in  fact,  no  opinion  to  ofier.  He 
would  touch  upon  one  point  only  of  that  sort,  and  that,  not  so 
much  with  a  view  of  stating  what  he  thought  ought  to  be  done, 
as  of  remarking  on  what  was  done,  and  upon  the  dreadful  weak- 
ness and  inconclusiveness  of  many  of  those  reasonings,  which 
governed  the  conduct  of  the  country,  in  points  where  its  very  ex- 
istence was  at  stake.  From  the  northernmost  point  on  the  coast 
of  Suffolk,  where  the  protection  might  be  supposed  to  cease  from 
the  shipping  of  Yarmouth,  to  a  part  of  the  coast  of  Essex,  where 
a  naval  defence  of  another  kind  might  be  supposed  to  begin  (and 
where  he  hoped  it  had  at  length  begun,  though,  very  late  in  the 
year,  it  certainly  had  not  made  its  appearance) ;  there  was  a  line 
of  coast  accessible  in  most  weathers,  and  certainly  very  commo- 
dious for  the  landing  of  an  enemy  in  such  vessels  as  those  in 
which  they  were  expected  to  come.  Upon  this  line  he  should 
unquestionably  think  it  highly  advantageous  if  a  defence  were 
provided,  formed  by  the  construction  of  what  were  known  to  our 
officers  under  the  name  of  Martello  Towers,  a  species  of  edifice 
so  called  from  a  memorable  instance  of  one  at  Martello  in  Corsi- 
ca ;  where,  by  a  tower  of  this  sort,  garrisoned  by  some  ten  or  a 
dozen  men,  and  mounted  with  about  two  guns,  a  ship  of  the  line 
of  ours,  and  a  frigate,  were,  during  the  last  war,  completely  foil- 
ed and  driven  off,  though  they  were  able  to  approach  within  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  of  the  object,  and  though  the  Captain,  a  most 
approved  officer,  would  not  withdraw  from  the  contest  while 
there  was  a  hope  of  success  left,  nor  till  he  had  lost  an  immense 
number  of  his  men,  and  had  had  his  ship  twice  set  on  fire.  No 
one  would  pretend  to  say,  that  towers  of  this  sort  would  not  pro- 
duce a  great  effect  upon  an  enemy,  w^hoever  he  might  be,  that 
came  within  the  reach  of  their  guns.  That  they  would  stop  the 
disembarkation  of  infantry,  he  was  not  prepared  to  say.  On  the 
contrary,  he  was  of  opinion  that  they  would  not.  Great  as  the 
loss  might  be,  the  enemy,  if  determined,  would  still  accomplish 
his  object.    But  would  the  same  be  the  case  with  artillery  and 


DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  103 

horses  ?  And  would  not  the  slaughter  be  immense,  and  the  delay 
most  important,  were  it  possible  that  under  such  a  fire  a  disem- 
barkation of  that  sort  could  after  all  take  place?  The  objection, 
therefore,  to  such  defences  must  resolve  itself  into  the  considera- 
tion of  expense,  or  into  that  of  the  force  which  it  would  lock  up, 
and  the  means  which  would  be  furnished  to  the  enemy,. should 
the  fortresses  in  question  finally  fall  into  his  hands.  As  to  the  lat- 
ter objection,  he  had  already  stated,  what  the  contents  of  such 
towers  were,  and  what  the  loss  would  be  to  those  from  whom 
they  should  be  taken,  viz.  a  dozen  men  at  the  utmost,  and  a  couple 
of  guns.  The  value  to  the  enemy  would  be  none ;  for  the  guns 
would  never  be  transportable ;  and  certainly  not  the  towers ;  and 
neither  would  be  of  any  use  to  him  in  the  places  where  they  were. 
But  their  uselessness  to  the  enemy  it  was  unnecessary  to  prove, 
as  it  was  hardly  possible  that  they  should  fall  into  his  hands.  It 
was  of  the  nature  of  these  little  fortresses  (quite  the  reverse  of 
what  was  the  case  with  redoubts),  that  they  were  equally  impreg- 
nable to  cannon  and  to  musquetry,  and  could  not  be  taken  but  by 
such  means  as  the  enemy  would  neither  have  time  nor  inclination 
to  employ.  The  whole  question,  therefore,  was  a  question  of  ex- 
pense :  and  what  would  that  expense  be,  incurred  once  for  all, 
compared  with  the  maintenance  of  such  a  living  force,  (supposing 
even  that  we  had  the  force,  and  could  spare  it  for  that  purpose,) 
as  would  give  to  any  tract  of  coast  the  same  security  which  would 
be  derived  from  the  defence  in  question  ?  Considering  the  simplici- 
ty of  the  construction  of  these  towers,  the  little  interior  fitting 
they  would  require,  the  rude  materials  of  which  they  might  be 
composed,  (the  stones  made  use  of  for  paving  London,  might 
serve  for  the  most  expensive  part,)  the  facility  with  which  materi- 
als would  be  conveyed  for  buildings  necessarily  situated  on  the 
edge  of  the  coast,  and  in  its  most  accessible  parts,  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive,  that  1000/.  apiece  must  not  be  an  ample  allowance. 
And  thus  for  a  sum  of  30,000/.  and  with  a  force  of  300  men,  thir- 
ty miles  of  the  coast,  in  parts  the  most  vulnerable,  would  be  put 
in  a  state  of  security  far  greater  at  least  than  any  which  they 
could  enjoy  without  the  aid  of  such  precautionary  measures.  But 
let  the  House  consider  what  happened  without  this.  To  supply 
the  place  of  these  despised  towers,  the  coast  was  lined  with  sea- 
fencibles,  armed  with  pikes,  a  weapon  which  had  been  said,  if  he 
recollected  right,  in  some  of  the  circular  official  papers,  to  be  ca- 
pable of  great  effect  in  the  hands  of  a  Briton,  fighting  for  every 
thing  that  was  dear  to  him.  He  wished  the  House  to  reflect,  what 
would  be  the  situation  of  these  pike-men,  at  Aldborough  for  in- 
stance, one  of  the  places  where  there  was  a  corps  of  that  sort, 
and  which  was  situated  on  the  part  of  the  coast  to  which  he  had 
been  alluding.     Here  was  a  straight  shore  with  deep  water,  and 


104  DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

a  beach,  on  which  in  moderate  weather  vessels  might  run  with 
confidence,  without  even  shortening  sail:  and  in  these  circum- 
stances it  was  supposed,  that  when  vessels  should  thus  arrive, 
containing  each  a  hundred  soldiers,  and  carrying  a  four-and-twen- 
ty  pounder  on  its  bow,  men  were  to  stand  on  the  shore  with  their 
pikes,  and  push  them  off!  Was  this  the  idea  of  a  bold  Briton  ? 
or  was  it  the  idea  of  master  Fribble  ?  "  Begone,  fellow."  You 
might  as  well  suppose,  that  the  enemy  was  to  be  kept  off  by 
bodkins  or  knitting-needles ! 

It  was  certainly  not  by  a  force  of  this  sort,  that  the  coast  could 
be  defended.  The  great  argument,  indeed,  was,  that  it  could  not 
be  defended  at  all,  and  that  therefore  no  defence  should  be 
attempted.  xA.nd  here  he  wished  to  recall  the  attention  of  the 
House  to  that  loose,  vague,  inconsiderate  style  of  reasoning,  to 
which  he  had  before  alluded,  and  to  which,  it  was  melancholy  to 
think,  the  very  life  and  being  of  the  state  was  sometimes  entrust- 
ed. When  a  proposal  was  made,  for  securing  a  part  of  the  coast 
by  w^orks,  as  happened  in  the  case  of  an  honourable  friend  behind 
him  (Colonel  Craufurd),  the  answer  universally  made  was,  that 
you  could  not  fortify  every  part  of  the  coast;  and  thence  it  w^as 
meant  to  be  inferred,  that  it  was  useless  to  fortify  any.  But  what 
was  the  sort  of  reasoning  that  could  lead  to  such  a  conclusion  1 
In  many  cases,  he  w^as  ready  to  allow,  that  an  argument  to  that 
effect  would  be  just.  If  the  question  was  of  shutting  mice  out 
of  a  pantry,  the  conclusion  would  be  correct,  that  to  stop  up  one 
hole  was  useless,  while  any  other  was  suffered  to  remain  open. 
The  strength  of  a  chain,  according  to  an  old  observation,  was 
the  strength  of  the  weakest  link.  To  fortify  those  above  it,  was 
useless :  to  add  to  the  strength  of  those  below  it,  might  be  injurious, 
as  well  as  useless ;  because,  without  adding  to  the  general  strength, 
you  might  add  something  to  the  weight.  But  where  any  one  to 
apply  that  same  reasoning  to  a  chain  in  a  figurative  sense,  to  a 
chain  of  posts,  nothing  could  be  more  false  and  inconclusive.  It 
is  not  here  as  in  the  other  case,  that  the  force  applied  acted 
through  every  part.  The  force  acted  only  on  the  part  to  which 
it  was  applied,  and  if  that  part  happened  to  be  the  strongest, 
would  be  resisted  with  the  power  of  the  strongest.  It  was  true, 
that  if  the  enemy  knew  your  weak  point,  and  could  be  sure  of 
carrying  his  attack  there,  all  that  he  was  arguing  against,  must 
be  admitted.  But  would  any  one  maintain,  that  such  was  the 
fact  ?  Was  this,  what  they  heard  on  other  occasions  ?  When  the 
danger  of  invasion  was  in  discussion,  how  were  those  laughed  to 
scorn,  who  seemed  to  reason  upon  the  idea,  that  the  enemy,  once 
embarked,  could  say  either  where  he  should,  or  where  he  should 
not,  touch  the  land?  How  much  of  our  confidenpe  was  founded, 
and  justly  founded,  on  the  uncertainty  which  belongs  to  all  the 


DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  105 

enemy's  operations,  and  in  the  impossibility  of  his  fixing  with 
certainty  tne  point  in  which  his  descent  must  be  made  ?  Yet  here 
the  tables  were  suddenly  turned ;  and  to  attempt  to  secure  any 
part  of  the  coast,  while  another  was  left  unguarded,  was  treated 
as  trifling  and  childish;  because  the  enemy  would  be  sure  to 
choose  what  was  weakest,  and  must  be  able  to  guide  his  arma- 
ment with  perfect  precision  to  the  part,  whatever  it  was,  that  he 
should  choose.  He  urged  this  topic,  with  a  view  to  expose  the 
sort  of  reasoning,  which  was  admitted  often  into  concerns  of  the 
greatest  importance,  and  might  prevail  possibly  at  the  present 
moment  in  questions  more  critical  and  more  certain,  than  that 
which  he  had  brought  forward  respecting  the  coast  of  Suflblk. 

There  was,  in  fact,  no  security  anywhere,  with  persons  so 
wholly  unsuited  to  the  arduous  crisis  in  which  they  had  to  act,  as 
the  Honourable  Gentlemen.  In  every  part  of  their  system  little 
considerations  were  mixing  themselves  with  great,  so  as  to  spoil 
the  effect  of  the  whole,  and  prevent  its  workirig  truly  in  any  of 
its  operations.  This  was  eminently  the  case  in  the  pecuniary  part, 
where  a  wild  profusion  was  so  combined  with  a  mean  parsimony, 
that  it  was  like  the  conduct  of  a  man,  who  in  giving  a  great  enter- 
tainment with  all  the  dainties  of  the  season,  peas  at  a  guinea  a 
quart,  should  suffer  the  whole  to  be  spoilt  at  last  by  a  want  of 
bread  or  salt.  With  this  must  be  coupled,  as  it  possibly  arose 
out  of  it,  an  extraordinary  passion  for  machinery,  into  which  the 
Honourable  Gentlemen  had  been  led,  partly,  .as  it  appeared,  by 
the  hope  of  working  cheaper,  and  partly  by  that  common  error, 
of  supposing  that  a  great  machine  must  be  calculated  to  produce 
a  great  effect  Their  machines  were  much  like  that  which  Hogarth 
represents,  where  the  wedge,  the  lever,  the  axis  in  peritrochio^  all 
the  mechanical  powers,  were  introduced  for  the  purpose  of  draw- 
ing a  cork,  an  operation  which  a  waiter  or  a  butler  would  perform 
more  effectually,  as  w^ell  as  more  expeditiously,  by  a  little  instru- 
ment from  his  pocket  called  a  cork-screw.  It  was  of  the  nature 
of  all  machinery,  that  in  proportion  as  the  parts  were  complicated, 
the  movement  was  likely  to  be  slow ;  not  to  mention  that  if  any 
part  should  happen  to  be  misplaced,  or  wanting,  or  ill-adjusted, 
the  whole  must  be  at  a  stand.  This  was  very  much  the  case  with 
some  of  the  machines  of  the  Honourable  Gentlemen.  In  order 
to  keep  their  expenses  out  of  sight,  and  to  throw  as  much  as  pos- 
sible upon  individuals  without  the  intervention  of  Parliament,  they 
had  set  up  their  grand  system  of  lord-lieutenants,  deputy-lieuten- 
ants, lieutenants  of  division,  inspectors  of  divisions,  superintend- 
ants  of  parishes,  &c.  &c.  persons  very  proper  to  be  appointed, 
and  to  be  held  in  readiness,  but  very  improper  for  much  of  the 
work  on  which  they  were  to  be  employed,  namely,  that  of  getting 
the  country  into  a  state  of  military  defence.     Of  all  the  instru- 


106  DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

ments  to  work  with  for  such  a  purpose,  the  worst,  surely,  that 
could  be  devised,  was  that  of  a  deputy-lieutenant's  meeting.  Every 
one  had  heard  frequently,  and  most  proverbially,  of  the  slow  pro- 
gress of  official  business.  But  at  what  rate  must  that  business 
proceed,  which  had  for  its  office  a  county  ?  Which,  instead  of 
clerks,  with  salaries,  amenable  to  superiors,  and  compellable  to  a 
certain  attendance,  was  transacted  by  country-gentlemen,  subject 
to  no  authority,  who  were  bound  by  no  especial  duty,  who  might 
attend  as  much  or  as  little  as  they  liked,  and  who  might  feel  pos- 
sibly that  they  conferred  a  favour  every  time  that  they  attended 
at  all?  Offices  too,  in  which  Government  business  was  transacted, 
were  open  commonly  every  day,  and  for  many  hours  each  day. 
But  what  must  be  the  condition  of  that  office,  whose  days  of  at- 
tendance were  one  in  a  week,  and  whose  office-hours  were  about 
three  in  each  of  those  days  ?  This  office  was  likewise  a  con-e- 
sponding  office:  but  what  must  be  the  activity  of  that  corre- 
spondance,  whe?e  between  the  letter  and  its  answer  the  least 
interval  known  w^as  a  week?  He  took  no  notice  here  of  the 
manner  in  which  at  such  meetings  business  must  necessarily  be 
conducted,  where  few  possibly  had  given  much  attention  to  the 
object  in  question,  where  no  one  had  any  right  to  prescribe  to  the 
rest,  where  many  would  come  more  to  talk  of  their  own  private 
business  or  to  meet  those  they  were  in  quest  of,  than  to  promote 
the  business  under  discussion,  where  most  were  impatient  to  be 
gone,  where  all  had  voices,  and,  what  was  possibly  not  the  least 
evil,  where  every  one  had  a  right  to  declare  that  voice  at  as  great 
length  as  he  thought  proper. 

He  could  not  better  illustrate  the  effects  of  the  system  which 
had  thrown  business  into  this  course,  than  by  stating  what  had 
happened  upon  the  subject  of  signals.  It  might  have  been  thought, 
that  the  arranging  a  system  of  signals,  as  it  must  have  been 
among  the  earliest  and  most  pressing  objects  of  attention,  that 
which,  in  some  sort,  was  to  give  effect  to  every  thing  else,  was 
the  one  also  which  would  have  been  most  easily  accomplished, 
and  most  speedily  carried  into  execution.  The  mode  that  had 
been  adopted,  was,  too,  of  the  most  simple  kind.  A  line  of  sta- 
tions was  to  be  established  along  the  coast,  placed  under  the  direc- 
tion of  persons  appointed  by  the  Admiralty,  and  qualified  to  col- 
lect and  to  convey,  by  means  of  the  Admiralty  signals,  such  more 
detailed  intelligence  as  was  necessary  for  officers  appearing  off 
the  coast,  or  commanding  at  the  naval  stations ;  while  from  this, 
as  from  a^  circumference,  other  lines  were  drawn  inland,  for  the 
mere  purpose  of  giving  alarm,  or  for  communicating  a  few  of 
the  more  simple  results  of  what  had  been  observed  upon  the  coast. 
Any  one  would  suppose  that  this  was  a  work,  which  would  not 
take  long  in  completing;  considering  that  it  was  of  that  sort, 


DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  107 

which  might  be  going  on  in  all  places  at  once,  so  that  the  time 
for  the  whole  would  be  no  more  than  that  of  the  latest  of  the 
parts;  and  that,  in  three  weeks  or  a  month  from  the  first  alarm, 
that  is,  from  the  8th  of  March,  however  much  our  means  of 
resistance  might  have  been  wanting,  we  should  at  least  not  have 
been  liable  to  see  the  enemy  amongst  us  without  notice  of  his 
approach.  And  so  it  would  have  been  with  any  set  of  persons, 
who  would  have  done  things  in  a  plain  way ;  who  would  have 
been  content  "  to  draw  a  cork  with  a  cork-screw."  But  not  so 
the  savers  of  money,  and  the  lovei's  of  machinery.  By  seeking 
to  divide  the  expense  of  these  signals  with  the  counties,  and 
throwing  the  business,  in  consequence,  int9  the  train  which  he 
had  described,  the  result  was  (the  House  would  hear  it  with  aston- 
ishment) that  in  someof  the  maritime  counties,  immediately  exposed 
to  the  enemy,  and  where  the  attack  was  most  expected,  the  sys- 
tem of  signals,  even  in  those  parts  of  it  which  were  most  essential, 
and  on  which  the  whole  depended,  was  not  ccynnpleted  to  that 
very  hour.  It  w^ould  naturally  be  enquired,  how  this  could  happen; 
and  the  explanation  might  be  given,  by  stating  only  what  had 
taken  place  in  the  county  to  which  he  belonged.  When  the 
deputy-lieutenants  signified  to  the  lieutenant  of  division,  that  sta- 
tions must  be  prepared  for  the  reception  of  the  naval  officers  ;  the 
lieutenant  of  division  did  not  care  to  stir  in  the  business,  till  he 
knew  whether  the  sums  w^hich  he  should  advance,  would  be  repaid 
to  him  by  the  deputy-lieutenants.  The  deputy-lieutenants,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  a  little  shy  of  engaging  for  this  money,  till  they 
should  know,  whether  they  could  make  it  good  from  the  county : 
and,  on  the  part  of  the  county,  it  was  quickly  replied,  that  the 
lieutenants  would  look  in  vain  for  repayment  there :  for  that  the 
sums  in  question  were  no  article  for  a  county  rate,  and  in  no 
county  rate  should  they  be  admitted.  Here  the  matter  hung  for 
some  time,  and  here  it  might  have  hung  still  longer,  if  the  deputy- 
lieutenants,  weary  of  this  slow  return  of  correspondence,  and 
impatient  of  further  delay  in  a  matter  so  important  and  urgent, 
had  not  resolved  to  take  the  risk  upon  themselves,  and  to  direct 
the  completion  of  the  work,  trusting  that  government  would  see 
them  finally  repaid.  This,  Government  had  engaged  to  do ;  and 
the  county  of  Norfolk  might  by  that  time,  perhaps,  be  in  posses- 
sion of  its  signals.  But  by  whose  fault  had  it  happened,  that  it 
was  not  in  possession  of  them  sooner  ?  It  must  fairly  be  said,  not 
by  the  fault  of  any  one.  The  striking  feature  of  the  case  was, 
that  with  so  great  a  delay,  and  such  a  succession  of  persons,  no 
one  could  be  found  to  whom  the  delay  was  imputable.  The  lieu- 
tenant of  division  could  not  be  blamed,  for  not  being  willing  to 
advance  his  money,  till  he  knew  by  whom  he  was  to  be  repaid. 
The  deputy-lieutenants  might  well  have  be^n  justified,  had  they 


108  DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

persisted  in  refusing  to -the  last,  to  take  upon  themselves  an 
expense  which  they  had  no  means  of  recovering  from  the  county. 
The  county  was  well  warranted  in  insisting  that  this  charge  was 
one,  which  was  incurred  for  the  general  safety,  and  which  ought 
to  be  defrayed  by  a  general  tax.  The  Admiralty  were  not  to 
blame  for  delaying  to  send  officers,  and  commence  the  expenses 
of  their  establishment,  till  they  should  know  that  houses  were 
ready  to  receive  them. — But  this  successive  justification  of  all  the 
parties  concerned  in  the  measure,  was  the  most  complete  condem- 
nation of  the  system  to  which  it  belonged.  What  must  that  sys- 
tem of  proceeding  be,  in  which,  when  every  party  under  it  had 
done  his  duty,  nine  months  could  elapse,  before  the  maritime 
counties  were  furnished  with  their  establishment  of  signals  ? 

With  this  example  he  might  safely  close  his  account  of  the 
conduct  of  the  Honourable  Gentlemen  as  persons  fit  to  direct  the 
energies,  and  call  out  the  resources  of  the  country,  at  a  crisis  like 
the  present.  The  instance  itself,  as  a  circumstance  in  the  situa- 
tion of  the  country,  was  now  of  no  great  importance ;  as  it  might 
be  hoped,  that  by  this  time,  or  at  least  in  about  a  month  more, 
the  evil  was,  or  would  be,  at  an  end,  and  the  maritime  counties 
be  prepared  with  their  signals.  But  it  was  not  so  with  the  state 
of  the  army,  and  of  the  military  force  of  the  country.  Here  was 
not  only  a  great  misconduct,  but  a  great  national  evil  and  danger, 
present  and  future.  The  Honourable  Gentlemen  had  not  only  not 
provided  an  army,  but  had  brought  things  to  a  state,  in  which, 
without  some  great  change,  it  was  impossible  that  an  army  should 
be  provided.  The  army  of  reserve,  the  only  channel  of  recruiting 
not  yet  dry,  would  soon,  possibly,  be  dry  likewise.  It  had  yielded 
7000  men :  it  was  doubtful  how  many  more  it  had  to  yield. 
Whatever  it  gave  to  the  army,  was  so  much  in  diminution  of  its 
own  numbers.  How  much  might  continue  to  ooze  from  it,  in  its 
decreased  and  decreasing  state,  was  very  uncertain ;  not  to  men- 
tion the  dreadful  expense  and  ruinous  example  of  those  successive 
enrolments — this  double  bounty.  At  all  events  the  supply,  in  this 
way,  had  necessarily  a  termination.  It  was  an  artificial,  not  a 
natural  cascade.  As  a  supply,  it  must  at  last  run  out.  When 
recruits  should  have  entered  from  this  army,  equal  to  the  original 
numbers,  the  measure  was  at  an  end.  The  army  of  reserve, 
therefore,  could  not  be  looked  upon  as  a  permanent  mode  of  re- 
cruiting and  reinforcing  the  army;  and,  in  the  meanwhile,  by 
this  and  their  other  measures,  ministers  had  laid  the  foundation  of 
such  difficulties,  as  would  render  it  nearly  impossible  that  any  such 
mode  should  be  devised  in  future.  The  probability  was,  that  after 
yielding  to  the  army  a  few  more  thousands,  so  much  w^ould  just 
remain  of  the  army  of  reserve,  as  would  be  sufficient  to  preserve^ 
the  example  of  this  anomalous  force,  and  to  make  recruiting  im- 


DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  109 

possible  by  contributing,  with  the  militia,  to  continue  the  high  rate 
of  bounties.  *. 

In  aid  of  all  these  mischiefs  came  the  effect  of  the  volunteer 
system,  which,  as  the  Honourable  Gentlemen  had  managed  it, 
whether  by  design  or  by  mistake,  locked  up  400,000  men  of  the 
active  population  of  the  country.  What  a  blow  was  here !  He 
was  tempted  to  call  out  to  the  Honourable  Gentlemen,  as  the* 
Roman  Emperor  did  to  his  General,  Redde  mihi.  Fare,  legiones. 
Seventy  thousand  men  and  more,  withdrawn  from  the  supply  of 
the  army  of  reserve,  by  the  militia ;  and  400,000  men  withdrawn 
from  both  militia  and  army  of  reserve  by  the  volunteers;  and  the 
army  of  reserve,  the  only  source  for  recruiting  the  army ;  with 
what  sort  of  men,  and  at  wliat  rate  of  recruiting,  was  the  army 
likely  to  be  supplied  l 

All  this  as  a  future  consideration,  the  Honourable  Gentlemen 
thought  nothing  of.  They  had  got,  or  thought  they  had  got  (they 
had  in  fact  got  no  such  thing),  what  was  sufficient  for  present 
defence ;  and,  beyond  that,  they  never  thought  of  looking.  Defence 
w^as  their  utmost  horizon.  All  beyond  was  clouds  and  darkness. 
But  to  those,  who  did  not  wish  to  bound  their  views  merely  by 
that  consideration,  who  thought  that  if  the  country  was  to  exist 
after  the  present  dangers,  it  was  of  some  consequence  to  consider 
what  that  existence  was  to  be ;  to  such  persons  it  would  be  a 
matter  of  anxiety  to  know,  how  the  country  was  to  proceed 
without  the  use  of  a  disposable  force,  and  if  such  a  force  should 
appear  necessary  or  desirable,  in  what  manner  it  was  to  be  ob- 
tained. 

His  ideas  upon  this  subject  had  long  since  been  declared,  and 
he  had  not  been  able,  by  any  subsequent  reflection  or  inquiry,  to 
get  beyond  the  notions  which  he  had  at  first  formed.  His  opinion 
had  been,  and  was,  that,  as  a  first  step,  there  should  be  an  universal 
abolition  of  the  system  of  substitution.  That  all  commutation  for 
personal  service  (as  commutation  there  must  be)  should  be  made 
by  fixed  fine,  so  as  to  render  government  the  only  recruiter  in  the 
market,  without  competition  from  militia,  army  of  reserve,  or  any 
other  service.  That  to  meet,  and  co-operate  with  the  eflfects  of 
the  advantage  thus  given,  service,  in  the  army,  should  be  changed 
from  life  to  term  of  years ;  drafting  should  be  formally  abolished ; 
means  possibly  devised  to  render  service  in  the  West  Indies  less 
frequently  necessary,  and  some  other  subordinate  regulations 
adopted,  calculated  to  give  to  the  profession  of  a  soldier  advan- 
tages and  attractions,  additional  to  those,  not  inconsiderable  ones, 
which  it  already  had.  With  these  things  done,  he  was  of  opinion, 
that  the  condition  of  the  country  was  not  so  changed,  either  as  to 
the  wealth  or  inclinations  of  the  lower  orders  of  its  inhabitants, 
10 


110  DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

as  to  make  it  impossible,  that,  upon  a  greatly  increased  population, 
the  army  should  be  recruited  as  in  former  times.  He  was  by  no 
means  sure,  that  if  these  methods  had  been  adopted  at  the  time 
when  they  were  first  suggested  (and  still  more  if  they  had  been 
adopted  at  a  period  somewhat  earlier),  the  army  would  not  have 
been  recruited,  and  the  general  defence  of  the  country  increased, 
even  at  this  moment,  far  beyond  what  it  had  been  by  the  boasted 
measure  of  the  army  of  reserve.  That  it  would  be  so  in  the  end, 
there  could  not  be  the  smallest  doubt.  In  a  comparison  of  these 
measures,  the  same  distinction  must  be  observed,  as  gentlemen, 
accustomed  to  planting,  knew  how  to  make  between  a  sown  and 
a  planted  tree :  though  the  latter  would  have  the  advantage  at  the 
beginning,  and  it  might  be,  for  some  few  years,  it  was  known 
which  would  outstrip  the  other  at  the  long-run. 

But  should  the  danger  at  any  moment  be  such,  as  not  to  wait 
the  gradual  progress  of  recruiting,  however  successful ;  or  should 
the  general  success  of  recruiting,  even  in  the  new  circumstances 
proposed,  be  less  than  he  was  willing  to  imagine,  it  would  be  then 
open  to  have  recourse  to  compulsory  measures ;  but  measures  so 
chosen  (that  is  to  say,  of  which  the  abolition  of  substitution  should 
make  part),  as  to  become  a  powerful  stimulus  to  recruiting, 
instead  of  presenting  any  impediment  to  it.  He  was  as  little  a 
friend  to  compulsory  measures,  where  they  could  be  avoided,  as 
any  other  gentleman:  but  he  would  not  court  popularity,  nor 
discredit  his  own  judgment,  by  decrying  them  as  unconstitutional. 
He  had  shown,  on  a  former  occasion,  together  with  several  of 
his  Honourable  Friends,  that  so  far  from  objecting  factiously  to 
any  measure  of  government,  or  lying  in  wait  to  raise  a  cry  against 
the  Honourable  Gentlemen,  he  was  more  ready  than  they  had 
seemed  to  be,  to  brave  that  cry,  in  support  of  any  measure  of  the 
sort  alluded  to,  which  the  circumstances  of  the  times  might  ren- 
der necessary. — These  were  his  ideas  of  the  measures  to  be 
adopted,  for  creating  that  first  and  most  indispensable  requisite  in 
the  present  state  of  the  world,  as  well  for  the  sake,  of  immediate 
safety,  as  with  a  view  to  the  future  condition  of  the  empire, — a 
regular  and  disposable  military  force.  Instead  of  this,  the  Honour- 
able Gentlemen  seemed  by  their  measures  to  be  looking  to  any 
other  force,  rather  than  that  of  a  regular  army,  the  augmentation 
to  which  was  as  yet,  by  their  own  account,  only  7000  men ;  while 
by  their  general  conduct  they  had  brought  the  country  to  a  state, 
in  which,  at  the  end  of  nine  months,  a  line  of  cruisers,  or  (accord- 
ing to  the  expression  of  an  old  poet,  whom  he  did  not  dare  to 
quote  in  the  original)  "  a  single  plank,"  was  all  that  protected  the 
country,  he  would  not  say,  from  the  "  grave,"  but  from  evils  and 
dangers,  of  a  magnitude  not  to  be  described. 


DEFENCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  HI 

Mr.  Windham  was  replied  to  by  Mr.  Yorke  (Secretary  of  State  for  the 
Home  Department).  Mr.  Pitt  recommended  a  further  application  of  500,000?. 
to  the  Volunteer  Service,  in  order  to  render  it  more  efficient,  by  increasing 
the  number  of  drills,  and  attaching  a  regular  field-officer  and  adjutant  to  each 
battalion,  Mr.  T.  Grenville  and  Mr.  Fox  concurred  with  Mr.  Windham,  and 
were  answered  by  Lord  Castlereagh  and  Mr.  Addington  (Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer) ;  after  which  the  several  resolutions  on  the  estimates  were  put, 
and  carried  without  a  division. 


(     112     ) 

ADDITIONAL  FORCE  BILL. 

JUNE  5th,  1804. 

Mr.  Pitt,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  laid  before  the  house  his  plan  for 
maintaining  an  Additional  Force.  Under  this  plan,  the  Army  of  Reserve  and 
Militia  were  to  be  completed  to  their  establishments ;  after  which  the  latter 
force  was  to  be  reduced  to  40,000  men,  by  transfers  to  the  Regular  Army ; 
and  vacancies  thus  occasioned  were  to  be  supplied  by  further  levies.  The 
men  were  to  be  raised  by  ballot  in  the  first  instance,  but  if  the  person  drawn 
should  decline  to  serve,  he  should  be  allowed  to  fine,  and  the  ballot  should  go 
on ; — and  if  no  person  should  be  found  willing  to  serve,  then  the  parish  should 
be  bound  to  provide  the  quota  allotted  to  it,  taking  care,  however,  that  no 
higher  bounty  should  be  given  than  was  already  fixed  by  law.  This  recruiting 
to  take  place  under  the  direction  of  the  parish  oflicers.  If  men  could  not  be 
found  by  them,  the  parish  should  be  fined ;  the  fines  carried  to  the  general 
recruiting  account,  and  the  commanding  officer  of  the  district  be  empowered 
to  raise  the  deficiencies  by  means  of  regular  recruiting,  paying  the  same  boun- 
ties to  the  men  thus  raised  as  the  parishes  would  have  done.  Mr.  Pitt 
having  stated  the  nature  of  his  plan,  and  moved  for  leave  to  bring  in  a  bill 
accordingly, 

Mr.  Windham  rose,  and  spoke  to  the  following  effect : 
I  perfectly  concur  with  the  ideas  of  my  Right  Honourable 
Friend,  so  far  as  they  regard  the  necessity  of  increasing  our 
regular  army,  but  I  cannot  help  thinking,  that  the  means  which 
he  proposes  for  that  purpose,  are  very  far  from  being  likely  to 
prove  effectual.  His  plan,  in  this  respect,  resembles  too  closely 
the  measures  which  have  been  pursued  for  some  time  past  in  this 
country.  In  many  respects  I  confess  that  it  differs  from,  and  is 
much  superior  to,  that  hitherto  acted  upon.  It  is,  notwithstanding, 
liable  to  considerable  objections. 

Upon  subjects  of  this  kind  nothing  is  more  .natural  than  that 
there  should  be  differences  of  opinion.  The  plan  proposed  this 
evening  is  very  different  froni  that  which  was  announced  by  my 
Right  Honourable  Friend  some  time  since.  This  serves  to  show, 
that  even  within  a  short  space  of  time  my  Right  Honourable 
Friend  himself  has  changed  his  mind  upon  the  nature  of  his  own 
project ;  and  unless  he  can  change  his  mind  still  further  upon  this 
question,  I  can  hardly  flatter  myself  that  I  shall  be  able  to  support 
him.  Indeed,  I  much  fear  that  our  sentiments  are  fundamentally 
different,  and  that  I  must  be  one  of  those  who  will  be  compelled 
to  resist  the  project  which  he  has  to  offer.     What  the  points  are 


ADDITIONAL  FORCE  BILL.  113 

on  which  I  must  oppose  it,  I  may  more  particularly  explain  upon 
a  future  occasion.  At  present  I  shall  only  state,  and  with  as  much 
brevity  as  I  can,  the  general  fundamental  principles  which  urge 
me  to  refuse  my  concurrence  to  some  parts  of  this  proposition.  1 
say  some,  because  there  are  many  parts,  which  to  resist  would  be 
to  resist  myself — would  be  inconsistent  with  the  sentiments  I  have 
repeatedly  delivered  in  this  house,  and  which  I  hold  at  present.  I 
mean  that  particularly  which  relates  to  the  reduction  of  the 
militia.  This  is  an  idea  which  I  threw  out  long  since,  and  which 
I  must  be  proud  to  find  seconded  by  the  authority  of  my  Right 
Honourable  Friend.  Although  it  must  be  recollected,  that  when 
first  mentioned  it  was  very  much  censured,  yet  now  it  appears  to 
be  generally  recognised  as  a  wise  and  eligible  expedient.  Another 
point  of  the  plan  of  which  I  approve  is,  the  rejection  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  substitution.  I  should  have  been  very  glad  to  have  got 
rid  of  this  principle  upon  the  condition  of  commuting  service  for 
a  fixed  fine ;  in  which  way  certainly  the  evils  of  exorbitant  boun- 
ties would  have  been  avoided ;  but  I  am  much  better  satisfied  to 
have  compulsory  service  put  an  end  to  altogether.  Both  of  these 
alterations  therefore,  namely,  the  reduction  in  the  amount  of  the 
militia,  and  the  abolition  of  compulsory  service,  I  heartily  approve 
of,  and  either  expressly  or  by  implication  have  long  since  recom- 
mended. I  am  also  happy  to  understand,  from  my  Right  Honour- 
able Friend  at  the  close  of  his  speech,  that  it  is  his  intention  to 
bring  forward  a  motion  for  a  change  in  the  condition  of  service 
in  our  regular  army,  by  which  I  conceive  him  to  mean,  that  men 
shall  be  enlisted  for  a  certain  term  of  years  in  lieu  of  the  present 
custom.  This,  I  think,  and  have  always  thought,  a  thing  so 
desirable,  that  it  was  my  determination,  if  it  had  not  been  taken 
up  by  any  other  member,  to  submit  the  question  to  the  considera- 
tion of  this  house.  I  am  glad  to  find  that  the  idea  seems  to  be 
adopted  by  an  Honourable  Gentleman  who  is  so  capable,  from 
his  situation  and  ability,  of  carrying  it  into'  effect. 

Having  stated  those  parts  of  my  Right  Honourable  Friend's 
intentions  of  which  I  approve,  I  now  come  to  the  less  pleasant 
part  of  my  duty,  that  of  stating  the  points  of  which  I  disapprove. 
In  the  whole  of  the  proposed  proceeding  for  raising  men,  there  is 
introduced  an  injudicious  mixture  of  the  voluntary  and  the  com- 
pulsory, of  which  the  latter  strikes  me  to  be  much  too  strong. 
This  was  one  motive  of  my  resistance  to  the  army  of  reserve 
bill,  the  principle  of  which  is  preserved  in  the  plan  under  discus- 
sion ;  and  I  remember,  that  in  the  course  of  the  arguments  offered 
in  favour  of  that  bill,  the  principal  ground  relied  upon  by  its  advo- 
cates was,  that  it  would  go  to  raise  a  body  within  a  short  time, 
more  effectually  than  could  be  done  by  any  other  method.  This 
argument,  as  to  expedition,  which  was  founded  on  the  circum- 
10*  P 


114  ADDITIONAL  FORCE  BILL. 

stances  of  the  moment,  and  which  was  made  to  overcome  every 
consideration  of  future  advantage,  cannot  be  used  with  any  effect 
now.  We  now  find  ourselves  in  a  state,  in  which  what  is  called 
present  emergency,  can  no  longer  operate  to  remove  from  our 
minds  what  is  due  to  the  consideration  of  consequences  which 
may  take  place  at  subsequent  periods.  We  are  not  now  called 
upon  to  consult  for  the  present  only.  We  are  at  least  in  circum- 
stances in  which  we  have  a  little  pause  and  breathing :  time  to 
consider  what  is  good  for  the  country  permanently,  as  well  as  for 
the  present  moment.  If  we  were  not,  the  plan  proposed  by  my 
Right  Honourable  Friend,  must  be  given  up  altogether,  for  with 
a  view  to  present  defence  it  does  not  promise  to  effect  any  thing. 
On  the  other  hand,  its  provisions  are,  as  I  before  observed,  in  a 
very  considerable  degree  compulsory.  If  the  danger  to  be  guarded 
against  were  imminent,  and  that  a  levy  were  necessary  immedi- 
ately, unquestionably  a  compulsory  proceeding  to  obtain  that  levy 
might  be  the  most  effectual.  Measures  of  that  sort  are  undoubt- 
edly in  their  own  nature  the  speediest-  and  most  certain  in  their 
operation.  Nothing  seems  to  be  so  sure  and  direct  in  a  case 
where  men  are  wanted,  as  to  pass  a  law,  by  which  men  shall  be 
forcibly  taken.  But  here  care  is  necessary,  to  consider  the  nature 
and  constitution  of  the  country  in  which  such  powers  are  to  be 
exercised.  What  is  good  for  Russia  or  Prussia  may  not  be  good 
for  Great  Britain.  It  is  not  that  the  power  of  enacting  such  law^s 
is  wanting  in  Great  Britain.  In  ev^ery  country,  free  or  otherwise, 
there  is  a  power  that  is  supreme ;  and  that  supreme  power  must, 
by  the  very  description  and  name  of  it,  be  capable  of  enacting 
•whatever  laws  it  pleases.  Whatever  the  King  does 'in  Prussia,  or 
the  Emperor  in  Russia,  or  the  Grand  Turk  in  Constantinople,  or, 
what  is  still  more,  the  Emperor  of  the  Gauls  in  France,  that  may 
the  King,  Lords,  and  Commons,  legally  enact  in  Great  Britain. 
But  the  question  then  comes  not  merely  as  to  the  propriety  of  such 
enactments,  but  as  to  the  means  of  carrying  them  into  execution, 
and  according  to  those  means  will  be  the  advantage  that  is  to  be 
expected  from  the  measure.  In  a  free  country,  therefore,  in  a 
country  like  this,  where  nothing  is  to  be  done  but  by  regular 
authority,  where  every  thing  must  be  conducted  according  to  law 
and  even  according  to  usage,  where  there  must  be  a  constant 
regard,  not  only  to  men's  rights,  but  even  to  their  feelings,  measures 
of  compulsion  will  often  fail  of  their  effect,  and  show  themselves 
to  be  ill-chosen,  when  the  same  measures,  in  countries  of  a  different 
description,  would  be  confessedly  the  most  advantageous  and 
judicious.  Where  the  constitution  of  things  is  such,  that  the  power 
of  the  state  can  go  straight  to  its  object ;  w^here  the  sovereign,  as 
in  Russia,  or  as  in  old  times  in  this  country,  can  call  upon  his 
great  lords,  and  they  again  can  call  upon  their  vassals ;  where, 


ADDITIONAL  FORCE  BILL.  115 

as  in  Prussia  possibly,  he  can  send  forth  his  recruiters^  and  with 
Httle  ceremony  take  whatever  men  are  fitted  to  his  purpose,  there 
compulsory  measures,  as  they  are  unquestionably  the  most  simple, 
so  they  probably  are  the  most  certain  and  efficacious :  but  the 
reverse  may  possibly  be  the  case,  where  they  are  to  be  loaded 
with  all  the  restrictions,  exceptions,  provisions,  and  modifications, 
which  must  be  charged  upon  them  in  this  country.  In  such  a 
complicated  system  of  movements,  lialf  the  power  of  the  machine 
is  lost  in  overcoming  the  friction. 

These  are  the  reasons  why  we  must  not  conclude  that  a  mea- 
sure which  is  good  in  one  country,  must  be  equally  or  proportion- 
ably  so  in  another.  A  country  and  constitution  like  this,  is  not 
good  for  measures  of  this  description.  Our  compulsion  is  not 
good  compulsion.  It  has  not  the  strength  and  flavour  of  that 
which  is  the  growth  of  more  congenial  climes.  It  would  not  fol- 
low necessarily,  even  if  it  had,  that  it  would  be  equally  beneficial 
with  us  as  in  other  places.  Inquiry  must  always  be  made,  agree- 
ably to  what  is  the  fact  in  the  present  instance,  how  the  compul- 
sory measure  is  likely  to  operate  on  measures  of  voluntary 
exertion  that  are  to  be  going  forward  at  the  same  time.  Inquiry 
must  likewise  be  made  whether  the  voluntary  measures  will  not 
render  the  compulsory  unnecessary ;  for  nobody,  I  suppose,  wishes 
to  have  recourse  to  compulsory  measures,  if  you  can  do  without 
them. 

In  the  present  instance,  it  happens  both  that  the  compulsory 
part,  as  there  is  all  reason  to  think,  is  unnecessary,  the  voluntary 
being  suflicient  without  it ;  and  that  the  voluntary  will  not  be  able 
to  do  its  work,  if  the  other  is  persisted  in.  All  the  parishes  are 
to  be  called  upon  for  a  certain  number  of  men,  to  enforce  their 
production  of  which  (so  much  is  their  inclination  doubted)  a  fine 
is  to  be  levied  upon  such  as  fail  to  furnish  their  complement 
within  a  certain  time.  It  is  understood  also,  that  the  militia  is  to 
be  suflfered  gradually  to  waste  itself  to  a  certain  number,  and  that 
this  difference  is  to  be  made  good  by  men  raised,  in  succession, 
in  the  way  proposed,  and  who  are  to  be  transferred  to  this  new 
army  of  reserve;  so  that  for  the  regular  army,  which  is  pro- 
fessed to  be  the  main  object  in  view,  the  stock  which  wnll  be  left 
for  direct  recruiting,  will  be  those  who  remain  after  deducting  the 
amount  of  the  present  militia. 

A  hope,  however,  is  entertained  (and  this  is  the  great  strength 
of  the  measure)  that  men  when  once  detached  from  their  original 
habits,  and  engaged  in  military  life,  will  enlist  in  great  numbers, 
from  the  force  thus  to  be  created.  The  fallacy  of  the  arguments 
which  make  the  foundation  of  this  hope  is  obvious,  for  it  may 
quite  as  well  happen,  that  after  men  have  so  far  caught  the  mili- 
tary spirit,  (or  rather  so  far  lost  the  civil  one,)  as  to  resolve  to 


116  ADDITIONAL  FORCE  BILL. 

continue  soldiers,  they  should  remain  in  the  corps  from  which 
they  derived  this  feeling,  and  continue  on  the  home-service,  as 
that  they  should  enlist  into  regiments  destined  to  serve  abroad.  ^ 
If,  however,  some  men  should  so  enter,  as  it  is  presumed  that 
many  will,  there  is  no  reason  to  expect  the  number  to  be  greater 
than  will  be  necessary  to  compensate  those,  who,  having  origin- 
ally been  disposed  to  a  military  life,  and  being  persons,  who,  if 
no  such  limited  force  had  offered,  would  have  engaged  for  gene- 
ral service,  will  now  be  satisfied  with  the  experiment  they  have 
made,  will  have  sown  their  wild  oats,  and  either  return  to  their 
former  employments,  or,  at  least,  continue  in  that  species  of 
service  in  which  they  find  themselves  placed.  I  am  not  an  advo- 
cate, therefore,  for  providing  in  greater  aBundance  such  species 
of  force.  I  do  not  want  to  multiply  the  opportunities  by  which 
men,  having  a  military  turn  and  disposed  to  betake  themselves  to 
a  soldier's  life,  may  be  drawn  into  services  in  which  that  propen- 
sity will  be  only  half-indulged,  and,  in  which,  in  quite  as  small 
a  proportion,  the  public  service  will  be  promoted.  I  have  the 
strongest  objections  to  this  new-fangled  scheme  of  dividing  our 
public  force  into  two  parts — of  crippling  that  part  which  is  dis- 
posable, and  increasing  that  which  is  not,  in  the  ill-grounded  hope 
of  providing,  through  the  latter,  an  augmentation  for  the  former. 
This  is  the  modern,  indirect,  circuitous,  and  fallacious  mode  of 
recruiting  the  army. 

It  appears  now,  that  the  propriety  of  abandoning  the  balloting 
system  is  admitted,  and,  in  lieu  of  a  ballot,  my  Honourable  Friend 
proposes  to  raise  men  in  another  way ;  he  means  to  commit  the 
recruiting  to  parish  officers.  I  will  not  say  that  this  is  not  an 
improvement  compared  to  the  mode  pursued  of  late,  which,  be- 
sides being  so  grievously  oppressive  to  individuals,  interfered  so 
materially  wdth  the  supply  of  the  regular  army  by  high  boun- 
ties, &c. ;  but  yet  I  would  not  be  understood  to  believe  that  the 
plan  before  the  house,  will  not  operate  considerably  in  the  same 
way.  For  although  the  amount  of  bounty  to  be  paid  by  the 
parish  officers  is  limited  in  form,  we  can  ha^e  no  security  that 
that  bounty  will  noit  be  generally  exceeded.  Those  officers  could 
have  no  particular  motive  for  economy,  and  they  must  have  a 
strong  wish  to  save  their  parishes  from  the  proposed  fine.  This 
wish  will  naturally  render  them  anxious  to  procure  men,  and 
ready,  if  necessary,  to  give  an  advanced  bounty.  From  this,  all 
the  evils  complained  of  under  the  army  of  reserve  act  respecting 
high  bounties  are,  in  their  degrees,  likely  to  recur ;  for  no  sum 
short  of  the  fine  will  of  course  be  scrupled,  so  as  to  avoid  the 
penalty,  by  raising  the  complement  of  men.  Some  parishes  may, 
from  pride,  even  exceed  the  fine  in  the  allowance  of  bounty,  rather 
than  not  bring  forward  their  quota. 


ADDITIONAL  FORCE  BILL.  117 

A  great  deal  has  been  said,  now  and  upon  former  occasions, 
about  the  hopes  to  be  formed  from  individual  exertion ;  but  this 
appears  to  me  to  be  altogether  imaginary.  Nothing  can  be  con- 
ceived more  helpless  than  an  unfortunate  countryman,  who,  in 
the  midst  of  his  day's  work,  or  at  his  return  home  tired  in  the 
evening,  is  told  that  a  ballot  has  taken  place,  and  that  he  is  one 
of  the  unlucky  number  upon  whom  the  lot  has  fallen.  If  he  does 
not  happen  to  be  insured,  by  being  a  member  of  an  association- 
club,  he  is  as  much  struck  down  by  the  news,  as  he  would  be  by 
a  stroke  of  the  apoplexy.  His  first  resource  is  probably  to  vent 
his  complaints  among  his  neighbours ;  but  finding  that  this  is  but 
of  little  avail,  and  being  told  by  some  one  of  a  substitute  that  has 
been  heard  of  in  a  parish  not  far  distant,  he  sets  out  on  his  mis- 
sion, roaming  about,  like  David  Simple,  looking  for  a  true  friend, 
In  this  way  he  wanders  on,  from  house  to  house,  and  from  village 
to  village,  spending  his  money,  losing  his  time,  tiring  his  horse 
(or  his  neighbour's  horse,  as  the  case  may  be,)  filling  the  ale- 
houses with  his  complaints,  but  helping  to  empty  them  of  their 
beer,  till  good  fortune  or  good  advice  directs  him  to  one  of  those 
obnoxious,  but,  in  these  cases,  necessary  personages,  called  a 
crimp.  There,  at  least,  his  labour  ends ;  and,  by  the  help  of  some 
forty  or  fifty  guineas,  he  is  enabled  to  procure  a  recruit  for  the 
service,  and  an  exemption  for  himself;  at  least,  until  the  recruit 
shall  happen  to  run  away. 

The  same  thing,  with  circumstances  in  a  slight  degree  varying, 
must  happen  in  the  case  of  the  parish  officers.  What  means  upon 
earth  have  the  parish  officers  to  get  men,  but  those  which  they 
ought  not  to  have  1  This,  measure,  therefore,  which  among  its 
other  professions,  professes  to  abolish  crimping,  will  go,  if  I  am 
not  mistaken,  to  extend  and  establish  that  system.  I  may  almost 
say,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  will ;  for  if  the  parish  officers  do  not 
supply  themselves  in  that  way,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  they  must 
have  recourse  to  more  exceptionable  methods.  What  is  the  de- 
scription of  persons  to  whom  they  will  first  apply?  and  what 
will  be  the  situation  of  any  of  those  persons,  should  the  applica- 
tion not  be  successful  ?  A  man  dependent  on  the  parish,  or  in  a 
situation  of  life  to  be  charged  with  petty  offences,  will  not  fare,  it 
is  to  be  apprehended,  very  well,  should  the  officers  and  principal 
proprietors  of  the  parish  have  deemed  him  a  fit  person  to  serve 
His  Majesty,  and  he  by  chance  not  be  disposed  to  concur  in  that 
opinion.  Let  him  take  care  how  he  applies,  on  his  own  account, 
or  that  of  any  of  his  family,  for  parish  relief;  how  he  is  seen 
after  dusk  stepping  aside  from  the  foot-path,  near  any  of  his  wor- 
ship's plantations.  Without  saying  to  what  degree  these  powers 
will  be  abused,  it  is  sufficient  to  know  that  the  bill  holds  out  the 
strongest  temptation  to  such  abuse ;  nay,  that  its  very  hopes  of 


118  ADDITIONAL  FORCE  BILL. 

success  seem  to  be  founded  on  that  supposition :  for  if  the  parish 
officers  are  not  to  avail  themselves  of  the  powers  which  their 
office  gives  them,  what  advantages,  I  must  again  ask,  have  they 
for  recruiting  beyond  what  are  possessed  by  all  other  men  1  For 
what  purpose  then,  it  is  to  be  inquired,  are  these  consequences  in- 
curred ?  for  increasing  the  regular  army  ?  Not  a  man  in  the  first 
instance  is  obtained  for  the  regular  army.  All  these  compulsory 
means  produce  nothing  but^soldiers  for  home-service.  To  engage 
them  afterwards  for  more  valuable  service,  we  depend  on  the 
operation  of  bounties.  Our  forcing-pumps  will  carry  the  water 
only  to  reservoirs  of  a  certain  height ;  from  thence  it  must  be 
removed,  to  the  level  at  which  it  is  wanted,  by  machinery  of 
another  kind. 

The  idea  comes  then  to  be  considered,  founded  on  the  supposi- 
tion that  a  force  of  this  limited  nature  is  to  exist  and  to  be  made 
the  instrument  of  recruiting  the  regular  army, — of  attaching  par- 
ticular regiments  of  one  service  to  particular  regiments  of  the 
other,  so  as  to  give  to  each  regiment  of  the  line  a  peculiar  and 
appropriate  source  of  recruiting,  in  the  battalion  of  the  army  of 
reserve  that  is  attached  to  it.  From  this  arrangement  great  ad- 
vantages are  expected,  such  as  we  have  heard  set  forth  with  all 
the  embellishments  of  my  Honourable  Friend's  eloquence.  It  is 
the  great  foundation  on  which  our  hopes  of  giving  effect  to  the  plan 
of  a  stationary  force  as  a  means  of  recruiting  the  regular  army, 
are  made  to  rest.  But  of  this  arrangement,  it  must  be  observed, 
that  w^hile  it  affects  by  its  form  to  be  something  positive,  and  to 
confer  powers  not  before  possessed,  it  is,  in  truth,  nothing  but  re- 
striction and  prohibition,  principles  merely  negative,  and  by 
which,  in  the  first  instance,  powers  must  always  be  taken  away, 
instead  of  being  given.  When  you  say  that  all  who  shall  enhst 
from  the  army  of  reserve  shall  enter  severally  into  such  and  such 
regiments,  it  is  the  same  as  to  say,  they  shall  enter  into  no  other, 
— a  regulation  of  which  the  prohibitory  part  is  far  more  extensive 
than  the  enacting,  and  which,  in  the  first  instance,  therefore,  is 
calculated  rather  to  diminish  the  numbers  of  those  who  may  enter 
than  to  increase  them.  There  is  little  doubt  that  such  will  be  its 
final  effect  By  establishing  that  connexion  which  this  plan  has 
in  view,  such  a  provincial  character  may,  it  is  possible,  be  im- 
printed upon  certain  corps,  as  may  create  motives  for  entering 
into  the  service  which  would  not  otherwise  exist,  and  by  which 
men  will  be  gained  who  would  otherwise  remain  in  the  home- 
battalions,  or  would  not  enter  the  service  at  all.  But  against  this 
must  be  set  the  chance  that  this  provincial  character  will,  in  innu- 
merable instances,  never  be  established ;  and  that  when  it  is,  it 
will  not,  by  any  means,  produce  effects  equal  to  the  disadvantage 
of  the  restriction,  by  which  alone  it  can  be  brought  about.     To 


ADDITIONAL  FORCE  BILL.  *  119 

make  a  corps  provincial,  you  must  secure  to  it  exclusively  the  re- 
cruiting of  the  corresponding  battalion ;  in  other  words,  you  must 
deny  to  the  men  of  that  battalion,  the  privilege  of  choosing  the 
corps  into  which  they  would  wish  to  enter.  When  you  have 
done  all  this,  such  may  be,  from  various  causes,  the  necessity  of 
supplying  this  corps  from  other  quarters,  of  making  good  its  losses 
by  other  means  than  those  of  its  own  recruiting  fund,  that  its 
provincial  character  may  be  wholly  lost,  or,  at  least,  but  very 
imperfectly  traced ;  and  after  all,  it  is  to  be  considered  what  this 
character  will  do,  estimating  its  effects  according  to  the  present 
state  of  society,  and  the  motives  which  in  general  influence  those 
who  enter  the  army  as  soldiers.  The  bond  of  local  or  county 
connexion  is  far  less  strong  than  it  was  in  this  country  forty  or 
fifty  years  ago.  A  thousand  motives  will  operate  with  men  in  the 
choice  of  a  regiment  more  powerful  than  their  attachment  to  the 
name  of  their  county,  or  even  than  their  desire  of  finding  in  the 
regiment  those  provincial  properties  which  it  may  really  possess. 
A  man  would  be  disposed  to  enter,  but  that  the  regiment  to  which 
he  must  now  be  confined  is  abroad,  and  he  wants  to  stay  at 
home ;  or  is  at  home,  and  he  is  desirous  of  seeing  the  world,  or 
has  an  ardour  for  service,  and  would  wish  to  go  abroad.  The 
regiment  is  in  Canada,  or  Nova  Scotia,  and  he  wishes  to  go 
to  Gibraltar ;  is  in  a  hot  country,  and  he  wishes  for  a  cold  one ; 
or  vice  versa.  For  county  connexion  he  cares  nothing,  having 
left  the  county  when  he  was  a  boy ;  but  by  entering  with  the  re- 
cruiting party  now  in  town,  he  shall  go  where  he  may  hope  to 
see  again  his  old  sweetheart,  Bet  such-a-one,  or  h&  in  a  corps 
with  the  comrade  with  whom  he  worked  in  London,  who  is  now 
a  Serjeant,  and  may  have  the  means,  perchance,  of  making  him 
a  corporal. 

Such  are  the  motives  that  dictate  the  choice  of  particular  regi- 
ments among  private  soldiers ;  and,  so  far  as  they  operate,  this 
regulation  will  prove  injurious.  It  will  prove  injurious,  too,  in  the 
case  of  another  class  of  men,  be  they  more  or  less  numerous, 
those  whom  my  Right  Honourable  Friend  has  particularly  dwelt 
on,  with  a  view  to  the  discipline  which  he  hopes  to  establish  in 
these  second  battalions.  If,  says  he,  a  man  by  idleness  or  miscon- 
duct should  incur  the  displeasure  of  his  oflicers,  he  cannot  hope 
to  escape  them  or  to  secure  impunity,  by  enlisting  into  the  regu- 
lar army.  He  will  go  into  a  corps  where  his  character  will  be 
sure  to  accompany  him,  and  where  he  will  meet,  or  be  followed 
by,  those  very  oflicers  to  whom  his  good  or  ill  conduct  will  be 
known.  It  is  amazing  that  my  Right  Honourable  Friend  did  not 
see,  that  this  was  a  reason  why  he  would  not  go  into  the  corps  at 
all,  and  not  being  at  liberty  to  take  any  other,  would  remain  to 
the  end  of  his  term  where  he  was.     In  this  instance  therefore,  at 


120         •  ADDITIONAL  FORCE  BILL. 

least,  the  regulation  in  question  will  not  do  much:  whatever 
advantages  it  may  have  with  respect  to  discipline,  it  will  not  ad- 
vance much  the  recruiting  for  the  regular  army.  I  see  on  the 
whole  nothing  in  this  plan,  for  which  so  many  fair  promises  have 
been  made,  that  is  Hkely  to  have  any  other  effect  than  to  produce 
a  large  stationary  force  to  be  confined  to  this  country. 

With  respect  to  expense,  considering  that  the  measure  does,  in 
the  first  instance,  fix  the  rate  of  bounty  higher  than  has  ever  yet 
been  known  as  paid  by  government,  .that  the  parishes  will  not  be 
restrained  within  the  rate  so  fixed,  and  that,  whatever  is  ultimate- 
ly given  by  the  parishes,  more  must  of  necessity  be  given  to  men 
entering  for  genera]  service,  it  will  be  impossible  not  to  see,  that 
in  this  view  also,  the  measure  must  produce  effects  the  most  inju- 
rious, and  that  it  holds  a  distinguished  place  in  that  system,  which 
in  less  than  forty  years  has  raised  the  price  of  a  recruit  in  this 
country  from  a  guinea,  to  the  enormous  amount  at  which  w^e  now 
see  it.  Such  have  been  the  glorious  fruits  of  a  system  of  ballot- 
ing, followed  up  by  the  principle  of  commuting  personal  service 
for  service  by  substitute ! 

Much  has  been  said  by  my  Right  Honourable  Friend  and 
others  of  the  influence  of  a  general  military  spirit  in  the  country, 
and  the  propriety  of  promoting  it.  Upon  this  point  I  must  say, 
that  my  opinion  has  always  been,  however  paradoxical  it  may 
appear,  that  to  put  a  natron  in  a  state  in  which  every  man  was  a 
soldier,  was  not  the  way  to  make  a  military  nation,  or  to  carry 
the  military  strength  of  a  country  to  its  greatest  height.  A  country 
in  which  every  man  is  a  soldier,  is  a  country  in  which  no  man  is 
a  soldier.  A  system,  such  as  is  now  proposed,  would  rather  serve 
to  damp  and  deaden  than  to  encourage  and  animate  the  military 
spirit.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose,  that  the  military  spirit  of 
a  country  is  cherished  and  kept  alive  by  those  only  who  appear 
in  the  military  character  themselves.  The  2^?z-military  part  of  the 
community  contribute  quite  as  much  to  this,  and  in  a  manner 
hardly  less  direct.  They  are  the  spectators  or  audience,  without 
whom  the  piece  would  no  more  be  performed  than  it  would  with- 
out the  actors.  We  need  go  no  further  for  a  proof  of  this,  than 
to  inquire  what  the  influence  is,  in  promoting  the  military  spirit, 
of  that  half  of  the  community,  which  certainly  takes  no  part  in 
the  service,  namely,  the  women.  In  France  formerly,  a  man 
would  hardly  have  been  spoken  to,  in  the  female  world,  who,  not 
being  engaged  by  some  other  profession,  had  passed  his  youth 
without  service  in  the  army.  What  more  was  necessary?  A 
country  in  that  state  is  a  military  country,  let  its  military  estab- 
lishments be  what  they  may.  And  the  fact,  in  this  instance,  per- 
fectly corresponds  with  the  theory ;  for  if  we  look  round  the 
world,  it  will  be  found  that  the  military  countries  are  not  those  in 


ADDITIONAL  FORCE  BILL.  121 

which,  by  the  constitution,  every  man  is  enrolled  as  a  soldier ; 
but  the  contrary.  France,  the  most  military  country,  has  nothing 
but  its  army.  Prussia,  Russia,  Austria,  in  like  manner.  Even 
Sw^itzerland,  if  it  may  be  considered  as  military,  was  not  so  in 
virtue  of  its  militia,  but  in  consequence  of  the  number  of  its  inhab- 
itants who  had  served  in  foreign  armies.  On  the  other  hand,  in 
America,  and  in  the  little  state  of  Geneva,  if  that  may  be  reckon- 
ed, though  neither  certainly  were  considered  as  military  states, 
every  man  was  in  some  way  or  other  a  soldier.  The  reason  of 
this  is  not  difficult  to  be  traced,  and  may  be  considered  as  two- 
fold: first,  states  not  much  engaged  in  wars,  and  with  whom, 
therefore,  on  this  very  account,  the  military  spirit  is  not  likely  to 
run  high,  will  resort  to  the  system  of  militia,  town  guards,  pro- 
vincial enrolments,  and  other  establishments  of  that  sort,  in  which 
numbers  are  to  make  up  for  quality ;  and  secondly,  the  very 
existence  of  such  establishments,  instead  of  exalting,  will  tend  to 
abate  whatever  mihtary  feeling  there  might  otherwise  be.  It  can 
never  be  of  advantage  to  that  feeling  to  famiharize  men  to  the 
contemplation  of  soldiers  separated  from  those  conditions  which 
make  the  character  respectabie.  An  army  merely  defensive,  and 
that  can  from  the  nature  of  it  but  rarely  see  danger,, is  deprived 
at  the  outset  of  that  which  forms  the  real  and  vital  principle  of 
those  sentiments  which  the  military  character  is  calculated  to 
inspire.  It  will,  moreover,  rarely  be  found  to  be  a  good  army. 
Yet,  upon  these  all  the  military  distinctions,  insignia,  and  decora- 
tions, are  lavished  in  as  great  profusion,  as  upon  troops  in  which 
the  military  character  is  complete.  We  may  see  how  the  fact  is 
in  that  respect  at  the  present  moment  in  our  own  country,  but 
we  do  not  seem  to  be  at  all  sensible  of  what  are  likely  to  be  the 
effects.  The  volunteers  have  clothes  as  fine,  feathers  as  high, 
music  of  as  martial  a  character,  decorations  of  all  sorts  as  cap- 
tivating and  imposing  as  those  of  the  regular  troops.  If  we  con- 
tinue to  pursue  this  course,  diffi^sing  this  lustre  of  military  dis- 
tinctions on  that  which  is  not  mihtary,  and  obscuring  and  eclips- 
ing the  regular  army,  there  is  danger,  that  the  real  military 
character  may  not  only  be  enfeebled  but  destroyed.  If  you  will 
resort  to  a  contrary  course,  the  true  military  spirit  may  again 
revive,  and  operating  generally  and  powerfully,  Hke  the  air  we 
breathe,  resume  before  long  its  proper  influence,  and  produce  its 
natural  effects. 

If,  fn  thus  objecting  to  the  plans  submitted  by  my  Right  Honour- 
able Friend  and  others,  I  should  be  asked,  whether  I  had  any 
plan  of  my  own  to  propose,  I  should  answer,  none ;  nor  do  I  think 
any  necessary.  The  only  change  I  desire  at  present,  is,  to  abol- 
ish the  plans  lately  adopted,  and,  in  the  system  of  the  army,  to 
enlist  men  for  a  certain  term  of  years,  instead  of  the  practice 

n  Q 


122  ADDITIONAL  FORCE  BILL. 

which  now  prevails  of  enlisting  men  for  life.  Let  things,  in  other 
respects,  go  on  as  formerly,  and  there  will  not,  I  apprehend,  be 
any  reason  to  complain.  1  cannot  see  why  all  the  machinery  of 
law  should  be  set  to  work  upon  our  established  military  system. 
My  only  wish  is  to  have  it  released  from  that  machinery-jr-to 
have  all  the  obstructions  in  its  way  removed. 

A  great  medical  ^yriter,  of  the  last  century,  has  laid  down  a 
maxim  for  the  conduct  of  the  understanding  in  matters  of  science, 
w^hich  may  be  applied  with  little  variation  to  the  regulation  of 
men's  conduct  in  civil  and  practical  life.  Vera  cernit  qui  aliena 
rejicit.  Truth  will  appear  as  soon  as  you  get  rid  of  error.  Af- 
fairs will  often  proceed  perfectly  well,  if  you  will  only  remove 
the  impediments  and  obstructions  that  are  turning  them  from  their 
proper  course.  Something  analogous  to  this  idea  is  what  I 
should  recommend  upon  the  subject  before  the  house.  With  good 
management,  I  am  quite  sure  that  men  enough  could  be  found  in 
this  country  for  the  ample  recruiting  of  our  regular  army.  There 
is  no  scarcity  of  population.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  far  more  con- 
siderable than  at  any  former  period ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  with  the  aid  of  proper  encouragement  and  countenance,  by 
the  grant  of  certain  privileges  and  immunities  to  those  who  had 
served  in  the  army,  such  as  are  granted  with  sufficient  liberality 
to  all  who  have  served  in  the  militia,  (viz.  the  right  of  setting  up 
trades  in  corporate  towns,  &c.)  and  in  general  by  securing  to  the 
army  its  proper  proportion  of  the  benefits  attached  to  other  modes 
of  life,  a  supply  would  be  found  of  men  willing  to  become  soldiers, 
as  ample  and  as  well  proportioned  to  the  demand,  as  of  men 
ready  to  engage  in  any  other  trade  or  calling.  I  cannot  believe 
it  possible  that  there  should  not,  when  I  reflect  that  the  poors'  rates 
of  this  country  amount  annually,  according  to  the  account  on  the 
table,  to  5,000,000/.  and  when  I  recollect  the  extraordinary  mea- 
sure lately  taken  in  Scotland,  the  policy  of  which,  by-the-by,  I 
very  much  doubt,  of  granting  such  a  large  sum  of  money  for  the 
construction  of  a  canal,  in  order  to  give  employment  to  the  poor 
of  that  district,  and  to  prevent  their  emigration  to  a  foreign  coun- 
try. This  idea  of  laying  a  tax  for  the  purpose  of  providing  em- 
ployment for  a  particular  class  of  persons,  I  cannot  but  consider 
as  a  real  poor  rate.  It  is  accordingly  liable  to  all  the  objections 
chargeable  upon  measures  of  that  description.  I  mention  it  here 
for  the  purpose  of  showing,  that  the  prospect  for  recruiting  our 
army  is  by  no  means  discouraging,  either  on  the  score  of  our 
population,  or  (unhappily)  of  the  state  in  which  a  great  part  of 
that  population  is  placed.  But  I  am  then  told  of  our  trade,  and 
the  numbers  employed  in  various  branches.  I  have,  however, 
no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  trade  is  favourable  to  recruiting,  and 
not  less  so  perhaps  in  its  flourishing  and  growing  than  in  its  decli- 


ADDITIONAL  FORCE  BILL.  123 

ning  state.  It  is  rarely  that  trade  can  advance  rapidly  without 
great  fluctuations,  the  trade  receding  in  one  channel  as  it  flows 
into  another ;  and  thus  numbers  are  successively  left  out  of  em- 
ployment, and  glad  to  betake  themselves  for  subsistence  to,  the 
provision  which  the  army  ofiers.  From  these  considerations  I 
can  see  no  foundation  for  the  endeavours  so  often  made  to  ascribe 
to  scarcity  of  population  the  difficulty  which  rectruiting  for  the 
regular  army  has  met  with  for  some  time  back.  Let  us  try  to 
strip  that  recruiting  of  the  impediments  which  have  hitherto  sur- 
rounded it ;  and  there  is  no  reason  whatever  why  we  should  de- 
spair of  seeing  it  go  on  well.  At  all  events  let  the  experiment  be 
fairly  tried.  No  one  surely  would  wish  to  have  recourse  to  mea- 
sures of  compulsion  in  the  first  instance.  When  measures  of 
another  sort  have  been  tried  and  have  failed  ;  when  we  have  em- 
ployed, without  effect,  the  plain,  obvious,  and  ordinary  methods, 
then  will  be  time  enough  to  resort  to  the  harshness  of  compulsory 
measures,  and  such  strange,  wild,  and  new-fangled  projects  as 
that  which  is  now  proposed. 

Upon  the  whole  I  cannot  persuade  myself  to  assent  to  a  pro- 
position that  has  no  immediate  object  but  to  form  a  stationary  and 
half  military  force ;  and  no  tendency  to  increase  our  regular  army 
but  through  the  medium  of  a  process  from  which  I  have  no  hopes 
— by  a  kind  of  double  distillation,  of  which  no  one  has  hitherto 
shown  either  the  use  or  the  necessity.  A  notion  seems  to  prevail, 
that  a  soldier  is  a  thing  that  cannot  be  produced  by  one  continued 
act; — that  there  must  be  a  second  operation.  We  create  this 
army  of  men  for  limited  service,  as  a  kind  of  false  stomach  in 
which  the  aliment  is  to  be  lodged  for  a  time,  till  it  can  be 
removed  to  its  proper  receptacle,  and  there  finally  elaborated  for 
the  use  and  sustenance  of  the  state.  Of  the  whole  of  this  plan 
the  house  has  heard  enough  before.  Experiments  have  been 
already  made  upon  many  parts  of  it,  and  certainly  not  with  such 
success  as  to  encourage  a  perseverence  in  the  system.  But  nothing 
will  deter  us.  There  is  a  perfect  passion  for  legislating  upon  this 
subject,  and  for  eflfecting  every  thing  by  the  most  complicated 
and  circuitous  means.  My  Honourable  Friend  seems  to  be  actu- 
ated by  the  same  sort  of  feeling  as  that  of  the  lover  in  the  Appren- 
tice, who,  when  he  is  to  escape  with  his  mistress,  will  not  suffer 
her  to  go  out  by  the  street-door,  though  he  is  told  it  is  open,  but 
insists  upon  her  descending  from  the  window,  by  the  means  of 
his  ladder  of  ropes.  It  is  in  vain  that  the  maid  protests  that  the 
door  is  open,  and  her  mistress  has  nothing  to  do  but  to  walk  down 
the  great  stairs.  Oh  no  !  says  he,  but  what  then  becomes  of  my 
rope  ladder  ?  Such  is  in  truth  the  language  of  the  present  moment. 
In  all  this  multiplication  of  plans,  I  repeal,  that  very  little  is  to  be 
found  congenial  with  the  true  military  system  of  the  country. 


124  ADDITIONAL  FORCE  BILL. 

Every  thing  that  has  yet  been  brought  forward  on  the  subject  has 
proved  to  be  extravagant,  and  calculated  to  produce  the  opposite 
of  good  towards  the  substantial  defence  of  the  country ;  and  of 
the  same  nature  I  am  persuaded  will  the  plan  be  which  the  house 
has  just  heard.  I  am  ready  to  say  that  no  man  is  more  compe- 
tent to  devise  a  plan  requiring  great  combination  of  parts,  than 
my  Honourable  Friend ;  but  my  persuasion  on  this  subject  is, 
that  no  such  plan  is  necessary ;  on  the  contrary,  that  it  must  be 
injurious,  particularly  when  founded  on  the  principles  of  the  sys- 
tem for  some  time  back  acted  upon ;  and  therefore  I  feel  it  my 
duty  to  express  my  disapprobation  of  the  project  he  has  submitted 
to  the  house. 

After  some  further  objections  had  been  urged  against  the  proposed  measure 
by  Mr.  Addington,  Mr.  Fox,  and  other  members,  who  were  replied  to  by  Lord 
Castlereagh  and  Mr.  Pitt,  the  bill  was  brought  in,  and  read  a  first  time. 


(  125  ) 

MR.  PITT'S  FUNERAL. 

JANUARY  27th,  1806. 

Mr.  H.  Lascelles  moved  an  address  to  His  Majesty  that  he  would  be 
pleased  to  give  directions  that  the  remains  of  the  Right  Honourable  William 
Pitt  be  interred  at  the  public  charge,  and  a  monument  be  erected  to  his 
memory  in  Westminster  Abbey.  This  motion  having  been  seconded  by  the 
Marquis  of  Titchfield,  supported  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Browne,  Lord  Louvaine,  Mr. 
Hiley  Addington,  Sir  R.  Buxton,  General  Tarlton  and  Earl  Temple,  and 
opposed  by  Lord  Folkstone,  Mr.  William  Smith,  and  the  Marquis  of  Douglas, 

Mr. Windham  rose  and  spoke  as  follows: — 

However  painful  I  may  feel  the  situation  in  which  I  stand,  I 
feel  that  there  is  a  duty  imposed  upon  me  that  I  am  bound  to  dis- 
charge. Nothing  can  be  more  easy  and  satisfactory,  than  to  com- 
ply with  that  advice  which  has  been  given  to  all  parties,  not  to 
let  their  political  hostilities  be  carried  to  the  grave,  and  that  on 
such  an  occasion  as  this,  they  should  bury  all  animosities.  For 
my  part,  the  only  difficulty  I  should  find  in  complying  with  this 
advice  is,  that  I  have  no  political  animosities  to  bury.  Although 
I  join  sincerely  in  admiration  of  the  great  talents  of  the  Right 
Honourable  Gentleman  who  is  now  no  more,  yet  I  think  that 
those  talents  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  fortunate  in  the  result, 
and  I  must  observe,  that  by  the  custom  of  this  country,  and,  in- 
deed, by  the  custom  of  every  nation,  at  all  times,  these  extraor- 
dinary honours  are  only  conferred  where  there  is  a  certain  union 
of  merit  and  success.  This  should  not  be  regarded  as  a  mere 
question  of  feeling,  but  it  should  be  considered  whether  the 
honours  proposed  to  be  granted  are  customary,  or  whether  they 
are  strictly  merited.  There  is  a  sort  of  fortitude  on  which  men 
sometimes  pride  themselves, — the  fortitude  of  bearing  well  the 
pain  of  others:  there  is  a  sort  of  generosity  also,  that  loves  to 
indulge  itself  at  the  expense  of  others'  feelings :  let  us  take  care 
in  the  present  case,  that  we  are  not  indulging  our  generosity  at 
the  expense  of  our  public  duties.  1  know  of  no  function  requiring 
to  be  discharged  under  a  sense  of  more  solemn  obligation  than 
t^at  which  relates  to  the  adjudication  of  national  honours ;  these 
are  claims  not  to  be  decided  by  a  momentary  feeling,  but  by  a 
strict  and  impartial  examination  of  the  merits  of  the  case. 

Let  us  understand  the  nature  of  the  proceeding  in  which  we 
are  engaged ;  let  us  know  upon  what  ground  the  supporters  of 
11* 


126  MR.  PITTS  FUNERAL. 

this  motion  mean  to  rely.  Do  they  mean  to  say  that  the  greatest 
honours  that  the  nation  has  to  bestow,  should  be  always  given  to 
splendid  talents  exerted  in  the  service  of  the  country ;  or  would 
they  mean  to  make  a  distinction,  and  only  give  them  to  men  of 
great  talent,  who  happened  to  be  in  public  offices  ?  It  appears  to 
me,  however,  that  great  talents,  exerted  in  the  service  of  the 
country,  are  as  well  entitled  to  a  high  reward,  if  the  possessor 
should  not  happen  to  have  been  in  public  office,  as  if  he  had.  Let 
us  see  how  far  this  principle  leads :  it  is  said,  you  give  the  chief 
honours  of  the  nation  to  those  naval  and  military  commanders 
who  gain  important  victories ;  and  why  not  to  those  who  guide 
their  operations  ?  Must  not  their  talents  be  presumed,  at  least,  as 
great  ?  Now,  Sir,  this  can  be  easily  answered.  An  important 
victory  is  generally  a  thing  that  admits  of  no  dispute,  no  decep- 
tion. The  general  who  routs  an  enemy's  army,  or  the  admiral 
who  destroys  his  fleet,  leaves  no  doubt  as  to  the  service  that  he 
has  performed,  and  is  therefore,  by  the  unanimous  opinion  of  every 
body,  considered  as  an  object  of  high  honour.  When,  on  a  late 
occasion,  those  honours  were  paid  to  an  illustriouf  admiral,*  all 
ranks  and  descriptions  of  people,  the  noble  and  the  mean,  the  rich 
and  the  poor,  the  enlightened  and  the  ignorant,  all  felt  equally  that 
those  honours  were  due,  and  every  heart  vibrated  to  the  general 
expression  of  national  gratitude  and  respect.  No  man  can  mis- 
state or  misrepresent  such  actions  as  those ;  they  are  not  brought 
forward  to  answer  any  party  views,  or  upon  false  pretences.  It 
is  for  these  reasons  that  there  is  a  general  concurrence  in  all 
countries  to  reward  services  of  that  description.  Upon  services 
of  such  a  nature  there  is  always  almost  an  absolute  unanimity  of 
opinion ;  but  how  can  it  be  expected  that  there  will  be  aliy  thing 
like  an  unanimity  of  opinion,  when  the  question  is  concerning  the 
merits  of  a  long  political  life  ?  It  is  for  this  reason  that  all  nations 
make  a  distinction  between  the  rewards  given  to  a  successful 
commander,  and  to  the  minister  under  whom  he  has  gained  his 
success. 

But  if  it  be  said  that  transcendent,  abilities,  long  and  important 
services,  long  experience,  and  application  of  the  mind  to  the  im- 
portant interests  of  the  country,  should  claim  as  high  a  reward 
as  is  given  to  the  most  successful  admirals  or  generals,  I  shall 
then  ask,  where  were  all  those  qualities  and  endowments  more 
conspicuous  than  in  the  late  Mr. Burke?  Mr.  Burke,  how^ever, 
was  not  honoured  with  a  public  funeral.  And  yet  Mr.  Burke  wa^ 
inferior  to  no  man  in  the  splendour  of  his  talents,  nor  in  the  purity 
of  his  mind,  nor  in  genuine  and  disinterested  patriotism,  nor  in 
long  experience  and  devotion  to  the  public  service.     Where  then 

*  Lord  Nelson. 


MR.  PITT'S  FUNERAL.  127 

is  the  difference  of  the  cases  I  Do  Gentlemen  mean  to  rest  it 
entirely  upon  this,  that  men  of  splendid  talents  and  endowments, 
if  they  happen  to  be  in  office,  are  entitled  to  the  highest  rewards 
a  nation  can  bestow ;  but  should  they  be  out  of  office,  they  are 
not  entitled  to  honours,  although  they  should  serve  their  country 
with  equal  zeal,  integrity,  and  ability  ?  In  general  I  should  say, 
that  the  presumj^tions  were  in  favour  of  him  who  had  served  his 
country  out  of  office,  official  situations  being  those  which  men 
may  covet  from  other  motives.  In  every  point  of  comparison 
that  could  be  made,  Mr.  Burke  stood  upon  the  same  level  with 
Mr.  Pitt,  and  I  do  net  see  the  reason  for  this  difference.  If  the 
objections  to  Mr.  Burke's  having  a  public  funeral  had  proceeded 
from  my  Honourable  Friend  (Mr.  Fox),  or  those  who  voted  with 
him  in  those  times,  I  should  not  have  b^n  surprised :  they  might 
have  conceived  that  bestowing  such  honours  on  a  man  who  differ- 
ed diametrically  with  them  in  opinion  at  that  time,  would  imply 
a  condemnation  of  their  own  conduct.  But  that  was  not  the  case ; 
it  was  not  from  them  that  the  objection  came,  but  from  Gentle- 
men on  the  other  side  of  the  House,  who  took  Mr.  Burke  as  the 
leader  of  their  opinions,  who  cried  him  up  to  the  skies,  who  found- 
ed themselves  upon  what  he  had  done,  but  who  were  afraid,  that 
if  they  consented  to  such  honours,  it  would  appear  as  if  they 
approved  of  all  the  sentiments  of  that  great  man,  some  of  which 
were,  perhaps,  of  too  high  a  tone  for  them  to  relish.  They,  there- 
fore, would  not,  at  that  time,  have  agreed  to  a  resolution  which 
would  have  declared  Mr.  Burke  an  excellent  statesman. 

When  the  French  revolution  broke  out,  it  not  only  broke  up 
the  whole  system  of  European  politics,  but  it  broke  up,  at  the 
same  time,  many  of  the  dearest  connexions  which  had  united 
men  in  ties  of  private,  as  well  as  political  friendships.  I  then 
differed  upon  that  subject  materially  from  the  opinion  of  my 
Honourable  Friend  (Mr.  Fox),  and  being,  in  a  great  measure, 
induced  by  the  authority,  and  pressed  indeed  by  the  instigation, 
of  the  great  man  I  have  mentioned  (Mr.  Burke),  I  connected  my- 
self with  the  administration  of  which  Mr.  Pitt  was  at  the  head. 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed,  that  because  I  joined  his  administration, 
that  I  necessarily  approved  of  every  part  of  his  system.  The 
question  with  me  was,  whether,  upon  the  whole,  the  forming  that 
connexion  was  not  the  most  likely  way  to  promote  those  objects, 
which,  in  my  opinion,  were  desirable  to  be  obtained.  Whether 
'in  so  doing,  I  judged  right  or  wrong,  or  whether  now,  after  the 
event,  my  opinion  remains  the  same  as  it  was  before,  are  questions 
that  are  of  little  consequence.  If  I  were  to  divide  the  whole  of 
the  political  life  of  the  distinguished  person  here  spoken  of,  into 
two  distinct  periods,  one  the  period  before  the  breaking  out  of  the 
French  revolution,  and  the  other  the  period  subsequent  to  that 


128  MR.  PITT'S  FUNERAL. 

event,  and  that  I  were  called  to  declare,  whether  I  thought  that 
either,  separately,  or  both  conjointly,  were  of  a  sort  to  call  for 
the  honours  now  proposed,  or  to  justify  the  character  ascribed  in 
the  resolution,  of  an  "  excellent  statesman,"  I  must  say,  no.  I  have 
no  wish  to  bring  forward  my  opinion  in  that  respect  at  the  present 
moment ;  but,  when  compelled  to  declare  myself,  I  must  say  what 
I  think.  I  cannot  consent  to  pronounce  an  opinion  diflerent  from 
what  I  think  the  true  one,  and  thus  to  contribute  to  mislead  both 
the  present  time  and  posterity  on  a  period  of  our  history  which 
it  is  most  important  for  them  to  judge  rightly  of  With  the  fullest 
acknowledgment  both  of  the  talents  and  virtues  of  the  eminent 
man  in  question,  I  do  not  think,  from  whatever  cause  it  has  pro- 
ceeded, that  his  life  has  been  beneficial  to  his  country.  For  the 
earlier  part  of  it,  including  the  commencement  of  his  power,  I 
must  contradict  every  principle,  that  I  ever  maintained,  if  I  said 
that  it  was  so.  For  the  succeeding  period,  the  greatest  in  which 
a  statesman  was  ever  called  to  act,  I  cannot  say,  that  he  acted 
his  part  greatly.  I  do  not  judge  merely  from  the  event;  though 
the  event,  for  the  present  purpose,  might  be  all  that  need  be  con- 
sidered. The  French  revolution  was,  indeed,  a  storm,  in  which 
vessels,  the  best  formed  and  conducted  with  the  greatest  skill, 
might  easily  founder:  but,  what  I  mean  to  say  is,  that,  in  my 
opinion,  the  vessel  was  not  conducted  with  the  greatest  skill,  and 
that  it  is,  in  all  hum.an  probability,  to  the  fault  of  the  pilot,  that 
we  are  to  ascribe  our  present  fearful  situation.  This  is  no  new 
opinion  on  my  part :  I  must  think  so,  if  I  think,  as  I  have  always 
professed  to  do,  with  the  other  great  man  that  I  have  alluded  to, 
Mr.  Burke. 

I  think  it  necessary  to  say  thus  much,  in  order  to  free  myself 
from  a  supposed  charge  of  inconsistency,  in  denying,  generally, 
the  merits  of  a  minister,  wath  whom  for  a  considerable  time,  I 
had  acted.  But  all  that  would  result  from  this  denial  is,  that  the 
parts,  in  which  I  agreed,  did  not  outweigh,  in  my  opinion,  those 
in  which  I  differed.  I  have  stated,  however,  already,  that  even 
in  those  parts  in  which  I  agreed,  my  agreement  was  only  quali- 
fied. I  agreed,  as  with  respect  to  my  Honourable  Friends  near 
me,  from  whom  I  totally  diflfered ;  but,  as  with  respect  to  the 
opinion  of  Mr.  Burke,  I  must  be  considered  as  widely  difi^ering. 

I  repeat,  that  I  feel  it  painful  to  oppose  the  motion ;  but,  I  must 
say,  that  honours,  of  such  a  nature  as  is  now  proposed,  ought  not 
to  be  given  hastily,  from  any  momentary  feeling,  but  from  a  full 
conviction  on  the  part  of  each  person  who  consents  to  them,  that 
they  are  strictly  merited,  not  by  the  possession  merely  of  talents 
and  virtues,  but  by  great  and  essential  services,  rendered,  and 
acknowledged  to  have  been  rendered,  to  the  state.  Can  this  be 
stated  to  be  the  case  in  the  present  instance  ?    An  Honourable 


MR.  PITT'S  FUNERAL.  129 

Gentleman  (Mr.  Hawkins  Browne)  has  cited  the  flourishing  state 
of  the  finances  and  commerce  of  the  country,  compared  with 
what  they  were  twenty  years  ago,  as  a  decisive  proof  of  what 
we  owe  to  the  eminent  statesman  that  we  have  lost.  But,  woe 
betide  us,  if,  in  these  times,  we  measure  the  prosperity  of  the 
country  by  its  riches.  When  Honourable  Gentlemen  talk  of  our 
riches,  we  must  ask  how  long  we  can  be  sure  of  enjoying  them  ? 
*  Three  thousand  ducats  a  year,  and  but  a  year  in  all  those  ducats !' 
The  prosperity  of  a  country  is  to  be  estimated  like  a  West-India 
estate,  not  by  its  annual  produce,  but  by  its  fee-simple.  What 
did  any  one  think  of  the  value  of  an  estate  in  the  West-Indies, 
at  the  moment  when  Admiral  Villeneuve  was  reigning  triumphant 
in  those  seas ;  and,  till  the  illustrious  hero,  whose  funeral  we  lately 
celebrated,  had  arrived  to  drive  him  back? " 

My  great  objection  to  granting  the  honours  now  demanded,  is 
this :  it  has  not  been  the  usage  of  this  country,  or  of  mankind  in 
general,  to  grant  the  highest  rewards,  unless  in  cases  where  merit 
has  been  crowned  with  success.  Of  the  many  admirals  who 
have  been  rewarded  with  the  peerage,  in  every  instance  therer 
was  a  certain  share  of  success  as  well  as  of  merit.  If  Lord  St. 
Vincent  had  lost  half  of  his  fleet  in  the  action  with  the  Spaniards, 
or  Lord  Nelson  been  defeated,  either  at  the  battle  of  the  Nile,  or 
off  Trafalgar,  although  the  highest  exertion  of  courage  and  talents 
had  been  proved,  the  same  rewards  would  not  have  been  given. 
Lord  Nelson  displayed  as  much  courage  and  enterprise  at  the 
unsuccessful  attack  of  Tenerifle  as  in  those  glorious  victories ; 
but  if  he  had  lost  his  Ufe  at  Tenerifle,  it  can  hardly  be  supposed, 
that  he  would  have  been  honoured  with  such  a  funeral  as  was 
given  to  him  when  he  fell  in  the  arms  of  victory.  Now,  as  to  the 
success  of  Mr.  Pitt,  it  must  be  allowed  that  the  change  in  the  state 
of  this  country  and  of  Europe,  during  his  time,  has  been  most 
fatal,  and  that  the  last  periods  of  his  life  have  been  most  disastrous. 
Can  we,  in  the  face  of  these  facts,  in  the  midst  of  the  very  ruin, 
which  his  last  measures  have  brought  on ;  whether  by  his  fault 
or  not,  I  do  not  enquire ;  decree  the  highest  honours,  that  a  grate- 
ful nation  can  render  in  return  for  the  most  distinguished  services? 
The  character  of  these  measures,  and  still  more  the  general 
merits  of  his  political  life,  can  they  now  be  discussed  ?  and  should 
we  not  be  complained  of,  we're  we  now  to  attempt  it,  not  only  as 
opening  a  subject  more  proper  for  history  than  for  a  debate,  but 
as  cruelly  raking  up  the  ashes  of  the  dead,  now  newly  consigned 
to  the  tomb  ?  The  honours  which  are  now  proposed,  are  such  as 
the  whole  history  of  our  country  does  not  aflbrd  a  parallel  instance 
of,  except  in  the  case  of  his  illustrious  father.  The  services,  how- 
ever, that  the  great  Lord  Chatham  had  rendered  to  the  country, 
and  the  success  of  his  measures,  were  such  as  were  never  denied 

R 


130  MR.  PITT'S  FUNERAL. 

by  anybody ;  and  therefore  the  resolution  which  might  be  strictly 
applicable  to  the  father,  and  which  in  that  case  was  carried  unani- 
mously, stands  in  fatal  contrast  to  the  administration  of  his  son ; 
which,  in  all  its  later  periods,  was  eminently  unsuccessful,  and 
which  very  many  considered  as  meriting  disapprobation. 

For  these  reasons,  I .  think  we  should  exercise  the  great  and 
solemn  privilege  we  possess  with  the  most  mature  deliberation, 
and  that  we  should  not,  contrary  to  the  usual  practice  of  this  and 
every  other  country,  give  the  highest  honours  of  the  state  to  mark 
the  memory  of  a  minister,  who,  though  possessing  talents  as  great 
as  ever  appeared  in  any  age  of  the  world,  a  character  and  frame 
of  mind  fitted  for  every  thing  most  arduous,  and  feeling,  as  must 
have  been  the  case,  a  strong  desire  that  the  country  should  prosper 
in  his  hands,  was  unsuccessful  in  the  result,  and  will  not,  I  fear, 
be  recorded  to  posterity,  as  having  advanced  the  real  interests  and 
the  character  of  the  country. 

After  Mr.  Windham  had  concluded  his  speech,  Mr.  Ryder,  Mr.  Rose,  Lord 
Castlereagh,  and  Mr.  Wilberforce  spoke  in  favour  of  the  motion ;  Mr.  Pon- 
sonby  and  Mr.  Fox  against  it.  The  House  then  divided,  and  the  numbers 
were : 

For  the  motion 258 

Against  it 89 

Majority 169 


(     131     ) 

MR.  PITT'S  DEBTS. 

FEBRUARY  3d,  1806. 

Mr.  Cartwright  moved,  "  That  an  humble  address  be  presented  to  His 
Majesty,  to  represent  to  His  Majesty  that  this  House  having  received  informa- 
tion, that,  on  the  death  of  the  late  Right  Honourable  William  Pitt,  he  left 
debts  to  a  considerable  amount,  for  the  payment  of  which  his  property  was 
found  insufficient,  and  being  desirous  to  show  every  testimony  of  their  esteem 
and  respect  for  the  memory  of  the  said  Right  Honourable  William  Pitt,  most 
humbly  beseech  His  Majesty  to  advance  a  sum  not  exceeding  40,000Z.  towards 
the  payment  of  the  said  debts,  and  to  assure  His  Majesty,  that  this  House 
will  make  good  the  same."     Mr.  Bootle,  having  seconded  the  motion, 

Mr.  Windham  felt  satisfaction  in  thinking  that  it  was  as  easy 
to  concur  in  this  vote,  as  it  was  difficult  for  him  to  agree  to  that 
which  was  proposed  a  few  nights  since.  Every  thing  that  related 
to  great  talents,  long  services,  and  those  abilities  that  were  orna- 
ments to  the  country,  demanded  and  received  his  approbation. 
The  present  motion  had  his  assent,  as  it  fell  within  the  distinction 
he  had  already  drawn  respecting  public  honours  and  munificence. 
It  called  for  no  vote  of  approbation  in  favour  of  an  individual  for 
the  whole  of  a  long  and  varied  course  of  public  measures  and 
public  conduct,  in  contradiction  to  the  opinions  held  or  expressed 
by  any  gentleman,  on  various  occasions,  in  the  course  of  that 
pubHc  career.  No  man  had  a  right  to  call  on  another  for  any 
approbation  of  that  nature,  and  he  felt  that  every  man  so  attempted 
to  be  called  upon,  had  an  undoubted  right  to  complain.  In  viewing 
the  character  of  the  deceased,  no  one  could  ascribe  to  him  any 
low  attachment  to  pecuniary  gain ;  his  mind  was  above  such  con- 
siderations ;  his  conceptions  had  too  much  grandeur  to  admit  of 
any  thing  of  that  kind.  He  did  not  think  that  any  dangerous 
precedent  was  set  by  this  measure.  If  these  debts  had  been  con- 
tracted by  profusion  and  excess,  by  dissipation  and  vain  luxuries, 
they  might  admit  of  a  question.  On  the  contrary,  they  were  con- 
tracted by  no  lavish  expenditure,  no  useless  ostentation.  The 
great  character  of  Mr.  Pitt's  mind  was  too  sterling  to  descend  to 
those  means  of  prodigality ;  and  he  even  neglected  what,  in  these 
times,  was  due  to  the  situation  he  filled.  He  had  an  entire  supe- 
riority to  any  thing  of  the  nature  of  affectation.  His  salary  was 
not  enough  to  provide  the  indulgencies  fit  for  his  station,  and  the 
consequence  was  seen  in  the  incurring  of  these  debts.  Insufficiency 


132  MR.  PITT'S  DEBTS. 

of  salary,  want  of  pecuniary  attention,  and  the  necessary  impo- 
sitions to  which  he  was  exposed,  must  have  combined  to  embar- 
rass his  affairs.  He  therefore  considered,  that,  in  the  part  the 
House  were  now  called  upon  to  act,  they  were  not  indulging 
themselves  in  an  improper  sentiment  of  liberality,  nor  catching  at 
any  transient  reputation  of  magnanimity,  nor  wasting  the  public 
money;  nor  should  he  think  that  the  case,  even  were  they  to 
make  some  provision  for  those  who  were  most  near  and  dear  to 
the  deceased. 

The  motion  was  assented  to  by  Mr.  Ponsonby,  Lord  Folkstone,  Mr.  Rose, 
the  Marquis  of  Douglas,  Mr.  Fox,  and  Mr.  Canning. — Mr.  William  Smith 
opposed  it.     The  question  was  put  and  carried,  without  a  division. 


(     133    ) 
VACCINE   INOCULATION. 

JULY  29th,  1807. 

The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  (Mr.  Perceval)  in  a  Committee  of  the 
whole  House,  proposed  as  a  Resolution,  "  That  a  sum  not  exceeding  10,000Z. 
be  granted  to  His  Majesty  to  be  paid  to  Dr.  Edward  Jenner,  as  a  further 
reward  for  promulgating  his  discovery  of  Vaccine  Inoculation ;  by  which  a 
mild  and  efficacious  mode  of  superseding  that  dreadful  malady  the  Small-pox 
is  established ;  and  that  the  same  be  issued  without  any  fee  or  other  reward 
whatever."  Mr.  Shaw  Lefevre  opposed  the  Resolution.  Lord  Henry  Petty 
supported  it,  but  observed,  that  though  he  should  not  move  any  amendment 
to  it,  he  should  have  no  difficulty  in  acceding  to  one  for  a  larger  sum.  Mr. 
Morris  moved,  that,  instead  of  10,000Z.,  the  sum  of  20,000Z.  should  be  inserted 
in  the  Resolution.  Mr.  Wilberforce  proposed  that,  instead  of  this  additional 
10,0007.,  the  sum  of  1,0007.  a  year  should  be  given  to  Dr.  Jenner. 

Mr.  Windham. — In  a  case  where  the  opinion  of  the  committee 
appears  to  be  so  much  made  up,  I  shall  certainly  not  think  it  right 
to  trouble  them  at  any  length,  more  especially  after  the  clear  and 
forcible  manner  in  which  the  subject  has  been  already  stated  and 
argued.  The  question  is,  whether  the  sum  of  20,000/.  should  be 
given  to  Dr.  Jenner  in  addition  to  what  he  has  already  received, 
or  only  10,000/.;  and  I  am  decidedly  in  favour  of  the  larger  sum. 
There  is  undoubtedly  in  every  case  of  this  sort  a  considerable 
difficulty  in  settling  what  should  be  the  precise  amount  of  the 
reward  granted,  and  this  difficulty  is  not  least  in  those  cases, 
where,  as  at  present,  the  reward  must  after  all  fall  infinitely  short 
of  the  value  of  the  thing  received.  The  principles,  indeed,  on 
which  a  judgment  should  be  formed,  are  not  difficult  to  be  laid 
down ;  but  they  could  be  only  general  principles,  and  such  as 
might  still  leave  great  doubt  as  to  the  application  of  them,  and 
the  quantum  which  should  be  given  in  each  particular  instance. 
The  first  of  these  principles,  and  that  in  fact  which  must  lay  the 
foundation  for  all  the  rest,  is  that  the  invention  should  be  real,  and 
should  belong  to  the  person  who  claims  to  be  the  author  of  it.  On 
this  point  the  house  could  not  possibly  act  with  too  much  caution, 
especially  after  the  examples  which  have  occurred  even  in  our 
own  time,  where  rewards  have  been  given  to  inventions  and  dis- 
coveries, })retending  only  to  be  such,  and  which,  if  their  preten- 
sions had  been  better,  were  not  the  inventions  and  discoveries  of 
the  persons  who  brought  them  forward.  Till  that  point  in  any 
12 


134  VACCINE   INOCULATION. 

case  should  be  sufficiently  ascertained,  it  is  needless  to  talk  of  any 
other.  But  that  once  established,  the  next  inquiry  seems  to  be,  as 
to  the  utility  of  the  invention  supposed :  for  it  can  rarely  happen 
that  the  public  will  with  propriety  be  called  upon  to  grant  rewards 
for  discoveries,  which,  however  curious  and  ingenious,  are  not  of 
any  value.  Each  of  these  conditions  is  indispensable :  but  there 
may  be  inventions  both  real  and  valuable,  which  yet  are  not  such 
as  to  call  for  remuneration  out  of  the  public  purse.  If  they  were 
the  mere  effect  of  accident,  if  they  required  for  the  production  of 
them  no  genius  or  talents,  or  if  they  were  the  result  of  no  previous 
search  or  endeavour;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  whatever  was  their 
origin,  they  were  of  a  nature  to  be  their  own  reward  by  making 
the  fortune  of  their  authors,  in  each  of  these  cases  there  is  nothing 
for  which  any  call  could  be  made  on  the  munificence  of  the  public. 
On  one  supposition  only  could  such  a  demand  have  place,  namely, 
that  of  an  invention,  which  though  useful  and  valuable,  and  certain 
to  prove  in  the  end  beneficial  to  its  author  as  well  as  to  the  public, 
could  not  without  the  aid  of  public  assistance  overcome  the  difficul- 
ties which  would  for  a  while  oppose  themselves  to  its  establishment. 
I  cannot  pretend  to  say  that  upon  this  last  score  the  discovery 
now  before  the  committee  is  one  that  calls  for  the  intervention  of 
the  house;  such  is  its  immense  utility,  such  the  sense  already 
entertained  of  that  utility  in  this  country,  and  such  the  still  deeper 
impressions,  which,  I  am  glad,  though  somewhat  ashamed  to  say, 
a  sense  of  that  utility  has  made  on  the  minds  of  other  countries, 
that  there  is  little  danger  that  vaccination  will  not  make  its  way, 
whether  the  legislature  here  gives  any  assistance  to  it  or  not.  It 
should  not,  however,  be  out  of  our  minds,  that  even  upon  this 
ground  the  assistance  of  the  legislature  would  be  far  from  super- 
fluous :  but  before  I  say  more  upon  this  head,  I  wish  to  revert  to 
those  other  general  principles  to  which  I  have  alluded,  and  to  see 
from  them  both  what  the  necessity  of  reward  is  in  this  case,  and 
how  far,  in  the  option  which  the  question  affi:)rds,  the  committee 
ought  to  decide  for  the  larger  sum.  The  reality  and  the  utility 
of  the  discovery  I  consider  as  being  placed  out  of  all  doubt :  no 
one  will  pretend  to  say,  that  the  world  was  not  about  to  owe  the 
practice  of  vaccination  to  Dr.  Jenner.  That  the  preventive  pro- 
perty of  the  vaccine  matter  has  been  long  known  among  certain 
inferior  classes  in  particular  districts  of  this  kingdom,  was  a  fact 
never  denied  or  dissembled :  that  a  solitary  instance,  or  even  more 
than  one,  of  matter  being  taken  from  the  cow,  and  applied  pur- 
posely to  the  arms,  to  produce  the  disease,  is,  I  believe,  not  ques- 
tioned. The  merit  of  Dr.  Jenner  was,  that  he  had  remarked 
what  others  had  overlooked ;  that  he  had  cultivated  what  others 
had  neglected ;  that  he  had  pursued  an  inquiry  which  others  had 
relinquished  or  never  thought  of  engaging  in ;  that  from  a  small, 


VACCINE  INOCULATION.  135 

unheeded  despised  fact,  he  had  with  great  sagacity  discovered, 
and  with  infinite  pains,  judgment,  and  perseverance,  developed 
and  brought  forth  powers  which  no  one  had  ever  thought  or 
dreamt  of,  which  were  to  fill  the  world  with  admiration  and  grati- 
tude, and  to  render  a  service  to  mankind  which  was  never  before 
supposed  to  be  within  the  limits  of  possibility.  He  who  did  this 
was  surely  entitled  'prima  facie  to  some  reward  from  his  country, 
if  not  from  all  the  world.  But  I  wish  the  house  to  consider  the 
merits  of  this  invention  a  little  more  in  detail.  Even  its  magni- 
tude, the  point  probably  on  which  there  would  be  the  least  ques- 
tion, requires  some  little  consideration  duly  to  appreciate  it.  It  is 
not  merely  the  decrease  of  danger  and  suffering  on  the  part  of 
those  inoculated  with  vaccine  matter,  as  compared  with  those 
inoculated  in  the  common  way,  that  constitutes  the  great  advan- 
tage; it  is  the  singular  and  invaluable  circumstance  of  no  infection 
being  thereby  communicated  toothers;  the  consequence  of  which 
is,  that  the  final  end  and  consummation  of  this*  great  discovery  is 
nothing  less  than  the  total  extermination  of  the  small-pox,  and  the 
restoring  mankind  to  the  state  in  whiclj  they  were  before  this 
dreadful  scourge  came  upon  them,  or  rather  to  a  still  better  state, 
as  the  means  would  now  exist  of  freeing  them  from  that  pestilence 
should  it  ever  again  return.  The  common  mode  of  inoculation, 
while  it  secures,  or  nearly  secures  those  to  whom  it  is  applied, 
continues  for  ever  to  keep  open,  if  not  to  enlarge,  the  source  of 
danger  to  others ;  insomuch  that  calculations  have  been  made  to 
show,  that  the  mortality  by  the  small-pox  since  the  introduction 
of  inoculation  has  been  greater  than  it  was  before.  It  is  not  to 
be  inferred  from  thence,  as  some  seem  to  suppose,  that  if  the  facts 
were  true,  the  world  must  have  been  a  sufferer  by  inoculation ; 
the  world  has  gained  by  the  change  which  it  has  introduced  into 
the  habits  of  life,  and  the  effect  it  has  had  in  freeing  men  from 
that  terror  which  confined  them  before  to  their  own  homes  and 
neighbourhood,  and  which  operated  as  a  continued  check  upon 
intercourse.  If  the  danger  was  upon  the  whole  as  great,  they  at 
least  had  not  the  same  terrors  of  it ;  had  their  fears  been  the  same, 
and  the  same  precautions  in  consequence  been  observed,  the  effects 
of  inoculation  would  have  been  found  possibly  in  a  different  shape, 
that,  namely,  of  a  diminution  of  the  deaths.  These  views  of  the 
final  good  to  be  produced  by  the  vaccine,  and  of  the  consequent 
rate  at  which  it  ought  to  be  prized,  depend  unquestionably  upon 
the  truth  of  the  character  ascribed  to  it,  and  which  will  be  found 
in  its  best,  as  well  as  in  its  most  authentic  form,  in  the  Report  of 
the  Physicians  that  is  before  the  house.  This  Report  indeed  I 
consider  as  being  all  that  is  necessary  to  complete  conviction. 
Though  it  may  not  be  true,  that  in  all  cases  the  opinion  of  physi- 
cians must  be  received  as  conclusive  on  points  of  medical  prac- 


136  VACCINE  INOCULATION. 

tice,  they  may  safely  be  trusted  for  not  assenting  too  readily  to 
the  introduction  of  what  was  new,  armed  as  they  were,  not  only 
by  the  common  feelings  of  professional  jealousy,  but  by  the  reason- 
able distrust  which  long  experience  must  have  taught  them,  of 
pretended  improvements  and  discoveries ;  and  here  when  the  phy- 
sicians are  satisfied,  the  house  may  safely  dismiss  its  doubts.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  resort  for  further  satisfaction  to  the  testimonies 
that  are  pouring  in  from  all  quarters,  not  only  from  cities  and 
districts,  but  from  whole  nations  and  countries.  The  value,  there- 
fore, of  the  discovery  as  effecting  all  that  was  ascribed  to  it,  and 
as  ending  in  nothing  but  the  total  extinction  of  the  small-pox,  not 
to  mention  the  quantum  of  life  which  it  would  save  in  the  mean 
time,  I  shall  consider  as  proved.  With  equal  confidence  may  I 
assume,  what  no  one  I  presume  will  dispute,  that  but  for  Dr. 
Jenner  the  world  would  at  present  have  been  without  that  blessing, 
and  might  have  remained  so  for  a  period  of  which  no  man  can 
fix  the  extent.  Here  then  are  three  of  the  main  conditions  neces- 
sary in  such  a  question,  to  an  extent  far  more  than  was  necessary, 
a  discovery  of  inestimable  value,  and  a  discoverer  whose  claim 
cannot  be  disputed,  and  who  owes  his  discovery  not  to  chance, 
but  to  a  long  perseverance  in  endeavours,  prompted  by  the  most 
laudable  motives,  and  guided  by  no  common  or  ordinary  powers. 
It  remains  to  be  asked,  whether  there  are  not  other  qualities  in 
addition  even  to  those  of  genius  and  industry,  which  have  been 
manifested  by  Dr.  Jenner  in  the  course  of  this  discovery,  and 
which  mark  him  out  as  having  a  peculiar  claim  for  public  remu- 
neration ;  and  whether  the  discovery  has  been  of  such  a  nature, 
especially  in  his  hands,  as  to  render  legislative  interference  unne- 
cessary by  the  advantages  to  the  author  which  it  has  itself  pro- 
duced. There  is  no  point  of  the  case  more  applicable  than  this 
to  the  question  immediately  before  the  committee,  and  few  that 
ought  more  to  be  brought  forward  for  the  author's  honour.  Dr. 
Jenner  has  shown  throughout  that  he  was  actuated  by  motives 
of  far  higher  consideration  than  those  of  regard  to  his  personal 
interests ;  though  to  establish  fully  the  reputation  of  the  practice 
it  was  necessary  to  make  it  public ;  though  by  making  it  public 
he  lost  in  a  great  degree  the  means  of  converting  it  to  his  own 
advantage,  yet  it  is  not  to  be  doubted,  that  by  a  due  compromise 
of  these  opposite  considerations,  a  man  intent  only  upon  his  own 
interest  might  have  contrived  to  open  for  many  years  a  source 
of  such  profit  to  himself,  as  to  have  set  him  much  at  his  ease,  in 
respect  to  any  decision  which  Parliament  might  thereafter  have 
taken.  Dr.  Jenner  did  no  such  thing ;  so  far  from  seeking  profit, 
he  sacrificed  his  time,  his  money,  his  prospects  in  his  profession, 
to  the  prosecution  of  his  discovery,  and  never  seems  to  have 
thought  for  a  moment  of  himself,  while  any  rneahs  remained 


VACCINE  INOCULATION.  I37 

untried  for  promoting  the  great  object  which  he  had  in  view.  It 
was  not  thus  that  those  persons  (th^  Suttons)  proceeded,  who  in- 
troduced into  inoculation  the  last  great  improvement  which  it 
received,  and  the  highest  perhaps  of  which  it  was  capable.  They 
kept  their  practice  concealed  to  the  last  moment,  and  succeeded 
notwithstanding  in  obtaining  such  confidence, in  their  method,  in 
spite  of  the  prejudices  excited  against  them,  similar  to  those  now 
excited  against  Dr.  Jenner,  as  enabled  them  severally  to  make 
great  fortunes,  and  even  to  furnish  for  a  time  the  means  of  similar 
profit  to  others.  On  what  grounds  shall  it  be  said,  that  a  similar 
concealment  and  similar  success  were  not  practicable  on  the  part 
of  Dr.  Jenner  ?  In  point  of  fact  the  attempt  was  not  made :  and 
what  is  still  more  directly  to  the  purpose,  the  object  of  such  an 
attempt,  if  it  had  been  made,  has  not  been  accomplished.  Dr. 
Jenner  is  not  the  richer  for  his  discovery;  he  is  the  poorer;  and 
it  is  a  circumstance  only  of  addition,  a  circumstance,  however, 
of  the  highest  honour  to  him,  and  that  ought  to  enter  largely  into 
our  consideration,  that  he  is  the.  poorer  by  his  own  disinterested- 
ness, and  by  the  preference  given  to  public  objects  over  consider- 
ations affecting  only  himself.  In  these  circumstances,  what  Dr. 
Jenner  has  hitherto  received  is  10,000/.,  and  the  question  now  is, 
whether  that  10,000/.  should  be  made  up  to  20,000/.  or  30,000/. 
Twenty  thousand  or  thirty  thousand,  or  the  double  of  either  of 
those  sums,  appear  so  small  and  insignificant  when  placed  by  the 
side  of  such  a  service  as  he  has  rendered,  that  the  proportion  be- 
tween them  is  w^holly  lost,  and  with  a  view  to  compensation  for 
the  benefit  obtained,  it  seems  haixJly  of  consequence  whether  the 
one  is  given  or  the  other.  Dr.  Jenner's  cause  seems  in  danger  of 
suflfering  by  the  very  greatness  of  the  service  which  he  has  ren- 
dered. The  utmost  that  can  be  done  is  so  inadequate,  that  it 
becomes  almost  a  matter  of  doubt  whether  it  is  worth  while  that 
any  thing  should  be  done  at  all.  We  must  recur  in  this  difficulty 
to  the  great  principle  by  which  the  whole  is  governed,  and  which, 
by  tracing  the  reasons  w^hy  any  thing  at  all  should  be  given,  may 
furnish  to  the  house  the  best  assistance  that  can  be  had  for  settling 
their  opinions  as  to  the  amount  of  the  sum.  Rewards,  like  punish- 
ments, are  for  the  sake  of  example ;  and  can  be  regulated  by 
nothing  but  by  a  view  of  the  consequences  they  are  to  produce 
on  the  general  interests  of  society.  By  the  reward  given  in  any 
instance,  a  rate  of  bounty  is  laid  down,  as  far  as  that  instance 
operates,  for  the  encouragement  of  similar  exertions  in  future; 
and  what  rate  should  we  establish,  and  what  encouragement 
hold  out,  if  a  service,  such  as  the  present,  the  greatest  possibly 
that  by  any  single  act^  or  by  any  single  person  was  ever  conferred 
upon  mankind,  and  displaying  in  the  course  of  it  qualities  the  most 
valuable,  and  conduct  the  most  meritorious^  should  receive  from 
12*  S 


138  VACCIKE  INOCULATION. 

a  country  like  this  no  greater  reward  than  a  sum  of  20,000^?  I 
will  not  proceed  to  inquire  whether  the  same  might  not  be  said 
of  30,000/.,  but  wqjl  confine  myself  to  the  question  as  it  stands 
before  the  committee,  where  the  only  point  for  determination  is 
the  option  between  the  two  sums.  It  will  hardly  be  said,  that  on 
the  principles  here  laid  down,  talents  and  genius  are  no  fit  subjects 
of  reward ;  for  these  are  qualities  which  encouragement  would 
not  alter ;  they  are  the  gifts  of  nature.  Of  the  genius  and  talents 
by  which  the  world  is  benefited,  how  large  is  the  porti'on  which 
is  not  the  gift  of  nature,  but  the  effect  of  pains  and  cultivation ! 
The  application  at  least  must  always  be  voluntary,  and  cannot 
therefore  be  considered  among  those  things  on  which  reward  and 
encouragement  can  have  no  influence.  Let  a  reward  be  given  to 
Dr.  Jenner  for  his  disinterestedness  only,  for  the  sacrifices  which 
he  has  made,  and  it  will  not  be  found  that  a  less  sum  should  be 
given  him,  than  the  highest  of  those  which  are  now  asked.  This 
is  a  Hmit  afforded  by  the  case  itself.  We  cannot  give  to  Dr. 
Jenner,  for  the  most  valuable  discovery  ever  made,  less  than  w^ould 
be  sufficient  to  indemnify  him  for  expenses  actually  incurred,  and 
profits  actually  sacrificed.  A  sum  not  less  considerable  must  be 
awarded  him,  if  we  should  take  as  our  criterion  not  the  reason 
of  the  thing,  but  what  has  been  the  practice  of  the  house  on 
similar  occasions.  Does  the  discovery  for  which  30,000/.  is  now 
asked,  exceed  no  more  the  value  of  discoveries  for  which  sums 
of  5000/.  and,  10,000/.  have  been  granted,  than  in  the  proportion 
respectively  of  those  sums?  If  our  own  authority  as  derived  from 
former  instances  is  not  sufficient,  let  us  take  for  our  guide  the 
feelings  and  opinions  of  foreign  nations  as  to  the  magnitude  of  the 
discovery,  and  the  gratitude  due  to  the  author.  Could  we  bear 
to  have  it  said,  that  England,  the  country  which  gave  birth  to  this 
invention ;  England,  where  from  the  general  diffusion  of  know- 
ledge, and  high  cultivation  of  medical  science,  its  merits  might 
be  expected  to  be  best  understood,  and  most  truly  appreciated, 
should  notwithstanding  be  the  country,  which  in  proportion  to  its 
means,  to  its  general  practice,  and  to  the  peculiar  call  made  upon 
it,  was  the  least  disposed  to  mark  its  sense  of  the  value  of  the 
invention  by  a  liberal  or  competent  reward  to  the  author  ?  The 
feelings  and  opinions  of  foreign  nations  are  not  merely  a  means 
of  showing  what  is  right,  but  do  of  themselves,  in  a  case  of  this 
sort,  constitute  a  motive  of  conduct,  and  may  make  that  right 
which  was  not  so  before.  It  may  be  right  in  certain  cases  that 
England  should  do  what  others  think  she  ought  to  do ;  that  she 
should  never  fall  below  the  opinion  which  the  world  has  formed  of 
her.  The  fame  w^hich  the  country  has  acquired  as  that  in  which 
pubHcly  or  privately  useful  inventions  are  most  sure  to  find  their 
reward,  has  had  no  small  share  in  producing  those  which  arose 


VACCINE  INOCULATION.  139 

among  ourselves,  and  of  attracting  those  which  originated  in 
other  places.  The  very  pride  of  the  country  on  this  head  ought 
not  to  be  lightly  regarded ;  but  on  a  larger  view^  its  interests  are 
also  concerned.  One  further  consideration  ought  not  to  be  omit- 
ted, arising  in  part  out  of  circumstances  which  I  have  already 
touched  upon,  but  operating  in  a  manner  still  mere  pointed  and 
direct.  It  is  the  impression  likely  to  be  made  on  the  public  mind 
of  this  country,  by  the  greater  or  less  reward  which  parliament 
may  think  it  right  to  give,  as  indicating  the  opinion  of  parliament 
on  the  value  of  the  discovery  and  the  certainty  of  its  principles, 
and  the  effect  thereby  to  be  produced  in  fortifying  or  counteract- 
ing those  ignorant  prejudices  and  wicked  arts  by  which,  so  little 
to  our  credit,  the  progress  of  the  invention  has  been  hitherto  ob- 
structed. The  house  knows  what  are  the  means  whicn  have  been 
employed  for  that  purpose,  and  that  there  are  men  in  this  country, 
happily  not  of  the  greatest  authority,  who  do  not  think  it  repug- 
nant to  their  duty  nor  find  it  beneath  their  character,  to  try  to 
prevent,  or  rather  to  obstruct  and  delay  the  adoption  of  this  prac- 
tice, by  turning  against  it  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  those, 
who  have  nothing  but  passion  and  prejudice  to  guide  them,  or 
who  must  be  considered  at  least  as  wholly  incapable  of  forming 
upon  the  subject  any  sound  judgment  of  their  own.  It  is  in  vain 
to  say  that  the  arts  of  such  persons  can  produce  but  little  effect. 
Finally,  no  doubt,  they  cannot  prevent  the  establishment  of  a 
system  confirmed  continually  by  fact  and  experience,  and  sanc- 
tioned by  all  that  is  intelligent  and  respectable ;  but  in  the  mean 
while  there  are  the  vulgar  and  the  ignorant,  among  whom  argu- 
ments such  as  they  use,  are  far  more  than  a  matcn  for  all  that 
can  be  produced  by  men  who  employ  for  the  support  of  their 
cause  no  arms  but  those  of  truth  and  reason.  Persons  to  whom 
these  would  apply  on  a  subject  like  the  present,  form,  it  must  be 
remembered,  but  a  small  portion  of  the  whole  mass  of  the  com- 
munity, and  to  what  period  must  the  hope  be  removed  of  seeing 
the  final  extinction  of  the  disorder,  if  four-fifths,  perhaps,  of  the 
population  of  the  country,  are  made  to  resist  the  progress  of  vac- 
cination, and  to  remain  as  a  fund  for  perpetuating  and  propagating 
infection?  Whatever  tends  to  shorten  the  duration  of  such  a 
state  of  things,  must  be  an  object  of  great  importance ;  and  what 
is  more  likely  to  counteract  the  pernicious  influence  of  the  prac- 
tices here  spoken  of,  than  the  authority  of  parliament,  manifesting 
by  the  amount  of  the  reward,  the  soundness  of  the  practice,  and 
of  the  blessings  which  it  is  calculated  to  dispense.  Should  it  be 
said  that  in  this  view  the  difference  between  the  sums  proposed 
could  do  but  little,  let  it  be  remembered  that  in  the  scale  of  national 
expenditure  the  difference  between  the  sums  is  but  little ;  and  no 
country  need  fear  being   impoverished  by  the  liberality  of  its 


140  VACCINE  INOCULATION. 

rewards  for  discoveries  such  as  the  present.  It  would  be  happy 
for  the  country  and  for  the  world,  snould  the  demands  for  such 
exertions  of  national  gratitude  and  munificence,  be  more  numerous 
and  more  frequent.  In  every  point  of  view  in  which  I  can  con- 
sider the  subject,  I  cannot  hesitate  in  declaring  in  favour  of  the 
larger  sum.  My  own  opinion  in  fact  is,  that  a  sum  still  larger 
would  be  more  suitable  to  the  character  of  the  country,  and  more 
conformable  to  the  principles  which  ought  to  govern  the  conduct 
of  countries  upon  such  occasions. 

The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  a^in  spoke  in  favour  of  the  sum  origin- 
ally proposed.  Mr.  W.  Smith,  Mr.  Whitbread,  and  Mr.  G.  H.  Rose,  supported 
Mr.  Morris's  Amendment.  The  question  was  then  put  that  the  "  twenty 
thousand"  do  stand  as  a  part  of  the  Resolution,  when  the  Committee  divided. 

Ayes 60 

Noes 47 

Majority  in  favour  of  the  larger  sum,  ......     13 

The  Resolution  accordingly  passed  in  its  amended  shape. 

N.  B.  The  above  speech  was  corrected  by  Mr.  Windham  at  the 
request  of  Mr.  Murray,  Secretary  to  the  National  Vaccine  Insti- 
tution, for  the  purpose  of  being  inserted  in  the  "  Debates  on  Par- 
liament respecting  the  Jennerian  Controversy." 


(    141     ) 

CAMPAIGN    IN   SPAIN. 

FEBRUARY  24th,  1809. 

Mr.  Ponsonby  moved,  "  That  it  is  indispensably  necessary  that  this  House 
should  inquire  into  the  causes,  conduct,  and  events  of  the  late  Campaign  in 
Spain."  Lord  Castlereagh,  General  Stewart,  and  Mr.  Secretary  Canning,  op- 
posed the  motion.  Mr.  Tierney  and  Lord  Milton  supported  it.  In  reply  to 
Mr.  Canning, 

Mr.  Windham  was  determined  to  confine  what  he  had  to  say- 
to  the  objects  of  the  inquiry,  and  in  that  case  should  pass  by  four- 
fifths  of  the  speech  of  the  Right  Honourable  Gentleman.  How- 
ever able  the  speech  of  that  Right  Honourable  Gentleman,  it  had 
been  very  little  to  the  purpose.  It  was  an  odd  moment  for  the 
Right  Honourable  Gentleman  to  express  his  hopes,  and  an  odd 
quarter  from  which  such  hopes  proceeded,  when  our  army  had 
been  withdrawn  from  Spain,  when  we  had  left  the  Spaniards  to 
fight  their  own  battles.  This  had  something  so  ludicrous  in  it, 
that  he  wondered  it  did  not  remind  the  Right  Honourable  Gentle- 
man of  the  very  pleasant  lines, 

"  He  fled  full  soon 
On  the  first  of  June, 
And  bade  the  rest  keep  fighting." 

When  we  had  damned  their  cause,  it  was  no  time  for  us  to  give 
the  Spaniards  lectures  upon  national  energies  and  perseverance. 

But,  to  go  soberly  to  the  consideration  of  the  plan  of  the  cam- 
paign :  it  had  been  agreed,  on  all  hands,  that  the  crisis  was  one 
of  the  most  important,  and  that  a  greater  hope  had  never  been 
opened  for  the  salvation  of  Europe.  The  spirit  of  the  country 
had  been  exalted  to  the  highest  pitch ;  every  nerve  had  been 
braced,  and  all  classes  of  the  community  concurred  in  encourag- 
ing and  supporting  ministers ;  yet  the  event  had  shown  that  there 
had  been  an  universal  failure.  When  the  greatest  stake  the 
country  ever  had  was  lost,  either  by  ill  fortune,  or  by  the  mis- 
management of  ministers,  and  of  those  ministers  to  whom  the 
greatest  means  were  entrusted,  that  were  ever  entrusted  to  any 
ministers,  it  was  full  time  for  inquiry. 

There  were  two  things  to  be  aonsidered :  first,  the  propriety 
of  sending  troops  to  Portugal :  secondly,  the  mode  of  sending 
them  from  Portugal  to  Spain.  It  would  be  necessary  to  ask 
ministers  why  they  did  not  send  out  any  force  before  the  12th  of 


142  CAMPAIGN  IN  SPAIN. 

July  1  and  why,  after  they  knew  that  Junot's  retreat  was,  in  a 
manner,  cut  off,  and  that  he  could  not  join  Dupont,  they  sent 
troops  to  Portugal  ?  If  they  were  resolved  to  send  troops  to  Por- 
tugal, it  appeared  as  if  it  would  have  been  better  to  have  waited 
till  the  reinforcements  joined ;  for,  as  it  was  managed,  it  appeared 
a  doubtful  thing  which  of  the  two  armies  would  have  beat.  Junot 
was  as  confident  of  success  as  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley ;  and,  between 
two  such  generals,  and  two  such  armies,  there  was  as  glorious 
an  uncertainty  in  war,  as  in  law.  But,  supposing  even  that  Sir 
Arthur  might  feel  confident  of  beating  Junot,  yet  it  was  not  to  be 
calculated  that  Junot  must,  of  his  own  accord,  come  down  to  be 
beaten.  "  Come  down  and  be  hanged,  master  Barnadine !"  It 
appeared  evidently  that  he  could  not  be  compelled  to  do  so ;  for 
if,  after  having  been  beat,  he  was  able  to  protract,  for  many 
months,  a  defensive  war,  he  could  certainly  have  done  that  just  as 
well  before  he  was  beat.  Although  we  were  the  victors,  yet, 
from  an  unfortunate  arrangement  made  by  ministers  at  home,  the 
conquering  general  was  superseded,  and  the  fruits  of  fhe  victory 
were  lost.  It  was  the  efl^ect  of  military  councils  at  home,  by 
which  Sir  John  Moore  was  placed  in  such  a  situation  as  made  it 
necessary  to  fall  back  upon  Corunna,  and  to  execute  that  retreat 
with  such  rapidity  as  necessarily  exposed  our  troops  to  great  loss, 
and  risked  the  capture  of  the  whole  army,  if,  by  any  shift  of 
wind,  they  had  been  prevented  from  embarking.  Our  expedition 
to  Spain  was  managed  in  such  a  manner,  as  not  only  to  do  no 
good,  but  to  do  what  was  much  worse  than  nothing.  We  held 
out  to  Spain  the  disheartening  example  of  what  we  called  our  best 
army,  retreating  from  the  field  without  striking  a  single  blow, 
and  on  the  mere  rumour  of  the  enemy's  advance.  When  we  left 
the  field  in  this  manner,  it  was  in  vain  to  tell  the  Spaniards,  "  Da 
you  go  on  fighting,  my  brave  fellows,  and  never  mind  us."  We 
showed  them,  by  our  example,  that  our  best  troops  could  do 
nothing,  and  therefore  that  there  was  little  chance  of  their  undis- 
ciplined peasantry  succeeding  better. 

It  appeared  a  great  fault  of  the  military  councils  of  this  coun- 
try, that  upon  the  12th  of  July  they  were  so  very  badly  informed 
of  the  situation  of  Portugal,  a  country  where  every  man  was  our 
friend,  where  information  would  issue  from  every  pore,  that  they 
supposed  there  were  5000  French  in  that  country,  when,  in  fact, 
there  were  25,000.  If  Spain  had  been  assisted  in  the  best  man- 
ner, there  was  every  reason  to  suppose  that  ©ur  assistance  would 
have  been  eflfectual,  as  Spain  had,  besides  her  mass  (a  species  of 
force  common  to  every  country,)  several  armies,  tolerably  well 
organized,  and  led  on  by  skilful  commanders.  He  had  been  often 
reproached  for  not  expressing  as  high  an  opinion  as  other  Gentle- 
inen,  of  a  rising  in  mass»   He  should,  however,  again  repeat,  that 


-♦ 


CAMPAIGN  IN  SPAIN,  143 

it  would  be  quite  idle  and  childish  to  expect  the  Spanish  mass,  or 
the  mass  of  any  other  country,  to  stop  the  course  of  Buonaparte's 
army,  or  of  any  considerable  division  of  it.  Let  the  force  of  the 
mass  be  what  it  would,  be  the  medium  more  dense  or  more  rare, 
the  army  would  pass  through  it  nearly  as  a  cannon-ball  would 
pass  through  the  air,  without  any  regard  to  its  density  or  rarity. 
An  army  went  where  it  listed,  and  was  not  to  be  stopped  in  its 
course  by  peasantry.  He  did  not  know  that  the  Spaniards  as- 
sembled at  Bayonne  were  quite  as  great  traitors  as  they  wei-e  re- 
presented. If  they  saw,  and  were  perfectly  convinced  that  Spain 
could  offer  no  effectual  resistance  to  Buonaparte,  they  might, 
without  much  treachery  to  their  countrymen,  tell  them  they  were 
unable  to  resist,  and  that  it  was  much  better  for  them  to  submit, 
at  once,  without  drawing  all  the  evils  of  war  upon  their  heads. 

This  was  a  question  not  unfit  for  our  government,  too,  to  con- 
sider; and  if  it  was  decided,  as  he  (Mr.  W.)  thought  it  was 
rightly,  that  a  chance  did  exist  of  the  emancipation  of  Spain,  and 
that  no  effort  should  be  spared  to  assist  that  chance  on  the  part 
of  this  country,  then  the  only  inquiry  was,  what  force  shall  we 
send  ?  and  in  what  manner  shall  it  be  applied  ?  And  here  it  was 
impossible  not  to  be  struck,  not  only  with  the  total  want  of  plan, 
but  with  the  total  want  of  all  right  conception,  in  the  Honourable 
Gentlemen,  of  the  very  nature  of  the  great  work  in  which  they 
were  about  to  engage. 

There  were  evidently  two  courses  to  be  pursued;  either  to 
strike  a  stroke  in  the  part  that  first  presented  itself,  namely,  on 
the  Ebro,  and  to  endeavour  to  drive  the  enemy  out  of  Spain,  by 
attacking  him  instantly,  while  his  force  was  small,  and  when  his 
views  upon  Austria,  or  his  jealousy  of  what  Austria  might  design 
against  him,  kept  his  attention  divided,  and  made  it  impossible  for 
him  much  to  augment  his  numbers ;  or,  giving  that  attempt  up  as 
hopeless,  to  proceed,  at  once,  to  what  ought  to  be  the  general  plan 
of  the  campaign,  with  a  view  of  affording  to  Spain  any  hope  of 
final  deliverance.  On  the  former  of  these  modes  of  proceeding, 
though  the  most  tempting,  and  that  which  ministers  had  been 
most  blamed  for  not  endeavouring,  he  should  give  no  opinion; 
because,  few  but  those  in  oflice  could  have  the  necessary  means 
for  judging.  It  was  a  very  nice  question,  depending  on  informa- 
tion of  the  force  which  the  French  actually  had,  and  the  proba- 
bility there  might  be  of  their  being  able  to  send  large  reinforce- 
ments, in  case  they  should  have  reason  to  think,  from  observation 
of  our  armaments,  that  we  had  an  intention  of  acting  upon  that 
quarter.  There  might  be  danger  in  that  case,  not  only  of  the 
enemy's  force  becoming  so  great,  as  to  destroy  the  ho}:>e  of  our 
forcing  them  from  the  Ebro,  but  also  of  their  falling  in  by  the 
way  with  some  of  our  columns,  and  of  destroying  them  before 


144  CAMPAIGN  IN  SPAIN. 

we  could  form  a  junction  with  our  allies.  The  time,  too,  was 
short,  the  execution  must  be  prompt,  and  there  was  all  the  diffi- 
culty of  sending  a  large  force  into  any  of  the  northern  ports  of 
Spain,  at  a  period  of  the  year  at  all  late.  This  difficulty  had  not 
been  found  insuperable,  as  had  been  seen  in  the  case  of  the  Mar- 
quis de  Rom  ana's  army,  nor  did  the  probability  seem  great,  that 
Buonaparte,  having  once  disposed  his  troops,  and  settled  his  mea- 
sures for  a  war  with  Austria,  could  have  suddenly  reversed  his 
plans,  and  transferred  his  forces,  so  as  to  have  arrived  in  Spain 
by  the  time  our  troops  had  begun  to  act. 

It  was  not  true,  either,  that  the  one  plan  created  any  necessity 
of  giving  up  the  other.  If  the  force  sent  to  the  Ebro  had,  as  it 
ought  to  have  been,  been  chiefly  cavalry,  the  force,  namely,  which 
the  Spaniards  most  wanted,  and  which  we  had  most  ready  and 
could  best  spare ;  such  a  force,  even  if  found  in  the  event  insuf- 
ficient for  its  immediate  object,  could  still  have  been  able  to  take 
care  of  itself,  and  to  have  retired  in  safety  through  Spain,  a 
country  of  friends  and  allies,  to  that  part  of  the  Peninsula,  where, 
at  all  events,  and  in  every  view,  the  great  mass  of  our  force 
should  be  collected.  This  part  was  no  other  than  the  Southern 
Provinces,  the  neighbourhood  of  Cadiz,  and  Gibraltar.  The  rea- 
soning that  determined  this  choice  was  really  little  short  of  de- 
monstrable. Whatever  force  you  send  into  Spain,  small  or  great, 
can  you  be  sure,  even  with  all  the  aid  that  the  armies  or  masses 
of  Spain  can  give  you,  that  it  will  be  able  to  resist  the  hosts  that 
Buonaparte  can  pour  in  against  you,  having  for  his  supply  nothing 
less  than  a  sort  of  inexhaustible  ocean,  the  whole  population  of 
Europe  1  Undoubtedly,  the  means  possessed  by  Buonaparte  were 
such  as  to  leave  but  little  hope  of  escape  at  any  rate ;  yet  some 
there  must  be,  otherwise  why  did  we  send  any  troops  at  all,  or 
encourage  the  Spaniards  to  resist?  No  one,  however,  could  feel 
confident,  or,  at  least,  certain;  and  therefore  if  we  send  any  army 
into  Spain,  great  or  small,  we  must  think  of  the  means,  in  case  of 
extremity,  of  bringing  them  away.  The  inference  drawn  by  the 
Honourable  Gentlemen,  from  these  premises,  seemed  to  be,  that 
we  ought  to  send  only  a  small  force :  much  upon  the  same  princi- 
ple which  we  heard  of  on  a  former  occasion,  when  bad  horses 
were  sent,  and  horses  unfit  for  the  service,  because  they  would 
be  a  less  sacrifice  if  lost :  but,  great  or  small,  the  necessity  of  a 
retreat  being  provided  seemed  to  be  nearly  equal.  If  the  army 
was  large,  the  stake  was  greater ;  and  if  small,  the  chance  was 
greater  of  losing  it.  Now,  there  was  in  all  Spain,  including  Por- 
tugal, that  is,  in  the  whole  Peninsula,  but  two  places,  and  those 
in  the  same  quarter,  from  which  a  large  body  of  troops,  when 
pressed  by  a  superior  army,  could  hope  to  get  away,  viz.  Cadiz, 
and  Gibraltar.     There  was,  therefore,   no  other  part  of  Spain 


CAMPAIGN  IN   SPAIN.  I45 

where  an  army  from  this  country,  large  enough  to  be  of  any  use, 
and  not  a  mere  flying  corps,  could,  with  propriety,  be  trusted, 
except  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Cadiz  and  Gibraltar,  or  in  such 
circumstances  as  to  have  its  retreat  upon  one  or  other  of  those 
pliaces  always  open. 

There,  therefore,  he  (Mr.  W.)  would  have  collected  not  only  a 
large  army,  but  the  greatest  force,  that  the  country,  in  its  then 
state  of  zeal  and  ardour,  could  by  possibility  have  furnished. 
There  was  no  reason  why,  instead  of  the  30,000,  (which  those 
who  like  at  all  times  to  dwell  so  much  upon  the  means  of  Buona- 
parte, think  at  other  times  would  be  sufficient)  we  might  not  have 
had  an  army  of  100,000.  No  one  disliked  more  than  he  did,  the 
practice  of  recruiting  from  the  militia:  but  bad  as  he  thought  that, 
when  meant  as  a  part  of  a  general  system  of  recruiting,  and 
great  as  he  thought  the  objection  to  it,  at  all  times,  he  was  still  of 
opinion  that  there  were  occasions  when  such  objections  must  be 
n>ade  to  give  way;  and  if  ever  such  an  occasion  did,  or  could 
exist,  unquestionably  the  present  was  one. 

The  effect  of  such  an  army,  ably  conducted,  was  not  to  be 
spoken  lightly  of  He  was  not  prepared  to  say,  that  it  would 
have  succeeded.  Who  shall  say  that  any  thing  would  succeed  ? 
But  as  its  chances  would  be  better,  so  would  its  risks  be  less.  A 
hundred  thousand  men,  with  Gibraltar  to  retreat  upon,  was  a  far 
less  risk  to  the  country  thali  30,000  in  the  situation  where  the 
Honourable  Gentlemen  had  placed  them ;  nay,  than  30,000,  in  the 
very  situation  spoken  of;  because,  a  general  must  be  very  defi- 
cient in  knowledge  of  his  business,  very  different  from  the  Hon- 
ourable General  opposite  (Sir  A.  Wellesley,)  who,  in  such  an 
abundant  country,  and  with  such  a  fortress  behind  him,  would, 
with  an  army  of  that  amount,  suffer  himself  to  be  prevented  from 
making  good  his  retreat,  by  any  army  which  the  enemy  could 
bring  against  him. — For,  w^hen  we  talked  of  Buonaparte's  num- 
bers, we  must  recollect  where  these  numbers  were  to  act.  To 
meet  in  the  south  of  Spain  a  British  force  of  100,000,  Buonaparte 
must  bring  over  the  Pyrenees  a  force  of  not  less  than  200,000 ; 
to  say  nothing  of  the  demand  that  would  be  made  upon  him  by 
the  large  Spanish  army,  that  might  be  raised  in  that  part  of 
Spain,  to  co-operate  with  the  British,  and  which  the  presence  of 
such  a  British  force  would  help  to  raise.  Buonaparte  would  have 
a  whole  kingdom  which  he  must  garrison  behind  him,  if  he  would 
either  be  sure  of  his  supplies,  or  make  provision  against  total  de- 
struction in  the  event  of  any  reverse.  He  must  fight  us  at  arm's- 
length,  while  our  strength  would  be  exerted  within  distance,  with 
an  impregnable  fortress  at  hand,  furnishing  at  once  a  safe  retreat 
in  case  of  disaster,  and  a  source  of  endless  supply  by  means  of 
safe  and  undisturbable  communication  with  this  country. 
13  T 


146  CAMPAIGN  IN  SPAIN. 

And  let  it  not  be  said,  that  while  the  army  continued  in  the 
south  Buonaparte  might  continue  master  of  the  north ;  w  hat  mas- 
tery could  he  have  of  any  part  of  Spain,  while  such  an  army 
could  keep  on  foot  in  any  other  ?  And  why;  in  case  of  success, 
did  the  security  of  its  retreat  require  that  it  should  never  advance? 
He  (Mr.  W.)  should  be  willing  to  compromise  for  the  result  to 
Spain,  which  would  enable  us  and  the  Spaniards  to  retain  an  army 
in  that  country,  which  Buonaparte  should  not  have  the  means  of 
dispersing. 

There  was  never  any  thing  so  demonstrable,  therefore,  as  that 
the  only  way  of  carrying  on  effectually  a  campaign  in  Spain, 
whatever  else  you  might  have  done,  was  to  collect  your  army  in 
the  south.  Consistent  with  that,  you  might  have  made  the  trial, 
if  those  who  had  the  means  of  judging  should  have  found  it  advi- 
sable, of  driving  the  French  from  the  Ebro ;  a:nd  the  complete  suc- 
cess of  that  attempt  might  have  spared  the  necessity  of  actually 
landing  at  Cadiz  or  Gibraltar,  though  still  always  keeping  those 
fortresses  in  view,  in  case  of  being  overpowered  by  numbers. 
Consistent  with  that,  you  might,  as  was  even  still  more  evident, 
have  prosecuted  your  designs  on  Portugal,  though  in  a  different 
manner  and  with  different  views.  If  the  object  was  not,  as  was 
now  described,  to  get  Junot  out  of  Portugal  upon  any  terms ;  even 
upon  those  of  removing  him,  through  the  medium  of  our  disgrace, 
into  Spain;  but  to  destroy  or  render  captive  a  French  army, 
then,  instead  of  the  sort  of  predatory  desultory  excursion  on  which 
the  Honourable  General  was  employed,  why  not  send  a  full  and 
competent  portion  of  the  force  destined  to  be  collected  in  the  south, 
so  as  to  have  proceeded  to  their  destination  through  Portugal,  and 
to  have  swept  off  Junot  in  their  way  ?  A  force  raised  to  the  great- 
est possible  amount  to  which  the  mind  and  means  of  the  country, 
— then  elevated  above  itself  and  exalted  to  something  of  a  preter- 
natural greatness,  {majorque  videtur,  nee  mortale  sonans) — could 
have  carried  it,  should  have  been  placed  in  Spain  in  a  situation, 
the  only  one  which  the  country  afforded,  where  it  would  have 
been  safe  from  the  risk  of  total  loss  or  capture,  and  would  not 
have  been  kept  down  by  the  idea,  that  the  deposit  was  too  great 
for  the  country  to  hazard. 

This  should  have  been  the  great  foundation,  the  base  line,  of 
the  plan  of  the  campaign.  On  this  the  country  might  have  given 
a  loose  to  all  its  exertions,  with  the  consolatory  reflection,  that  the 
greater  its  exertions  the  greater  its  security,  the  more  it  made  its 
preparations  effectual  to  their  purpose,  the  less  was  the  risk  at 
which  it  acted.-  From  this,  other  operations  might  have  branched 
out  in  different  directions,  as  circumstances  pointed  out  It  was 
scandalous  that  nothing  had  ever  been  done  to  assist  our  friends 


CAMPAIGN  IN  SPAIN.  147 

or  to  annoy  our  enemies  on  the  east  side  of  Spain,  where  to  a 
power  having  the  complete  command  at  sea,  the  finest  opportuni- 
ties were  presented,  and  had  been  most  unaccountably  neglected. 
The  history  of  the  campaign  to  the  east,  which  presents  nothing 
but  one  universal  blank,  was  one  of  the  parts  of  this  most  mise- 
rably conducted  business  for  which  the  ministers  could  least  set 
up  any  excuse.  It  seemed  to  have  been  total  neglect  and  forget- 
fulness.  They  forgot  that  there  was  such  a  coast  as  the  eastern 
coast  of  Spain ;  that  it  w^as  accessible  everywhere  to  our  ships, 
placed  as  the  high  road  for  the  entry  of  troops  from  France, 
inhabited  by  the  race  of  men,  who  fought  at  Gerona  and  Sara- 
gossa ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  that  we  had  a  large  army  doing  no- 
thing in  Sicily,  or  who,  if  we  were  to  attempt  to  employ  them  where 
they  were,  must  be  employed  in  worse  than  nothing.  For  all 
operations  in  this  quarter  of  Spain,  Gibraltar  afforded  the  most 
marked  facilities.  With  a  large  army  stationed  in  the  south,  the 
enemy  could  never  know  what  detachments  we  were  slipping  out 
behind  us,  nor  with  what  descents  they  might  be  threatened  in 
their  rear  or  on  their  flanks.  The  army  need  never  have  been 
idle ;  nor,  what  was  hardly  less  advantageous,  need  never  be  sup- 
posed to  be  idle. — One  general  consequence  resulting  from  a  sta- 
tion, where  an  army  might  have  been  assembled  really  worthy  of 
the  cause  and  of  the  country,  and  whose"  utility  would  have  beeh 
apparent  and  striking,  was,  that  it  would  have  given  us  an  ascen- 
dency in  the  Spanish  councils,  highly  advantageous  to  them,  and 
such  as,  with  tolerably  good  conduct,  might  have  been  made  not 
less  popular. — There  was  no  one  who  would  deprecate  more  than 
he  should  any  meddling  spirit  of  interference  in  their  internal  con- 
cerns, or  any  assumption  of  a  right  of  control :  but  the  existence 
of  an  authority  arising  from  merits  and  services,  from  the  value 
of  what  was  done,  and  the  evidence  of  what  was  intended,  and 
which  should  be  applied  only  to  the  healing  dissensions,  discoura- 
ging factions,  and  affording  a  common  centre  of  appeal  to  all  the 
upright  and  well  intentioned,  was  perhaps  just  the  happiest  thing 
that  could  happen  in  their  circumstances,  and  such  as  every  hon- 
est and  intelligent  Spaniard  must  hajl  with  delight. 

He  could  not  help  perceiving  in  the  conduct  of  this  war,  and 
certainly  in  much  of  the  language  held  about  it,  a  certain  mixture 
of  that  error,  which  prevailed  in  many  years  of  the  last  war,  of 
encouraging  sanguine  expectations  of  what  was  to  be  done  by 
Austria  and  other  powers,  and  looking  to  them  for  what  in  many 
instances  ought  to  have  been  our  own  work.  Something  of  that 
sort  prevailed  here.  With  all  our  talk  about  Spain,  we  did  not 
set  our  shoulders  to  the  wheel,  as  people  would,  who  felt  that  they 
had  nothing  to  trust  to,  but  their  own  exertions,  and  who  estima- 


148  CAMPAIGN  IN  SPAIN> 

ted  truly  what  the  exertions  of  this  country  could  do  when  fairly 
put  forth. 

But,  the  great  and  pregnant  source  of  error  in  the  conduct  of 
the  Honourable  Gentlemen,  besides  the  fault  of  not  knowing  bet- 
ter, was  that  which  they  had  in  common  with  many  other  minis- 
ters, and  which  he  had  signally  witnessed  in  some  of  his  own  time, 
of  mistaking  bustle  for  activity,  and  supposing  that  they  were 
doing  a  great  deal,  when  they  were  only  making  a  great  deal  of 
noise,  and  spending  a  great  deal  of  money.  While  ministers  were 
writing  long  dispatches,  issuing  orders  in  all  directions,  keeping 
up  clerks  to  unusual  hours,  covering  the  roads  with  messengers, 
and  putting  the  whole  country  in  a  ferment,  they  were  very  apt 
to  fancy  that  the  public  service  must  be  making  prodigious  advan- 
ces. And  their  purpose,  the  purpose  of  the  ministers  themselves, 
might,  very  possibly,  in  the  mean  while,  be  answered ;  for  the 
error  here  stated  was  not  a  disinterested  one,  and  one  without  its 
design.  It  was  thus,  perhaps,  that  an  administration  was  to  ac- 
quire the  character  of  vigour !  The  ministers  looked  at  every 
measure  not  with  a  view  to  the  effect  which  it  was  to  produce 
abroad,  but  to  the  appearance  which  it  was  to  make  at  home : 
they  were  more  intent  upon  the  richness  and  costliness  of  the  han- 
dle of  their  weapon  than  upon  the  keenness  and  temper  of  the 
blade.  The  public  joined  them  heartily  in  the  delusion ;  and  as 
long  as  that  was  so,  we  must  expect  to  see  the  interests  of  the 
country  and  of  the  world  sacrificed  to  such  misconduct,  as  was 
exhibited  in  the  history  of  this  campaign  in  Spain. 

There  was  another  topic  upon  which  he  felt  it  necessary  to 
touch.  It  had  been  represented,  that  throughout  the  north  of 
Spain  there  was  the  greatest  possible  apathy  and  want  of  zeal, 
and  that  the  Marquis  de  Romana  had  confessed  it.  Now,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  gross  breach  of  confidence  in  quoting  what  the 
Marquis  de  Romana  had  said,  if  he  had  said  it  in  private,  or  the 
gross  fallacy  of  quoting  what  he  might  have  said  in  a  proclama- 
tion in  a  moment  of  spleen  or  anger,  and  for  the  purpose  of  stimu- 
lating the  inhabitants  of  those  provinces  to  greater  activity,  he 
must  utterly  deny  the  expressions  quoted.  There  could  be  nothing 
more  fallacious  than  to  estimate  the  feelings  of  a  country  towards 
any  cause,  by  the  feelings  excited  in  that  part  of  it,  which  should 
be  exposed  to  the  immediate  pressure  of  an  army.  If  the  scene 
of  war,  for  instance,  lay  in  England,  and  we  had  an  army  of 
allies,  Germans  or  Russians,  or  even  an  army  of  our  own  coun- 
trymen, acting  for  our  defence,  they  would  not,  he  apprehended, 
be  very  popular,  in  the  places  where  they  were ;  and  there  would 
not  be  wanting  complaints  among  the  farmers,  whose  provisions 
were  consumed,  whose  hen-roosts  were  plundered,  whose  furni- 


CAMPAIGN  IN  SPAIN.  149 

lure  was  stolen,  whose  ricks  were  set  on  fire,  and  whose  wives 
and  daughters  might  not  always  be  treated  with  perfect  decorum, 
that  the  French  themselves  could  not  do  them  greater  mischief! 
Now,  if  this  were  true,  as  it  infallibly  would  be,  of  English  troops 
upon  English  ground,  might  we  not  suppose  that  a  good  deal 
more  of  the  same  sort  would  happen,  both  as  to  the  provocation 
given  and  the  imitation  excited  by  it,  when  the  English  troops 
were  to  be  placed  in  these  circumstances  on  Spanish  ground,  and 
where  every  cause  of  dissatisfaction  must  be  aggravated  a  thou- 
sand-fold, by  difference  of  habits  and  maimers,  and  the  want  of 
any  common  language,  by  which  the  parties  might  understand 
one  another.  It  must  be  confessed,  too,  he  was  afraid,  that 
we  were  not  the  nation  who  accommodated  ourselves  best  to 
strangers,  who  knew  best  how  to  conciliate  their  good- will ;  and 
when  to  all  this  were  added  the  circumstances  in  which  our  army 
was  placed,  that  we  were  a  retreating  army,  and  an  army  com- 
pelled to  retreat  with  extraordinary  rapidity  and  much  consequent 
disorder,  it  would  not  be  very  surprising,  if  neither  we  appeared 
to  the  people  nor  they  to  us,  in  form  the  most  advantageous,  or 
such  as  to  render  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns  and  villages  on 
the  line  of  our  march,  a  very  fair  representation  of  the  feelings 
and  sentiments  of  the  mass  of  people  in  Spain.  On  many  occa- 
sions, from  the  fault  of  the  commissariat,  or  from  other  causes, 
the  soldiers,  when  they  came  in  at  the  end  of  a  long  march,  had 
nothing  provided  for  them  to  eat ;  and  were  obliged  to  help  them- 
selves. The  inhabitants,  in  their  terror,  w^hether  they  staid  or 
had  fled,  had  locked  up  their  houses,  and  nothing  was  to  be  got 
but  by  breaking  them  open  ;  and  it  was  easy  to  understand,  that 
when  once  soldiers,  whether  from  necessity  or  otherwise,  began 
to  break  open  houses,  further  irregularities,  without  disparagement 
to  the  discipline  of  the  army,  or  character  of  the  men,  must  be 
expected.  The  kingdom  of  Gallicia,  in  general,  was  probably  a 
very  unfair  specimen,  as  to  what  was  to  be  looked  for  from  the 
rest  of  the  country,  not  so  much,  perhaps,  from  the  character  of 
the  inhabitants,  as  from  the  state  of  society  there,  where  the  gen- 
try were  few  and  of  little  influence,  and  where  there  was  almost 
a  total  want  of  those  classes  which  might  direct  and  methodize 
the  exertions  of  the  lower  orders,  or  make  them  sensible  even 
that  such  exertions  were  necessary. — To  talk  of  the  Spaniards 
generally,  as  wanting  in  zeal  or  courage  or  determination  to  de- 
fend their  country,  was  more  than  any  one  would  venture,  after 
such  examples  as  Saragossa,  where  a  defence  was  made  so  far 
exceeding  what  was  to  be  expected  from  a  regular  army,  that 
one  might  conceive  a  general  made  a  peer  in  this  country,  for 
having  surrendered  Saragossa,  in  circumstances  far  short  of 
those  in  which  its  inhabitants  defended  it. 

13* 


150  CAMPAIGN  IN  SPAIN. 

The  Right  Honourable  Gentleman  concluded  with  expressing 
his  determination  to  support  the  motion  for  an  Inquiry. 

Earl  Percy,  Mr.  Bathurst,  and  Mr.  Hutchinson,  supported  the  motion ;  afler 
which  a  division  took  place,  when  there  appeared, 

For  Mr.  Ponsonby's  motion 127 

Against  it .220 

Majority 93 


ff^ 


(  151  ) 

CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

MARCH  14th,  1809. 

On  the  8th  of  March,  Mr.  Wardle  moved  the  order  of  the  day  for  taking 
into  consideration  the  Minutes  of  Evidence  taken  before  the  Committee  who 
were  appointed  to  investigate  the  conduct  of  His  Royal  Highness  the  Duke 
of  York,  Commander  in  Chief,  with  regard  to  promotions,  exchanges,  and 
appointments  to  commissions  in  the  army  and  staff  of  the  army,  and  in  raising 
levies  of  the  army.  He  then  proceeded  to  recapitulate  the  evidence,  and 
concluded  by  moving  an  Address  to  His  Majesty,  which,  after  noticing  the 
proceedings  of  the  House  on  this  subject,  concluded  with  declaring,  "  That  it 
is  the  opinion  of  this  House,  that  the  abuses  which  they  have  most  humbly 
represented  to  His  Majesty,  could  not  have  prevailed  to  the  extent  in  which 
they  had  been  proved  to  exist,  without  the  knowledge  of  the  Commander  in 
Chief;  and  that  even  if,  upon  any  principle  of  reason  or  probability,  it  could 
be  presumed  that  abuses  so  various  and  so  long  continued  could,  in  fact,  have 
prevailed  without  his  knowledge,  such  a  presumption  in  his  favour  would  not 
warrant  the  conclusion,  that  the  command  of  the  army  could,  with  safety,  or 
ought,  in  prudence,  to  be  continued  in  his  hands : — That  on  these  grounds 
and  principles  His  Majesty's  faithful  Commons  most  humbly  submit  their 
opinion  to  His  Majesty's  gracious  consideration,  that  His  Royal  Highness  the 
Duke  of  York  ought  to  be  deprived  of  the  command  of  the  army." 

To  this  Address,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  (Mr.  Perceval)  proposed 
an  Amendment,  which  included  the  following  Resolution,  viz.  "  Resolved, 
That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  House,  after  the  fullest  and  most  attentive  con- 
sideration of  all  the  evidence  reported  to  this  House,  from  the  Committee 
appointed  to  inquire  into  the  conduct  of  His  Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of 
York,  that  there  is  no  ground  for  charging  His  Royal  Highness,  in  the  execu- 
tion of  his  official  duties,  as  Commander  in  Chief,  with  the  personal  corruption 
alleged  against  him  in  that  evidence,  or  with  any  connivance  at  the  corrupt 
and  infamous  practices  which  are  therein  disclosed." 

On  the  9th  the  debate  was  resumed,  and  Mr.  Perceval  moved  the  Amend- 
ment which  he  had  proposed  on  the  preceding  evening.  Mr.  Bathurst,  taking 
a  middle  course,  suggested,  but  did  not  move  an  Amendment,  recognising  the 
benefits  which  the  service  had  derived  from  His  Royal  Highness's  general 
performance  of  his  duties  as  Commander  in  Chief,  but  regretting  "  an  immoral 
and  unbecoming  connexion,  which  had  occasioned  an  interference  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  military  appointments,  tendrag  to  discredit  His  Royal  Highness's 
official  administration,  and  to  give  colour  to  the  most  criminal  and  disgraceflil 
transactions." 


152  CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

On  the  10th  the  question  was  further  debated,  and  Mr.  Banks  moved  an 
Amendment,  in  which,  after  stating  that  it  had  appeared  from  the  evidence 
that  corrupt  practices  and  abuses  had  unquestionably  existed,  it  was  proposed, 
*'  to  assure  His  Majesty  that  it  is  liighly  satisfactory  to  this  House  to  find  no 
ground  in  any  of  these  proceedings  for  charging  His  Royal  Highness,  the 
Commander  in  Chief,  with  personal  corruption  or  participation  in  any  profits 
derived  through  undue  means;  but  that  while  we  readily  do  justice  to  the 
exemplary  regularity  with  which  business  is  conducted  in  his  department, 
and  the  salutary  regulations  which  have  been  introduced  by  His  Royal  High- 
ness, some  of  which  are  calculated  to  prevent  such  practices  as  have  been 
brought  under  our  review,  we  are  obliged  to  express  our  opinion  that  such 
abuses  could  scarcely  have  prevailed  to  the  extent  to  which  they  have  been 
proved  to  exist,  without  having  excited  the  suspicion  of  the  Commander  in 
Chief;  and  we  humbly  submit  to  His  Majesty,  even  if  it  can  be  presumed 
that  abuses  so  various  and  so  long  continued,  could  have  prevailed  without 
the  knowledge  of  His  Royal  Highness,  whether  the  command  of  the  army 
can  with  propriety  be  continued,  or  ought  in  prudence  to  remain  any  longer 
in  his  hands."  The  Amendment  concluded  with  reprobating  the  example  to 
public  morals  which  the  evidence  had  disclosed. 

The  discussion  was  continued  on  the  13th  and  14th  March.  On  the  latter 
of  these  days,  Mr.  Windham  addressed  the  Chair  in  the  following  speech  : 

Sir, 
I  HAVE  abstained  hitherto  from  delivering  my  sentiments  to  the 
house,  because  I  felt  that  it  was  desirable  for  me  to  collect,  in  the 
course  of  the  discussion,  the  opinions  of  as  many  different  mem- 
bers as  possible  upon  this  important,  delicate,  and  difficult  question, 
before  I  ventured  to  offer  any  view  of  my  own  upon  it.  If  I  am 
now  anxious  to  state  my  opinion  upon  the  subject,  it  is  because 
of  the  crisis  of  the  proceeding  at  which  the  house  has  arrived  ; 
because  of  the  mode  of  proceeding  which  is  next  proposed  to  be 
adopted ;  and  because  very  erroneous  opinions  have  been  formed 
upon  that  mode  of  proceeding.  But,  before  I  enter  upon  this  con- 
sideration, it  will  first  be  necessary  to  inquire  what  is  the  actual 
state  of  the  question.  Statements  have  been  made  to  this  house, 
rather  than  charges,  which  impute  misconduct  to  the  Commander- 
in-Chief.  An  inquiry  at  the  bar  of  the  house  has  been  the  conse- 
quence, and  four  modes  of  proceeding  have  subsequently  been 
recommended.  An  Address  to  His  Majesty  has  been  originally 
proposed,  suggesting  what  measure  should  be  adopted ;  then  came 
the  Resolution  of  the  Right  Honourable  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  acquitting  His  Royal  Highness  altogether ;  the  third 
course  is  that  proposed  by  the  Right  Honourable  Gentleman 
upon  the  floor  (Mr.  Bathurst ;)  and  the  last  is  the  Address  of  the 
Honourable  Gentleman  (Mr.  Bankes,)  containing  an  opinion  re- 
specting the  conduct  of  the  Commander-in-Chief,  and  differing 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.  153 

upon  the  whole  from  the  original  Address.  With  any  one  of  these 
modes  of  proceeding  I  shall  be  able,  if  necessary,  to  concur,  how- 
ever I  may  have  a  preference  of  one  over  the  other.  I  speak, 
of  course,  of  the  forms  of  proceeding,  not  of  the  opinions,  by 
which  they  may  be  accompanied  or  intended  to  be  followed,  with 
all  of  which  it  will  not  be  possible  to  concur,  because  many  of 
them  are  in  contradictioir  with  each  other. 

There  is,  however,  a  higher  and  more  general  question  of  pro- 
ceeding, paramount  to  those  just  enumerated,  which  it  will  be 
necessary  previously  to  discuss,  and  which  I  shall  endeavour  to 
explain. — There  seems  to  be  an  intention  of  calling  upon  the 
house  to  resolve  the  great  subject  before  them  into  certain  issuable 
points  upon  which  separate  decisions  should  be  taken,  and  then 
upon  the  decisions  so  taken,  and  as  a  consequence  derived  from 
them,  to  ground  an  Address  Expressing  the  opinion  of  the  house 
as  to  what  ought  further  to  be  done. 

However  plausible  this  may  sound,  and  however  true  it  may 
be,  that  such  is  the  course  which  each  individual  will  pursue  in 
forming  his  opinion,  I  am  clear  that,  as  a  mode  of  judging  to  be 
adopted  by  this  house,  or  by  any  other  tribunal  consisting  of 
numerous  members,  it  is  as  little  true  in  theory,  as  it  is  conform- 
able to  general  and  established  practice.  With  respect  to  practice, 
it  is  obvious,  that  it  is  not  in  this  way  that  the  house  determines 
the  numerous  complicated  questions  that  are  continually  before  it. 
For  the  purpose  here  considered,  it  is  of  no  consequence,  whether 
the  question  is  of  a  judicial  nature  or  of  any  other.  The  laws  of 
reasoning,  and  the  rules  by  which  one  truth  is  deduced  from 
another,  are  the  same  in  all  subjects.  A  question  of  peace  and 
war  may  involve  in  it  a  great  variety  of  subordinate  questions, 
such  as,  Whether  the  war  projected  is  consistent  with  the  good, 
faith  of  the  country,  and  with  subsisting  treaties,  whether  it  is 
consistent  with  its  commercial  interests,  is  hkely  to  prove  con- 
ducive to  its  object,  &c.  &c.  Yet  the  house  does  not  come  to  a 
separate  decision  upon  these  points,  and  then  from  these  separate 
decisions,  derive  its  general  conclusion  upon  the  whole.  It  goes 
at  once  to  the  general  conclusion,  leaving  to  each  man  to  adjust 
in  his  own  mind  the  value  to  be  attached  to  each  of  these  separate 
considerations.  In  fact,  in  the  very  plan  now  proposed,  we  no 
sooner  lay  down  the  principle,  than  we  feel  ourselves  compelled 
the  moment  afterwards  to  abandon  it :  for  if  we  did  not,  when 
we  are  deciding  the  question  of  guilty  or  not  of  participation,  &c. 
we  must  say,  guilty  or  not  of  participation  in  the  case  of  Sandon, 
in  the  case  of  Knight,  and  so  on  in  each  case  to  which  the  ques- 
tion of  participation  can  apply.  I  protest,  therefore,  against  the 
whole  of  this  mode  of  proceeding,  and  declare  beforehand,  that 
should  it  be  adopted  by  the  house,  and  should  I  concur,  as  I  cer- 

U 


154         CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

tainly  shall,  in  acquitting  the  Duke  of  York  of  participation  or 
connivance,  I  shall  not  feel  myself  precluded  from  taking  into 
account,  the  presumptions  established  in  those  very  charges,  on 
which  I  have  so  acquitted  him,  in  deciding  upon  the  general 
question  of.  Whether  or  no  the  Duke  of  York  should  be  advised 
to  withdraw  (or  the  King  be  advised  to  remove  him)  from  the 
situation  of  Commander-in-Chief?  When  I  shall  have  pronounced 
a  verdict  of  acquittal  on  all  and  every  one  of  these  charges,  I 
shall  have  said  nothing,  that  would  be  inconsistent  with  the 
opinion,  that  the  Duke  ought,  notwithstanding,  and  with  respect 
to  those  very  charges,  no  longer  to  remain  in  his  situation  at  the 
head  of  the  army.  There  would  be  no  difficulty  in  establishing 
the  truth  of  the  position  here  laid  down,  and  doing  away  what- 
ever there  was  of  seeming  paradox  in  it,  but  I  shall  forbear  from 
troubling  the  house  for  that  purpose,  as  I  collect  from  the  gestures 
of  the  Honourable  Gentlemen,  that  the  contrary  is  not  maintained, 
and  that  there  is  no  intention  of  forcing  upon  the  house  a  course 
of  proceeding  such  as  I  had  apprehended. 

I  shall  consider  myself,  therefore,  as  at  liberty  to  treat  the  whole 
question  from  the  beginning,  as  one,  and  not  as  restricted  to  the 
necessity  of  breaking  it  into  parts,  according  to  a  prescribed  form, 
deciding  those  parts  as  separate  questions,  and  then,  from  the 
result  of  those  separate  questions,  and  the  conclusions  which  the 
house  shall  severally  have  come  to  upon  them,  forming  my  opinion 
upon  the  whole.  The  main  question  is,  what  shall  the  house  do 
in  consequence  of  the  body  of  evidence  now  brought  before  it  ? 
What  steps  shall  it  take?  What  resolutions  shall  it  come  to? 
What  advice  shall  it  give  ? 

In  every  view,  and  for  every  purpose,  it  is  necessary  to  con- 
sider the  nature  and  value  of  the  evidence,  the  general  heads 
under  which  it  falls,  and  the  main  facts  which  it  establishes. 
After  the  close  examination  which  it  has  undergone,  I  shall  be 
far  from  feehng  it  necessary  to  go  into  any  minute  detail ;  it  will 
be  sufficient  for  me  to  state  such  remarks  as  seem  to  me  at  all 
material  in  the  character  and  result  of  the  leading  parts  of  it. 
Among  these,  Mrs.  Clarke's  evidence  stands  foremost.  She  is  the 
life  and  soul  of  the  whole.  Her  testimony,  if  it  is  to  be  received 
implicitly,  is  at  once  conclusive.  We  are  to  consider  what  there 
may  be  to  render  any  part  of  her  testimony  doubtful. 

Her  general  situation  in  the  cause  is  certainly  such  as  to  expose 
her  to  great  suspicion.  She  is  so  circumstanced  as  to  be  open  to 
strong  temptations  to  falsehood,  both  on  the  side  of  interest  and 
of  passion:  and  what  ground  of  assurance  is  there  that  these 
motives  will  have  been  resisted?  She  is,  in  the  first  place,  a 
woman  without  that  virtue  which  is  the  great  pride  and  ornament 
of  the  sex,  and  is,  in  the  universal  estimation  of  mankind,  the 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.  155 

great  foundation  and  pledge  of  all  others.  However  it  happens, 
or  in  whatever  way  it  is  to  be  explained,  it  must  be  confessed 
(without  wishing  to  bear  too  hard  upon  the  frailties  of  the  sex), 
that  the  loss  of  chastity  in  women,  does  carry  away  with  it  a 
great  proportion  of  all  their  other  virtues.  But,  Mrs.  Clarke  is  a 
woman  who  is  not  only  unchaste,  but  is  publicly  known  to  be  so; 
that  is  to  say,  who  is  not  only  without  virtue  but  without  shame ; 
who  has  long  incurred  and  become  familiar  to  the  opprobrium  of 
the  world;  and  has  therefore  set  herself  free  from  another  security 
for  right  conduct,  and  one  which  is  hardly  less  strong  than  virtue 
itself.  It  is  impossible  to  have  seen  her  here  without  seeing  what 
the  effect  of  her  trade  has  been  in  hardening  her  against  those 
feelings,  which  would  have  operated  on  most  of  her  sex. 

These  are  presumptions  arising  from  her  general  character  and 
habits  of  life.  There  are  others  arising  from  the  particular  situ- 
ation in  which  she  stands  with  respect  to  the  transactions  under 
discussion.  She  appears  in  the  character  of  an  accomplice.  If 
the  acts  charged  would  be  scandalous  and  flagrant  in  the  person 
to  whom  they  are  impute4,  she  cannot  be  blameless  or  guiltless, 
who  carried  on  a  systematic  traffic  for  procuring  them  to  be 
done. — Upon  this  subject  of  accomplices,  of  the  manner  in  which 
they  are  to  be  admitted  into  causes,  and  of  the  way  in  which 
their  evidence  is  to  reckon,  we  have  heard  a  great  deal  from  those, 
who  should  be  presumed  to  understand  it,  but  who  certainly  seem, 
on  this  occasion,  only  to  have  given  a  new  proof,  that  gentlemen 
of  the  legal  profession  do  not  form  always  the  best  conceptions 
of  the  principles  of  their  own  practice. — It  may  be  said,  indeed, 
of  the  whole  doctrine  of  evidence,  whether  as  we  hear  it  treated 
daily  by  living  practitioners,  or  as  it  is  delivered  in  books  and 
learned  tracts  of  the  most  approved  authority,  that  it  is,  what 
certain  heads  of  disorder  have  been  said  to  be  with  respect  to 
physicians,  the  opprobrium  jurisconsullorum.  One  position  laid 
down  has  been,  that  the  evidence  of  an  accomplice  is  to  be 
believed  only  so  far  as  it  is  supported  by  other  proofs.  If  by  this 
is  meant  only  (what  it  would  express  however  very  inaccurately), 
that  no  one  should  be  convicted  upon  the  mere  testimony  of  an 
accomplice,  unsupported  by  other  testimony  or  by  other  proofe, 
the  position  may  be  readily  admitted ;  but  if  it  is  meant  that  every 
part  of  the  evidence  of  an  accomplice  requires  to  be  so  supported, 
the  result  must  be,  that  the  evidence  of  an  accomplice  was  of  no 
effect  at  all,  supposing  that  by  support  was  meant  complete  support^ 
that  is  to  say,  evidence  so  good  as  to  be  sufficient  of  itself.  For 
if  by  support  here  is  meant  only  evidence  imperfect  or  doubtful, 
such  as  might  induce  a  belief,  but  not  an  adequate  belief,  then  this 
description  of  the  force  and  value  of  an  accomplice's  evidence, 
is  no  more  than  what  might  seem  to  be  expressed  in  a  simpler  and 


156         CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

more  intelligible  manner,  by  saving  that  it  was  evidence  of  an 
inferior  kind,  which  had  its  weight,  but  was  not  fit  to  be  relied  on 
altogether.  Whatever  its  value  be,  it  must  be  something,  otherwise 
there  would  be  no  sense  or  meaning  in  admitting  it  into  a  cause. 
If  a  witness  can  add  to  the  credit  of  another's  testimony,  it  must 
be  by  the  effect  of  some  credit,  more  or  less,  that  is  due  to  his 
own.  A  witness  from  whom  you  believe  nothing  but  what  you 
can  prove  by  other  means  (or  who,  according  to  the  language 
that  we  often  hear,  is  to  be  believed  only  so  far  as  he  is  supported 
by  witnesses  that  are  credible,)  is  no  witness  at  all. 

I  do  not  know,  therefore,  what  can  be  made  of  a  distinction 
which  a  learned  judge  (Mr.  Burton)  was  endeavouring  to  set  up, 
of  the  testimony  of  accomplices  being  good  with  respect  to  col- 
lateral or  incidental  circumstances,  but  not  so  wdth  respect  to 
those  main  circumstances  which  go  to  fix  the  guilt  directly  upon 
the  party  accused.  You  either  give  some  degree  of  credit  to  the 
accomplice,  or  you  give  none.  If  none,  it  is  needless  to  call  him. 
If  he  is  to  be  credited  in  any  degree,  the  credit  so  given  him, 
though  possibly  not  the  same  on  all  the  points  on  which  he  may 
have  to  speak,  will  vary  by  other  rules  than  the  mere  application 
of  the  point  in  question  to  the  condemnation  or  acquittal  of  the 
prisoner. — An  accomplice,  with  respect  to  the  mere  effect  which 
his  testimony  will  have  in  influencing  belief,  is  in  the  state  of  any 
other  witness,  whose  credibility,  supposing  his  accuracy  to  be  the 
same,  is  to  be  estimated  by  his  temptations  to  falsehood,  and  the 
probity  which  he  may  be  supposed  to  possess,  to  guard  him 
against  such  temptation. 

So  much  for  the  theory.  As  to  the  practice,  I  am  afraid,  it  is 
sometimes  carried  as  much  beyond  the  limits  to  which  theory 
would  confine  it,  as  there  is  at  other  times  a  desire  to  make  it  fall 
short  of  them.  The  case  mentioned  by  my  Honourable  and  Learn- 
ed Friend  (Sir  Samuel  Romilly)  is  a  strong  proof  of  this.  There 
can  be  no  doubt,  that,  if  the  facts  stated  form  the  whole  of  the 
case,  the  prisoner  was  convicted  solely  upon  the  evidence  of  a 
man,  who  could  not  have  given  that  evidence,  without  confessing 
himself  a  participator  to  the  full  extent,  in  the  guilt  charged.  The 
conviction  seems  to  have  been  a  most  improper  one,  and  is  not 
rendered  better  by  the  reflection,  that  the  man  who  could  have 
been  so  convicted,  was  certainly  not  a  Commander-in-Chief  nor 
a  Governor-General  of  India. 

To  return  to  the  case  in  question.  Mrs.  Clarke  is  undoubtedly 
an  accompHce,  and  on  that,  as  well  as  on  various  other  accounts, 
is  to  be  heard  with  great  distrust.  But,  still,  her  evidence  is  not 
to  be  rejected  nor  disregarded :  and  we  are  to  consider  what  cir- 
cumstances there  may  be  to'  repel  or  to  do  away  a  great  part  of 
the  presumptions  arising  against  her  from  the  causes  above  stated. 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.         157 

Though  it  may  be  too  much  to  say  (and  far  more  than  we  are 
called  upon  to  say  by  any  evidence  before  us,)  that  she  is,  generally 
speaking,  an  unwilling  witness ;  yet  we  know,  of  our  own  know- 
ledge, that  she  has  been  so  in  some  instances,  and  must  fairly  be 
sjiid  to  have  given  proofs  of  a  great  degree  of  moderation  and 
forbearance.  These  are  virtues  often  to  be  found  among  wonien 
whose  lives  and  conduct  have  not  been  more  regular  than  Mrs. 
Clarke's,  and  which  she  has  displayed  in  several  instances  in  a 
very  marked  manner.  She  would  clearly  have  suppressed  all  the 
circumstances  connected  with  Colonel  Tonyn's  business,  if  she 
had  not  been  absolutely  forced  to  produce  them  by  the  foolish  and 
scandalous  attack  made  upon  her  by  General  Clavering,  which 
completely  drove  her  to  the  wall,  and  left  her  no  option  between 
the  production  of  these  facts  and  the  confession  (which  she  could 
hardly  be  expected  to  make,  at  the  moment,  too,  when  her  evi- 
dence was  correctly  true),  that  she  was  a  woman  wholly  unde- 
serving of  credit.  Her  credit,,  which  is  impeached  by  the  circum- 
stances in  which  she  stands,  is  thus  in  a  considerable  degree  set 
up  again,  by  the  manner  in  which  we  have  seen  her  act  in  those 
circumstances.  She  evidently  cannot  be  treated  as  a  woman, 
who  is  borne  away  by  a  spirit  of  resentment,  which  knows  no 
bounds ;  because  she  has  shown  that  she  is  not  so  borne  away, 
but  is  restrained  by  considerations,  such  as  we  cannot  assume  to 
be  stronger  than  those  which,  even  in  a  mind  as  little  principled 
as  hers,  might  prevent  the  production  of  evidence,  known  not  to 
be  true. 

If  such  seems  to  be  the  balance  of  the  account  betw^een  the 
presumptions  for  and  against  her  credibility,  which  may  be  derived 
from  a  general  view  of  her  situation  and  conduct,  it  remains  to 
be  considered,  how  these  motives  and  considerations  appear  to 
have  operated  in  point  of  fact,  and  what  is  the  general  colour 
and  character  of  her  testimony ;  such  as  we  have  heard  it  deliver- 
ed, and  as  we  have  it  now  before  us.  Ylarious  attempts  have 
been  made  to  entrap  her  in  her  answers,  and  to  find  out  parts  of 
her  testimony  in  which  she  may  appear  to  be  inconsistent,  either 
with  others,  or  with  herself.  For  my  part,  I  must  fairly  confess, 
that  these  attempts,  as  far  as  I  can  recollect,  did  not,  in  any  in- 
stance, appear  to  me  to  be  successful.  On  those  points  where  a 
difference  occurred  between  her  and  Mr.  Knight,  it  appeared  to 
me,  that  Mr.  Knight  was  quite  as  likely  to  be  mistaken  as  she ; 
nothing  was  more  easily  intelligible  than  one  of  those  on  which 
so  much  stress  has  been  laid,  as  if  it  were  difficult  to  be  under- 
stood why  she  should  express  an  unwillingness  to  the  mention  of 
the  matter  to  the  Duke  of  York.  Mrs.  Clarke  had  denied  her 
having  expressed  any  such  unwillingness;  answering  rather  to 
the  inference  which  she  saw  was  intended  than  to  the  fact  itself; 
14 


158         CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 


« 


and  committing  thereby,  if  her  denial  was  false,  a  most  unneces- 
sary deviation  from  truth :  for  nothing  could  have  been  more  safe 
to  her,  than  to  admit  to  the  full  extent  all  that  Mr.  Knight  ascribed 
to  her ;  namely,  that  she  had  given  a  caution  to  him  not  to  repeat 
what  he  had  heard,  to  the  Duke  of  York. — For  what  is  this  notion 
that  such  a  caution  could  only  be  necessary,  on  the  supposition 
that  she  carefully  concealed  from  His  Royal  Highness  the  traffic 
in  which  she  was  engaged  ?  I  believe,  that  she  did,  in  fact,  con- 
ceal it  from  the  Duke ;  that  is  to  say,  the  corrupt  part  of  it  But 
such  a  supposition  is  not  necessary,  to  account  for  a  wish  on  her 
part,  that  what  passed  in  conversation  between  her  and  persons 
whom  she  was  treating  with,  should  not  come  round  to  His  Royal 
Highness's  ears ;  because,  though  he  were  privy  to  these  things 
ever  so  much,  there  was  still  reason  sufficient,  why  he  should  not 
choose  to  be  known  to  be  privy  to  them,  and  might  be  very  angry 
at  the  report  of  any  conversation  which  should  seem  to  fix  upon 
him  that  knowledge. 

Scire  meum  nihil  est,  nisi  nee  scire  hoc  sciat  alter. 

I  may  know  that  you  take  money  for  these  services :  but  do  not 
let  any  one  else  know  that  I  know  it. 

Of  a  sort  equally  unimportant  were  many  other  of  the  inaccu- 
racies or  inconsistencies,  w^hich  were  supposed  to  have  been  dis- 
covered in  her  evidence.  They  were,  many  of  them,  upon  points 
which  she  had  no  interest  in  representing  one  way  more  than  in 
another,  or  on  which,  when  the  opposition  was  to  the  testimony 
of  others,  there  was  just  as  much  probability  of  her  being  right 
as  they.  In  general,  I  must  fairly  say,  they  were  of  that  sort, 
which,  instead  of  detracting  from  the  authority  of  her  evidence, 
only  gave  to  it,  in  my  eyes,  a  greater  character  of  genuineness 
and  authenticity.  I  should  have  suspected  it  more,  had  the  inac- 
curacies in  it  been  fewer.  There  was  just  about  as  much  incor- 
rectness as  might  be  expected  in  the  answers  of  a  person,  who 
spoke  without  design  or  premeditation  on  transactions  some  time 
past,  and  which,  many  of  them,  had  not  been  at  the  time  the  sub- 
ject of  particular  attention.  It  was  impossible,  indeed,  not  to  be 
struck  by  the  general  air  of  frankness  and  facility  with  which  her 
evidence  was  characterized  throughout.  There  was  nothing  of 
stiffiiess  and  preparation.  Th^re  was  no  time  taken  to  look  for 
an  answer,  or  to  give  to  it  any  other  shape,  than  that  which  it 
first  received  in  her  mind.  She  wrote  a  running  hand.  "  She 
poured  forth,"  as  a  great  critic  says  of  one  of  our  poets,  "  a 
negligent  profusion ;  certain  of  the  weight,  and  careless  of  the 
stamp." 

With  this  description  of  the  general  character  of  Mrs.  Clarke's 
evidence,  on  what  grounds,  it  will  be  asked,  do  I  afterwards  reject 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.  159 

the  truth  of  it  ?  And,  admittiflg  the  truth  of  it,  how  can  I  resist 
the  conclusion,  that  the  Duke  of  York  is  guilty  to  the  full  extent  ? 
The  answer  is,  that  I  do  admit  the  truth  of  her  testimony  in  all 
the  parts  to  which  the  description,  above  given,  will  apply ;  but 
that  the  description  does  not,  nor  by  its  nature  can,  apply  to  those 
parts  by  which  alone  the  Duke  of  York  must  stand  convicted. 

It  has  not  been  observed  sufficiently,  that  Mrs.  Clarke's  evidence 
must  be  divided  into  two  great  heads,  very  unequal  in  bulk,  and 
very  unequal  in  consequence;  and  the  largest,  as  it  happens,  not 
that  which  is  most  important.  In  all  that  part  of  the  case,  being 
nine-tenths  or  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  the  whole,  which  relates 
to  the  existence  of  a  corrupt  traffic  for  the  disposal  of  commissions, 
and  to  the  transactions  which  took  place  in  consequence,  Mrs. 
Clarke's  evidence  deserves  the  character  which  I  have  given  of  it ; 
and  is,  I  believe,  true.  But  all  this,  without  further  aid,  tells 
nothing  as  to  the  object  of  the  prosecution,  viz.  the  guilt  of  the 
Duke  of  York ;  whom  no  extent  or  variety  in  the  existence  of  the 
abuse  will  ever  touch,  unless  it  can  be  shown,  in  some  degree, 
that  he  was,  or  ought  to  have  been,  cognizant  of  it.  Now^  this  it 
is,  that  makes  what  may  be  called  the  second  part  of  Mrs.  Clarke's 
evidence,  to  the  truth  of  which,  no  inference  can  be  drawn  from 
the  truth  of  the  first ;  for  it  is  subject  to  none  of  the  same  con- 
straints, nor  can  be  judged  of  by  any  of  the  same  criteria.  It 
consists  of  half  a  dozen  sentences,  in  which  she  speaks  without 
the  possibility  of  detection  or  confutation,  or  indeed,  even  of  con- 
tradiction, except  from  the  party  himself  When  she  has  told 
with  perfect  truth  all  her  transactions  with  Knight,  with  Donovan, 
with  Sandon,  with  Clavering,  nay,  many  with  the  Duke  of  York 
himself,  that  which  is  to  give  effect  to  the  whole,  which  is  neces- 
sary to  make  any  part  bear  upon  its  object,  is  a  declaration  that 
she  in  private  conversations  (conversations  so  private,  that  nobody 
was,  or,  it  may  be,  could  have  been  present,)  had  made  known 
all  that  she  had  been  doing,  to  the  Duke  of  York.  Without  this, 
all  the  story  comes  to  nothing:  and  what  connexion  is  there  be- 
tween the  truth  of  the  story,  and  the  truth  of  the  declaration  of 
her  having  told  that  story  to  a  particular  person  ?  Mrs.  Clarke 
(I  am  among  the  first  to  admit)  delivers  her  evidence  throughout 
with  the  confidence  and  facility  of  a  person  who  was  speaking 
truth :  but  the  presumption  thence  arising,  as  to  the  actual  truth, 
is  not  the  same  in  all  parts  of  her  evidence.  Where  it  relates  to 
matters  falling  within  the  cognizance  of  others,  she  proceeds  fear- 
lessly, she  speaks  confidently,  because  she  is  in  fact  speaking  truly; 
but  in  other  parts,  far  more  material,  she  may  speak  with  confi- 
dence only  because  she  knows  that,  whether  speaking  truly  or 
falsely,  she  iS  safe  from  detection.  No  one  can  ever  convict  her 
as  to  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  declarations,  said  to  have  passed 


160  CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

only  between  her  and  the  Duke'  of  York.  Here  she  is  covered 
with  a  shield  of  impenetrable  darkness :  she  naay  say  whatever 
she  pleases;  conviction  can  never  reach  her.  In  all  the  other 
parts  of  her  evidence,  she  might  safely  tell  the  truth,  because  the 
truth  was  abundantly  sufficient  for  all  purposes,  if  it  could  be 
shown  only  that  the  Duke  was  acquainted  with  it 

It  must  never  be  forgot,  that  the  proof  of  this  last  point,  namely, 
the  knowledge  which  the  Duke  had  of  the  criminal  parts  of  these 
transactions,  rests  entirely  upon  Mrs.  Clarke,  with  no  other  support 
than  what  she  can  derive  from  Miss  Taylor.  I  am  far  from 
approving  the  attempts  that  have  been  made  to  discredit  and  dis- 
parage Miss  Taylor,  or  from  thinking  that  they  have  been  at  all 
successful.  Indeed,  their  success  would  have  been,  in  a  great 
measure,  their  justification.  If  Miss  Taylor's  character  was  really 
bad,  so  as  to  render  her  undeserving  of  credit,  the  interests  of 
justice  required  that  it  should  be  shown  to  be  so,  however  the 
means  employed  for  that  purpose  might  be  attended  with  conse- 
quences painful  or  prejudicial  to  her.  But  the  attempts  were 
neither  successful,  nor  did  they  seem,  many  of  them,  to  have  been 
fairly  directed  to  their  object.  What  idea  could  we  entertain  of 
Miss  Taylor's  credit  being  destroyed  as  a  witness,  because  she 
had  not  the  virtue  (if  virtue  even  it  w^ould  have  been,  in  all  the 
circumstances  of  the  case)  to.  break  off  all  communication  with 
Mrs.  Clarke,  her  relation  and  benefactress,  the  moment  she  found 
she  had  formed  an  improper  connexion  with  the  Duke  of  York  ? 
This  might  have  been  right :  I  will  not  say,  that  it  was  not :  but 
it  was  a  stricter  right  than  we  were  accustomed  to  exact  from 
persons  from  whom  it  might  more  fairly  be  looked  for.  Would 
we  take  this  rule  in  our  hand,  and  apply  it  to  the  trial  of  all  that 
might  be  found  in  higher  life  ? 

The  fact  is,  that  if  Miss  Taylor's  testimony  is  to  be  arraigned, 
it  must  be  on  the  ground  of  circumstances  in  the  testimony  itself, 
and  not  of  the  person  who  gave  it.  The  case  here  is  the  very 
reverse  of  the  former.  Mrs.  Clarke  is  a  bad  witness  giving  a 
good  testimony.  Miss  Taylor  is  a  good  witness  giving  a  testimony 
liable  to  considerable  suspicion.  Let  Miss  Taylor's  evidence  be 
examined  in  this  view.  The  most  unpleasant  part  of  it  is  the 
expression,  "  How  did  he  behave  to  you,  Darling  ?"  Many  Gen- 
tlemen have  thought  that  this  might  be  explained  to  mean,  what 
was  his  general  conduct  towards  you,  in  respect  to  being  impor- 
tunate and  troublesome  1  But  I  confess  that  it  was  difficult  not 
to  understand  the  word  "  behave"  in  a  more  restricted  and  tech- 
nical sense,  well  understood  among  persons  in  the  class  of  life  in 
which  Miss  Taylor  might  be  placed ;  and  it  is  no  answer  to  say, 
that  Miss  Taylor,  or  those  whose  expressions  she  was  repeating, 
might  not  be  persons  very  nice  and  critical  in  the  use  of  their 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.  161 

terms.  There  are  no  persons  more  correct  in  the  use  of  such 
terms  as  they  employ  at  all,  than  those  whose  vocabulary  is  small, 
and  who  use  it  without  reflection  or  premeditation,  merely  to 
express  ideas  of  daily  occurrence,  in  conversation  with  persons 
as  little  studious  of  language  as  themselves.  There  is  nothing  so 
true  as  habit.  While  there  is  no  ambition  in  the  speakers  to  speak 
beyond  themselves,  the  same  words  are  used  to  denote  the  same 
ideas,  and  contract  by  use  a  degree  of  precision,  which  can  never 
be  given  them  by  thought  and  study.  I  would  pit  the  most  illite- 
rate person  in  this  country,  against  the  most  learned  professor  of 
Dublin  or  Edinburgh,  in  the  use  of  the  words  shall  and  idll;  and 
if  I  had  heard  in  any  part  of  the  evidence,  those  expressions,  now 
so  familiar,  of  a  person  having  done  this  or  that  "  before  going 
down  stairs,  before  getting  into  the  coach,"  I  should  have  been 
sure  that  they  were  either  not  truly  repeated,  or  were  the  expres- 
sions of  a  native  of  this  part  of  the  island.  I  cannot  satisfy 
myself  at  all,  therefore,  that  if  this  expression  of  "  how  did  he 
behave  ?"  was  truly  cited,  it  did  not  signify  all  that  was  meant  to 
be  imputed  to  it.  But  I  may  easily  doubt,  whether  the  expression 
was  truly  cited ;  and  whether  in  the  recollection  of  a  conversa- 
tion, not  very  recent,  and  having  nothing  at  the  time,  as  far  as 
appeared,  to  impress  that  particular  part  immediately  on  the  mind 
of  the  witness,  a  little  change  may  not  have  been  introduced,  in- 
sensible at  the  moment,  but  so  establishing  itself  after  a  few  repe- 
titions, as  to  maintain  its  ground  against  any  subsequent  effort  of 
recollection  to  set  it  right.  I  cannot  lay  much  stress  upon  a  cir- 
cumstance, which  to  some  Gentlemen  has  appeared  of  importance, 
viz.  that  Miss  Taylor  should  have  recollected  so  accurately  the 
particulars  of  this  conversation,  and  have  forgot  so  much  of  what 
had  passed  at  later  periods.  Of  irregularities  of  this  sort,  no  one 
can  fail  to  find  examples  in  himself  every  day.  The  real  circum- 
stance of  surprise  and  suspicion  is,  that  Miss  Taylor  should  have 
so  little  recollection  of  what  had  been  said  to  her  subsequently  in 
respect  to  this  very  conversation.  She  comes  here  w^ith  her  story 
evidently  ready  cut  and  dry.  It  was  not  a  point  that  had  arisen 
unexpectedly  in  the  course  of  examination,  and  on  which  she  had 
related  what  her  recollection  furnished  at  the  moment,  as  was 
often  the  case  with  Mrs.  Clarke ;  but  she  is  brought  to  tell  this 
very  thing,  which  must  therefore  have  been  the  subject  of  previous 
conversation,  and  then  seems  to  recollect  nothing  of  what  had  at 
any  time  passed  upon  it.  It  is  impossible  not  to  regard  a  testimony 
so  circumstanced,  considering  what  it  is  in  the  case,  from  what 
quarter  it  comes,  and  in  what  manner  it  is  produced,  with  some 
degree  of  suspicion ;  and  to  suspect  here  is  to  suspect  the  whole 
foundation  of  the  question.  The  persons  who  look  at  this  case 
loosely  and  carelessly,  in  the  way  in  which  it  is  looked  at  by  ninety 
14*  V 


162         CONDtCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

parts  out  of  a  hundred  of  what  are  called  the  public,  never  per- 
ceive upon  what  a  slender  foundation  the  whole  rests,  upon  what 
slender  pivots  it  is  made  to  turn ;  they  see  a  vast  deal  of  charge, 
a  vast  deal  of  suspicion,  a  great  mass  of  abusive  practices,  a  great 
variety  of  facts,  much  the  greater  part  of  them  proved ;  and  they 
conclude  from  hence,  that  a  great  portion  of  the  charge  is  proved. 
But  when  the  matter  comes  to  be  examined  as  those  ought  to 
examine  it  who  are  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  it,  it  is  found  that  the 
only  two  points  in  which  this  bulky  and  imposing  mass  is  made 
to  touch  the  Duke  of  York,  are  in  the  evidence  of  Miss  Taylor 
and  Mrs.  Clarke ;  Mrs.  Clarke  speaking  to  communications  made 
by  her  to  the  Duke  with  no  person  present,  and  Miss  Taylor 
coming  in  in  support  of  her  friend,  in  a  solitary  instance,  and 
where  the  whole  force  of  her  testimony  depends  upon  her  cor- 
rectness in  the  report  of  a  particular  expression.  The  passage  in 
the  note  to  General  Clavering,  I  think,  proves  nothing  but  that 
which  has  been  proved  over  and  over,  and  need  not  be  disputed ; 
namely,  that  Mrs.  Clarke  made  applications  to  the  Duke  for  objects 
of  this  sort,  and  that  the  Duke  did  not  always  prevent  her,  as  in- 
deed it  would  be  difficult  for  him  to  do,  from  talking  to  him  upon 
such  subjects.  What  is  wanted  is  a  direct  proof,  or  adequate  pre- 
sumption, that  the  Duke  accepted  her  recommendations,  knowing 
them  to  have  been  obtained  corruptly ;  and  evidence  to  this  effect 
we  have  none,  except  in  the  declarations  of  Mrs.  Clarke,  and  the 
story,  which  I  have  been  just  examining,  of  Miss  Taylor. 

This  was  all  that  we  had  upon  that  head  in  the  shape  of  testi- 
mony. There  was,  it  was  urged,  the  general  presumption,  arising 
from  the  rate  at  which  the  Duke  of  York  saw  his  mistress  live, 
compared  with  the  money  which  he  allowed  her.  Knowing  that 
the  one  was  inadequate  to  the  other,  the  allowance  to  the  expense, 
he  must  have  been  satisfied,  it  is  said,  that  she  had  indirect  means 
of  profit ;  and  these  could  be  no  other  than  bribes  received  for 
the  exertion  of  her  influence.  It  may  be  true,  that  the  Duke  of 
York  ought  to  have  made  this  calculation ;  but  nothing  appears 
to  me  more  natural  and  likely  than  that  in  point  of  fact  he  did, 
not.  Persons  bred  to  small  fortunes  and  to  economical  habits, 
may  find  a  difficulty  of  believing  how  any  one  could  mistake  in 
the  proportion  between  his  income  and  expenditui'e :  yet,  surely, 
examples  of  such  mistakes  are  not  wanting,  nor  fail  to  occur 
daily,  even  in  the  lower  walks  of  life ;  and  much  more  may  they 
be  expected  in  persons  placed  from  their  infancy  above  the  want 
of  money,  and  whose  minds  have  been  directed  to  any  thing 
rather  than  the  management  of  their  own  affairs.  There  is  no 
limit  to  the  errors  which  such  persons  may  commit,  when  en- 
deavouring to  form  such  estimates ;  and  who  knows  that  the  Duke 
of  York  ever  thought  upon  the  subject  ?     He  had  not  only  his 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.         153 

habits  of  idleness,  but  his  habits  of  diligence,  to  contend  with; 
and  if  any  one  would  form  to  himself  an  idea  of  the  business 
which  a  Commander  in  Chief  has  to  go  through  every  day  of  his 
life,  and  which  the  Duke  of  York  does  go  througii,  he  would 
neither  wonder  at,  nor  be  much  disposed  to  blame,  any  instance 
of  ignorance  or  inattention  that  might  occur  in  the  management 
of  his  private  affairs.  Much  of  Mrs.  Clarke's  expenses,  too,  never 
came  within  the  cognizance  of  her  protector,  and  many  of  them 
possibly  were  never  intended  to  do  so.  Her  great  dinners  were 
all  necessarily  given  when  he  was-  not  present. 

The  reasoning,  therefore,  that  would  fix  upon  the  Duke  of 
York  the  gross  charge  of  having  connived  at  his  mistress's  cor- 
ruptions, inasmuch  as  he  must  be  presumed  to  have  known,  that 
she  could  not  otherwise  have  gone  on  without  a  greater  debt  than 
she  was  found,  in  fact,  to  have  contracted,  is  of  a  nature  infinitely 
too  loose  and  uncertain  to  be  allowed  of  for  that  purpose,  what- 
ever shade  of  suspicion  Gentlemen  thinking  more  of  it  than  I  do, 
may  consider  it  as  casting  over  the  whole  of  the  case. 

Here  the  case  may  be  considered  as  closing,  respecting  that 
part  of  the  charge  on  which  the  illustrious  personage  in  question, 
and  all  those  interested  in  his  reputation,  must  feel  beyond  compa- 
rison the  most  jealous ;  I  mean  that  gross  and  foul  part  which 
would  impute  to  the  Royal  Duke  the  idea  of  participation  or  con- 
nivance. The  whole  of  this,  with  the  aid  of  such  a  surmise  as 
that  which  I  have  recently  adverted  to,  rests  on  the  sole  assertion 
of  Mrs.  Clarke,  or,  if  you  please,  of  Mrs.  Clarke,  backed  by  Miss 
Taylor.  All  the  abundant  proofs  contained  in  the  other  parts  of. 
the  evidence,  the  direct,  the  circumstantial,  the  proof  by  inference, 
the  proof  by  assertion,  tell  nothing  as  to  the  point  really  in  ques- 
tion, namely,  the  knowledge  of  these  things  (meaning  always  the 
corrupt  part  of  them)  by  the  Duke  of  York.  With  all  your 
eflforts,  you  never  can  get  beyond  the  evidence  of  Mrs.  Clarke 
and  Miss  Taylor;  Miss  Taylor,  moreover,  contributes  nothing 
but  a  single  and  doubtful  sentence.  Yet,  with  three-fourths  of 
those  whom  we  hear  talk  upon  the  subject,  the  case  is  thought  to 
be  proved  with  a  force  of  evidence  that  nothing  can  resist.  There 
never  was  such  a  strange  and  blundering  misconception ;  unless, 
indeed,  it  shall  be  said,  that  such  are  always  the  misconceptions 
on  subjects  of  legal  proof,  by  those  who  have  not.  the  means,  or 
will  not  take  the  pains,  or  do  not  possess  the  habits  or  talents,  to 
examine  them  with  legal  accuracy.  The  proofs  of  the  existence 
of  the  thing,  are  given  throughout,  as  the  proofs  of  the  Duke  of 
York's  knowing  it  Nobody  ever  doubts  of  the  existence  of  the 
thing — that  there  was  a  corrupt  traffic  carried  on  by  Mrs.  Clarke 
and  others.  Of  tliat  we  have  evidence  without  end ;  even  if  it 
w^ere  necessary  to  ask  for  any  other  than  that  of  Mrs.  Clarke 


164         CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

herself.  There  her  evidence  is  conclusive:  it  is  the  very  best 
that  can  be  had  in  any  case.  But  her  testimony,  which  is  the 
best  for  that  purpose,  namely,  to  prove  her  own  practices,  is  alto- 
gether as  bad,  when  applied  to  the  other  purpose,  which  is  all, 
however,  that  we  have  to  do  with,  of  proving  by  her  ipse  dixit, 
that  the  Duke  of  York  was  privy  to  them.  Upon  this  evidence, 
however,  we  are  now  required  to  come  to  that  conclusion. 

The  other  heads  of  charge  in  the  cause  are,  comparatively 
with  these,  and  as  I  think,  in  themselves,  of  so  little  magnitude,  that 
though  they  have  assumed  a  great  consequence  in  the  eyes  of 
some  Gentlemen,  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  dwell  upon  them  at 
nnuch  length.  The  moral  part  of  the  question,  as  it  is  called,  is 
one  that,  many  Gentlemen  think,  ought  of  itself  to  call  for  the 
animadversion  of  the  house.  I  certainly  do  not  mean  to  set  up  a 
justification  of  that  part  of  the  Royal  Personage's  conduct ;  but 
not  feeling  that  this  is  a  matter  on  which  the  house  is  called  upon 
to  animadvert,  I  do  not  feel  that  I  am  setting  up  a  justification  of 
it,  by  endeavouring  to  dissuade  the  house  from  taking  any  cogni- 
zance of  it.  Something  must,  after  all,  be  yielded  to  the  general 
habits  and  manners  of  the  world;  and  something  also  to  the  situa- 
tion of  persons  placed  in  the  rank  of  life  of  the  Royal  Duke ;  who, 
being  deprived  originally  in  marriage,  of  much  of  that  free  choice 
which  is  the  happy  privilege  of  persons  in  humbler  stations,  ought 
not,  perhaps,  to  be  called  upon  for  an  equally  rigorous  discharge 
of  the  duties  attached  to  that  state.  There  must  be  something, 
moreover,  of  general  harmony  and  uniformity  in  the  conduct  both 
of  individuals  and  of  collective  bodies,  if  they  would  wish  either 
to  gain  credit  for  their  motives,  or  to  give  authority  to  their  ex- 
ample ;  or  not  to  risk  the  exciting  feelings  of  ridicule,  w^here  they 
are  anxious  to  impress  sentiments  of  deference  and  respect.  I  am 
afraid,  that  the  present  state  of  manners  in  this  country  will  not 
admit  well  of  a  solemn  resolution  of  the  House  of  Commons  to 
censure  the  Commander  in  Chief  for  keeping  a  mistress.  If  this 
were  true  in  general,  there  is  nothing  to  render  the  present  in- 
stance an  exception,  so  far,  at  least,  as  relates  to  those  decent  pre- 
cautions and  observances  which,  by  preventing  the  evil  example 
from  becoming  public,  do  away,  it  must  be  confessed,  a  considera- 
ble portion  of  the  mischief.  It  appears,  by  the  evidence,  that  the 
Duke,  in  his  visits  to  his  mistress,  preserved  as  much  secrecy  as 
it  was  easy  for  him  to  do.  He  never  went  in  his  carriage,  or  on 
horseback ;  he  never  was  attended  but  by  one  servant,  and  that 
servant  alw^ays  the  same.  If  a  Commander  in  Chief  is  to  have 
a  mistress,  one  hardly  knows  how  he  should  regulate  his  miscon- 
duct, so  as  to  render  it  less  injurious  to  the  public  morals.  Those, 
indeed,  who  urge  this  topic,  hardly  seem  to  consider  it  as  a 
ground  of  charge  which  the  house  would  have  done  right  to  take 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.         165 

up  originally,  though  tliey  are  willing  now  to  treat  it  as  a  sub- 
stantive charge.  By  the  bulk  of  the  house  it  seems  only  to  be 
considered  as  a  subject  of  animadversion,  in  as  far  as  it  has  prac- 
tically led  to  consequences  injurious  to  the  public  service.  These 
consequences  are  of  two  sorts;  first,  the  injury  done  to  the 
service  by  the  adoption  of  recommendations,  likely,  in  many  in- 
stances, to  lead  to  improper  appointments.  Secondly,  the  scandal 
given  to  the  service  and  the  country,  by  the  suspicion  that  ap- 
pointments were  to  be  so  obtained.  From  the  former  of  these 
the  Duke  of  York  stands,  in  a  great  measure,  acquitted  by  the 
very  evidence  brought  forward  to  condemn  him ;  because  Mrs. 
Clarke  herself  states  throughout,  that  the  recommendations,  which 
she  dehvered  in,  could  only  expect  to  succeed  on  the  supposition 
that  there  was,  in  the  things  themselves,  nothing  improper;  nor  do 
I  know,  that  in  the  case  produced,  there  is  any  in  which  this  con- 
dition does  not  appear  to  have  been  observed,  except  one,  which 
I  will  speak  to  presently.  I  do  not  mean,  however,  to  justify  that 
sort  of  influence,  which  seems  here  to  have  been  permitted,  even 
when  guarded  by  the  condition  supposed  to  have  been  annexed  to  it; 
because  there  is  often  a  wide  difference,  if  I  may  so  say,  between 
what  is  not  improper,  and  what  is  proper.  The  mistress  might 
recommend  a  man  to  whom  there  was  no  formal  or  official  ob- 
jection, but  who  yet  was  very  far  from  being  the  person  whom 
the  Commander  in  Chief  ought  to  have  selected.  There  is  no 
greater  abuse  either  in  the  army  or  in  the  whole  service  of  the 
state,  nor  which  leads  to  more  extensive  consequences,  but  which 
is,  at  the  same  time,  more  inherent  in  the  nature  of  things,  and 
more  impossible  to  be  got  at,  than  the  abuse  of  patronage,  in 
giving  to  favour  what  ought  to  be  given  only  to  merit.  But  I 
wish  I  could  think  that  this  was  confined  to  Commanders  in  Chiefs 
mistresses,  and  that  in  failure  of  theirs,  other  influences  would  not 
succeed,  by  which,  in  the  allotment  of  promotions  and  prefer- 
ments, merit  would  be  quite  as  much  disregarded.  Would  the 
influence  of  members  of  this  house,  for  instance,  be  solely  guided 
by  the  consideration  of  merit  ?  Would  the  recommendations  of 
fashionable  ladies  in  the  society  bf  this  town,  be  always  directed 
to  purer  objects,  or  not  sometimes  to  the  very  same,  as  those 
with  which  Mr.  Donovan  or  Captain  Sandon  supplied  Mrs. 
Clarke? 

Of  persons  chosen,  or  of  things  done  at  her  recommendation, 
absolutely  out  of  rule,  and  which  can  be  described  as  being  im- 
proper in  themselves,  I  know,  as  I  have  said,  but  of  one  or  two. 
French's  levy,  which  occurs  to  me  at  the  moment,  as  additional 
to  the  one  to  which  I  have  before  alluded,  is  a  very  bad  case,  and 
such  as  may  be  well  suspected  to  have  originated  in  influence  like 
that  of  Mrs.  Clarke's.  I  have  been  long  acquainted  with  its  merits, 


166         CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

and  have  contributed  possibly  in  no  small  degree  to  its  downfall, 
by  papers  respecting  it  which  I  (or  an  Honourable  Friend  of  mine) 
have  moved  for  in  this  house.  Nor  can  I  profess  that  I  am  satis- 
fied with  any  of  the  explanations  that  have  been  offered  ;  though, 
here  again,  I  should  say,  that  those  explanations  were  not  so 
insufficient,  nor  the  vices  of  the  measure  so  evident  from  the 
beginning,  as  to  make  the  adoption  of  it  impossible  except  for 
some  unworthy  and  sinister  purpose.  The  other  case  is  of  a 
different  description,  of  a  description,  indeed,  peculiar  to  itself, 
and  upon  which,  therefore,  I  shall  say  a  few  words.  It  is  the 
case  so  much  insisted  upon  of  Samuel  Carter.  There  is  no  case 
in  which  the  Duke  of  York  lies  so  much  at  the  mercy  of  his 
accusers,  but  upon  which  he  might  so  much  have  hoped  for  that 
mercy,  which  however  he  certainly  has  not  found.  It  is  a  case 
for  which  there  is  no  defence,  but  for  which,  in  every  generous 
and  liberal  mind,  I  should  have  thought,  there  would  have  been 
all  possible  excuse.  Is  there  a  bad  motive  to  be  found  in  it  from 
beginning  to  end  ?  Mrs.  Clarke  had  here  none  of  those  interested 
motives,  which  were  apparent  and  were  avowed  in  other  in- 
stances. She  had  no  money  to  make;  no  favourite  to  serve;  no 
one  whom  she  could  wish  to  benefit  but  from  motives  that  did 
her  credit,  and  which  belong  to  that  part  of  character  which  is 
often  found  not  to  be  lost  when  other  virtues  are  no  more.  Had 
the  Duke  of  York  any  bad  motive  ?  A  compliance  with  the  wishes 
of  a  mistress  is  surely  not  criminal,  where  those  wishes  are  such 
as  would  do  no  discredit  to  a  woman  the  most  virtuous.  But  the 
thing  itself,  it  will  be  said,  was  wrong.  It  was  an  indignity  and 
insult  to  the  army,  to  put  among  its  officers  a  person  taken  from 
the  condition  of  a  servant,  and  that,  too,  a  servant  in  the  family 
of  your  mistress :  a  sentiment,  which  would  probably  in  conver- 
sation be  expressed  in  shorter  and  more  forcible  terms.  The 
observation  would  be  more  just,  if  it  could  be  added  with  truth, 
that  such  a  principle  had  ever  for  a  moment  been  avowed :  but 
what  is  done  clandestinely,  and  with  a  purpose  of  being  for  ever 
concealed,  though  it  may  be  an  injury,  can  hardly,  even  in  pro- 
priety of  language,  be  called  an  insult.  As  for  the  injury,  it  must 
here,  as  in  every  other  instance,  be  estimated  by  the  peculiar 
circumstances  of  the  case ;  and  who  shall  say,  that  there  are  not 
daily  admitted  into  the  army,  and  unavoidably  admitted,  persons 
more  discordant  from  its  character  and  manners,  than  (it  might 
happen)  the  person  here  in  question  1  He  is  stated  to  have  been 
well  brought  up,  to  have  been  well  disposed :  he  was  probably, 
though  illegitimate,  the  son  of  an  officer,  and  of  an  officer  who 
had  claims  upon  the  service,  and  who,  though  too  poor  to  educate 
this  young  man  as  his  own  son,  had  not  so  entirely  neglected 
him,  as  not  to  have  qualified  him  in  some  sort  for  what  fortune 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.  1G7 

might  do  for  him.  While  those  who  wish  to  depress  him  to  the 
utmost,  with  a  view  of  giving  to  the  charge  every  thing  that  can 
be  most  invidious,  are  studiously  characterising  him  as  a  foot-boy, 
they  are  not  aware,  that  what  they  mean  is  the  greatest  aggra- 
vation of  the  act,  is  in  fact  a  mitigation  of  it.  To  have  been  a 
fooi-boy  is  much  less  than  to  have  been  a  foot-man.  The  circum- 
stance of  the  duration  of  the  time  is  not  little :  no  one  can  be  a 
foot-boy  for  very  long.  He  will  not  be  equally  known  to  have 
been  so,  nor  (which  is  not  of  less  importance)  will  he  be  equally 
remembered.  He  will  not  be  equally  liable  to  be  recognised,  by 
his  companions,  walking  into  the  parlours  and  drawing-rooms  of 
those  houses,  where  he  has  formerly  waited  in  the  lobby.  But 
what  is  still  more  important,  he  will  not  have  been  equally  con- 
taminated by  the  manners  and  habits  of  that  condition  of  life. 
Every  one  has  done  and  suffered  in  his  youth  without  degradation, 
what  would  be  disgraceful  and  intolerable  at  a  more  advanced 
period.  The  stains  contracted  in  youth  may  be  purged  off  and 
disappear  before  the  boy  becomes  a  man.  The  mark  wears  out 
of  his  mouth ;  and  there  is  no  reason  not  to  believe,  that,  but  for 
this  unfortunate  inquiry,  and  the  very  unnecessary  and  cruel 
manner  in  which  the  fact  has  been  brought  forth,  the  appointment 
of  this  young  man  would  have  been  an  act  perfectly  innocent  as 
to  its  consequences,  neither  injuring  any  interest  nor  shocking  any 
feeHng,  which  persons  most  jealous  of  the  honour  of  the  army 
could  have  entertained.  On  the  point  just  touched,  upon  the 
manner  in  which  this  fact  had  been  brought  out,  it  is  impossible 
not  to  contrast  the  conduct  of  many  Gentlemen  upon  this  occa- 
sion with  their  language  respecting  Miss  Taylor.  I  have  already 
said,  that  1  disapprove  many  of  the  attempts  made  to  discredit 
Miss  Taylor,  and  to  force  into  view  circumstances  of  hpr  history 
and  family,  which  she  has  been  naturally  studious  to  conceal.  But 
why  do  I  disapprove  these  attempts  ?  Because  I  think  that,  while 
painful  and  injurious  to  her,  they  were  unnecessary  to  the  cause. 
But  what  shall  be  said,  in  this  view,  of  the  conduct  pursued 
towards  Mr.  Samuel  Carter  ?  Is  it  less  cruel  and  cutting  to  his 
feelings,  an  officer  bearing  His  Majesty's  commission,  to  have 
these  circumstances  of  his  early  life  brought  to  light,  for  w^hich 
certainly  he  is  not  blameable ;  and  himself  held  out  as  a  disgrace 
to  his  profession,  so  that,  being  thus  branded,  he  may  find  it  im- 
possible to  remain  in  it  ?  Here  is  a  pretty  good  attack  upon  his 
feelings  and  upon  his  interests  into  the  bargain.  And  where  is 
the  necessity  for  it  ?  Mrs.  Clarke  has  expressly  stated,  that  she 
entreated  and  stipulated,  as  far  as  she  could,  that  Samuel  Carter's 
case  should  not  be  brought  forward.  The  Honourable  Mover 
therefore,  if  this  assertion  of  Mrs.  Clarke  is  not  a  mere  pretence 
and  grimace,  has  not  acted  with  much  gratitude  towards  his  wit- 


168  CONDUCT  OF  THE  DIJKE  OF  YORK. 

ness  and  informant,  even  if  he  should  be  able  to  acquit  himself 
upon  the  score  of  good  faith.  But  what  was  the  necessity  of  this 
for  the  interests  of  the  cause  ?  What  is  the  necessity,  compared 
with  that  which  may  justly  be  alleged  in  the  case  of  Miss 
Taylor  ?  Was  not  it  charge  enough  against  the  Duke  of  York, 
if  it  could  not  be  fairly  made  out,  that  he  had  connived  at  the 
sale  of  his  patronage,  for  the  purpose  of  putting  money  into  his 
mistress's  pocket,  but  that  you  must  take  in,  merely  ad  invidiam, 
and  to  excite  against  him  the  clamours  of  the  army,  and  of  those 
who  had  the  honour  of  the  army  at  heart,  that,  without  any  such 
base  motive,  and  through  mere  compassion  and  kindness,  he  had 
bestowed  a  commission  upon  a  person,  whose  condition  of  life, 
if  known,  would  make  the  appointment  highly  offensive?  But 
the  importance  of  Miss  Taylor's  credit  and  evidence  to  the  cause 
is  of  another  kind.  She  is  the  sole  witness  that  came  in  aid  of 
Mrs.  Clarke,  in  that  part  of  her  testimony,  which  went  to  fix  upon 
the  Duke  of  York  a  privity  to  her  corrupt  dealings ;  and  Mrs. 
Clarke,  as  that  statement  implies,  andas  I  have  largely  discussed 
before,  was  the  person  upon  whom  the  whole  of  the  cause  in  that 
respect  rested.  It  is  of  vital  consequence  therefore,  that  Miss 
Taylor's  credit  should  be  sifted  to  the  bottom ;  and  those  gentle- 
men have  had  a  fair  excuse  to  make,  who  in  pursuit  of  that  object 
may  have  pushed  their  inquiries  a  few  degrees  beyond  what  is 
absolutely  necessary.  Yet  we  have  all  heard,  how  pathetic  the 
lamentations  were,  which  were  poured  forth  over  the  sufferings 
of  Miss  Taylor,  and  how  fierce  the  indignation  was  against  those 
who  were  in  any  degree  the  cause  of  them,  while  in  the  same 
breasts,  the  most  stoical  apathy  had  prevailed  towards  the  wounds, 
so  unsparingly  and  wantonly  inflicted  on  Mr.  Carter,  who  seemed 
to  be  of  no  more  account  with  the  Honourable  Gentlemen,  than 
a  mere  stock  or  stone,  forming  a  very  fit  weapon  to  be  hurled  at 
the  head  of  the  Duke  of  York,  but  having  no  capacity  of  feeling 
or  of  being  hurt  himself.  I  should  have  liked  a  little  more  im- 
partiality in  the  feelings  as  well  as  in  the  arguments  of  the 
Honourable  Gentlemen  alluded  to. — It  does  not  appear,  though 
the  fact  may  be  otherwise,  that  this  influence  of  Mrs.  Clarke,  how- 
ever improperly  admitted,  or  by  whatever  causes  put  in  motion, 
has  produced  any  worse  appointments  or  led  to  any  more  excep- 
tionable arrangements,  than  might  have  been  likely  to  happen 
had  she  been  wholly  out  of  the  question.  Except  in  the  two 
cases  referred  to,  viz.  those  of  Carter  and  French's  levy,  there  is 
nothing  that  seemed  even  to  call  for  explanation.  Still  it  would 
have  been  a  great  evil  and  scandal,  if  the  Commander  in  Chief's 
mistress  was  to  be  the  channel  of  application  and  favour,  in  what- 
ever manner  she  might  have  used  her  influence.  That  she  should 
never  be  allowed  to  open  her  lips  upon  such  subjects,  nhat  no 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.         169 

friend  or  connexion  of  her's  should  ever  obtain  through  her  means 
what  he  might  have  obtained  at  the  recommendation  of  any  one 
else,  is  a  degree  of  strictness  which  it  would  be  needless  to  require, 
because  it  is  impossible  to  be  hoped  for.  To  exact  it  would  only 
be  to  say  in  other  words  that  no  person  having  patronage  to  dis- 
pose of  should  ever  keep  a  mistress:  because,  as  long  as  that 
evil  should  exist,  the  existence  of  influence  to  such  an  extent  as 
was  here  supposed,  could  hardly  fail  to  make  part  of  it.  That 
an  opinion  prevailed  of  an  influence  to  a  far  greater  extent  being 
possessed  and  exercised  by  Mrs.  Clarke,  and  that  many  persons, 
not  Hkely  to  part  with  their  money  lightly,  did  advance  conside- 
rable sums  under  that  persuasion,  is  to  me  no  convincing  proof 
that  the  thing  was  true :  because  there  is  no  folly  so  great,  into 
which  the  love  of  gain  and  the  greediness  of  pursuit  do  not  betray 
even  what  are  called  sober  people ;  as  we  see  daily  in  lotteries, 
and  in  the  numerous  bubbles  which  are  continually  occurring : 
and  because  there  is  no  opinion  more  prevalent,  among  certain 
classes  of  people  (judging,  it  may  be  presumed,  from  their  own 
feelings  and  practices,)  than  that  there  is  not  any  thing  of  any 
sort  which  is  not  to  be  had  for  money.  Of  this  we  have  had  the 
most  striking  proofs  in  facts  that  had  come  out  in  the  course  of 
this  very  inquiry,  but  without  making  part  of  the  cause  itself. 
What  can  be  more  striking  in  this  view,  than  the  conduct  of  that 
wretched  creature  Beasley,  who  thought  that  he  had  nothing  to 
do,  but  to  go  with  his  money  in  his  hand,  and  purchase  a  piece  of 
church-preferment  from  the  Duke  of  Portland.  If  any  one  be- 
lieves that  these  things  are  done,  or  any  thing  having  the  most 
distant  resemblance  to  them,  by  persons,  I  won't  say  of  the  rank 
and  character  of  the  Duke  of  Portland,  but  having  any  claim  to 
the  character  of  a  gentleman,  and  filling  any  office  of  credit  in 
the  state,  he  may  believe  that  the  prevalence  of  the  opinion  is  an 
additional  presumption  of  the  reality  of  the  thing ;  but  otherwise, 
it  tells  only  in  the  way  in  which  I  have  cited  it ;  namely,  to  show 
what  the  gross  and  foolish  ideas  are  which  are  entertained  upon 
this  subject,  even  by  persons  from  whom  better  might  be  expected. 
It  is  idle  to  say,  that  experience  would  soon  teach  them  ;  that  they 
would  soon  learn  by  the  event,  whether  the  methods  which  they 
employed  were  successful  or  not.  In  the  first  place,  the  persons 
are  not  necessarily  the  same ;  but  if  they  were,  how  numerous 
have  been  the  instances  at  all  times  and  on  all  subjects,  practical 
as  well  as  philosophical,  where  many  have  gone  on  upon  a  sup- 
posed experience,  and  have  imagined  a  connexion  between  the 
eflfect  produced  and  the  means  employed,  which  yet  has  had  "no 
existence.  Half  the  great  delusions  of  the  world  are  of  no  other 
character :  they  see  the  fact,  and  they  suppose  the  cause.  These 
people  give  money  to  procure  promotion ;  and  promotion  is  often 
15  W 


170  CX)NDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

procured ;  but  in  many  instances  (as  we  have  seen,)  because  the 
applications  are  of  a  sort,  which  would  succeed  equally  in  any 
other  hands.  Still  the  man  who  has  given  the  money  will,  for 
that  very  reason,  and  that  he  may  not  stand  as  a  dupe  in  his  own 
opinion,  be  willing,  and  even  desirous,  to  believe,  that  it  is  his 
money  that  has  done  the  business.  But  the  most  conclusive  proof 
of  the  facility  with  which  men  delude  themselves  upon  these  sub- 
jects is,  the  fact  which  we  have  in  the  very  cause  before  us, 
namely,  that  people  went  on  in  their  applications  and  in  their 
offers  of  money  to  Mrs.  Clarke,  after  her  connexion  with  the  Duke 
of  York  had  ceased,  and  when  her  influence  of  consequence  was 
at  an  end.  The  fact  that  the  Duke  of  York  had  got  another 
mistress,  and  the  inference  from  thence  that  the  former  mistress 
would  hardly  retain  much  influence,  were  neither  of  them,  one 
should  think,  so  cjifl^cult,  the  one  to  be  ascertained  by  inquiry, 
and  the  other  by  reasoning,  as  to  have  escaped  those  sagacious 
men,  who,  it  is  said,  never  lay  out  their  money  but  upon  good 
grounds ;  yet  we  see  that,  somehow  or  another,  men  were  not 
wanting,  whether  sagacious  or  not  I  leave  to  others  to  determine, 
w^ho  continued  to  place  their  hopes  in,  and  to  advance  their  money 
to  Mrs.  Clarke,  when  her  means  of  serving  them  had  become 
entirely  extinct.  We  should  no  longer,  therefore,  lay  any  stress 
on  the  argument,  that  the  influence  must  have  existed,  for  that 
otherwise,  men  w^ould  not  have  gone  on  laying  out  their  money 
in  purchasing  it.  The  probability  is,  that  there  is  not  a  single 
man  in  oflfice  who  has  not  some  one  about  him  who  is  selling 
every  day  the  exercise  of  an  influence  over  him,  of  which  the 
principal  has  not  the  least  perception. — Of  this  sort  might  very 
well  be  the  influence  supposed  to  be  exercised  by  Mrs.  Clarke, 
who,  though  she  actually  had,  I  have  no  doubt,  some  influence, 
yet  might  very  well  by  a  dextrous  management  of  her  applica- 
tions, by  a  judicious  choice  of  her  instances,  by  accommodating 
skilfully  her  language  among  her  expectants,  to  what  she  could 
draw  from  her  Royal  Friend  of  the  state  of  the  fact,  contrive  to 
give  to  herself  an  appearance  of  ten  times  as  much  as  she  had, 
and  to  effect  that,  with  the  possession  of  some  real  influence, 
which  so  many  accomplish  without  any  at  all. 

The  acts  here  supposed,  as  they  apply  directly  to  the  question 
of  the  Duke  of  York's  knowledge  of  what  was  passing,  connect 
themselves  naturally  with  another  topic  nearly  akin  to  it,  which  I 
forgot  to  introduce  in  its  proper  place,  and  which  has  been  much 
agitated  under  the  name  of  connivance.  Many  Gentlemen  have 
thought  that  a  distinction  can  be  taken  between  connivance  and 
criminal  connivance.  I  for  one  am  not  at  all  interested  in  such  a 
distinction,  because  I  am  prepared  to  deny  connivance  altogether. 
I  doubt  indeed,  whether  the  distinction  can  be  successfullv  made. 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.  171 

If  the  etymology  of  the  word  is  to  be  our  guide,  it  is  as  difficult 
to  split  a  wink,  as  to  split  a  hair :  and  if  we  are  to  follow  the  ordi- 
nary acceptation  of  it,  the  distinction  became  impossible,  for  con- 
nivance by  the  very  force  of  the  term  is  commonly  made  to 
include  in  it  the  idea  of  criminality.  In  that  view  to  attempt  to 
separate  connivance  from  criminal  connivance  is  to  attempt  to 
separate  a  thing  from  itself.  But  if  nothing  more  is  meant,  than 
that  men  turn  their  eyes  unwillingly  to  facts,  the  existence  of 
which  would  give  them  pain,  that  they  are  slow  to  admit  unwel- 
come truths,  there  is  nothing  more  easily  understood  or  more 
famiUar  to  every  man's  observation  and  practice ;  not  in  cases 
only  where  no  criminality  exists,  but  where  from  the  nature  of 
the  thing  none  can  possibly  be  suspected.  What  cases  are  more 
familiar  than  those  of  persons  resisting  to  the  last  moment  the 
belief  of  misconduct  in  those  near  and  dear  to  them  1  not  because 
they  are  desirous  of  its  continuance,  but  on  the  contrary,  because 
the  existence  and  continuance  of  it  is  a  subject  of  the  greatest 
dread,  is  the  greatest  affliction  that  can  befall  them.  Will  any  one 
say  of  such  persons  that  this  slowness  of  belief,  this  unwillingness 
to  be  convinced  of  the  misconduct  of  their  wives  or  sons,  is  crim- 
inal connivance,  and  that  they  are  parties  to  these  acts  which  they 
deprecate  1  Are  people  criminal  parties  to  the  dreadful  maladies 
that  threaten  their  own  existence,  because  they  shun  enquiry  into 
them,  because  they  long  disguise  them  to  themselves  and  conceal 
them  from  others,  because  they  dread  to  take  opinions,  for  fear  of 
what  those  opinions  may  discover  to  them  ? — a  species  of  conni- 
vance, it  is  to  be  feared,  to  which  numbers  are  daily  falling  vic- 
tims, to  whom,  whatever  else  may  be  imputed  to  them,  it  would 
never  certainly  be  imputed,  that  they  are  friends  to  the  evils, 
which  they  thus  avoid  to  acknowledge.  A  blindness  of  this  de- 
scription is  very  likely  to  have  existed  in  the  instance  in  question, 
and  may  account  for  much  of  that  with  which  Gentlemen  seem 
to  have  been  so  much  embarrassed,  between  the  unwillingness  of 
imputing  to  the  Royal  Person  any  thing  so  shocking  as  a  wilful 
tolerance  of  such  abuses,  and  the  difficulty  of.  believing  that  no 
suspicion  of  their  existence  ever  entered  his  mind.  A  suspicion 
may  very  possibly  have  entered  it,  and  have  passed  away,  as  such 
suspicions  often  do,  without  leaving  any  trace  behind,  or  have 
been  dismissed,  as  men  do  subjects  that  they  are  afraid  to  contem- 
plate. We  may  surely  allow  to  the  Duke  of  York  as  much 
incredulity  about  Mrs.  Clarke's  infidelities  in  respect  to  bribes  as 
about  her  infidelities  of  another  sort.  If  he  could  be  so  blind  as 
not  to  suspect  her  with  Dowler,  where  suspicion  might  be  ex- 
pected to  be  pretty  much  awake,  we  surely  have  no  right  to  pre- 
sume that  he  must  have  been  so  vigilant  and  clear-sighted  with 
respect  to  her  transactions  with  Donovan  and  Sandon. 


172  CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

An  observation  of  a  contrary  tendency  has  just  occurred  to  me, 
which  though  not  very  important,  nor  occurring  in  its  proper 
place,  I  do  not  care  to  omit. — In  the  endeavours  to  discredit  Mrs. 
Clarke's  testimony  through  the  medium  of  instances  in  which  she 
has  evidently  not  spoken  the  truth,  sufficient  stress  has  not  been 
laid  upon  the  circumstance  of  her  evidence  not  being  upon  oath : 
nor,  except  by  my  Learned  Friend  (Sir  Samuel  Romilly),  has  the 
effect  of  that  circumstance  been  properly  argued.  It  is  not  suffi- 
cient to  say  that  if  the  parts  of  her  evidence  in  which  she  has 
departed  from  truth,  (as  where  she  denied  having  seen  Dowler, 
&c.)  were  given  not  upon  oath,  so  likewise  were  all  the  other ; 
that  the  proportion  of  the  credit  due  to  her  in  the  different  parts 
of  her  testimony  is  in  consequence  the  same,  so  that  she,  who  in 
an  evidence,  not  delivered  on  oath,  speaks  what  is  false  in  one 
part,  is  as  little  to  be  credited  in  another,  as  she,  who  forswears 
in  one  part,  is  to  be  believed  on  her  oath  in  another.  This  pro- 
portion does  not  hold  good.  It  is  obvious  that  it  does  not,  by  the 
common  practice  of  life,  without  entering  into  the  argument  upon 
the  subject.  There  are  a  thousand  licensed  deviations  from  truth 
by  persons  not  speaking  on  oath,  which  do  not  in  the  smallest 
degree  impeach  the  veracity  of  these  persons  when  speaking, 
though  still  not  upon  oath,  or  any  grave  or  important  occasion. 
The  principle  plainly  is,  that  men,  when  speaking  not  upon  oath, 
think  themselves  authorized  to  exercise  a  discretion,  founded  on  a 
consideration  of  the  subject  and  of  the  circumstances,  or  of  the 
degree  in  which  a  strict  conformity  to  truth  is  exacted  from  them. 
A  deviation  in  one  part  therefore  implies  no  failure  of  that  sense 
of  duty,  which  should  ensure  veracity  in  another.  *  On  oath'  on 
the  contrary  is  understood,  and  meant  to  have  the  effect  of  exclu- 
ding all  discretion.  In  evidence  on  oath  all  deviations  from  truth 
are  alike ;  omnia  peccata  erant  paria.  The  common  expression 
*enough  to  sv^ear  by,'  may  be  traced  to  that  root — the  conse- 
quence is,  that*  he  who  swears  false  in  any  part  of  a  testimony 
may  justly  be  suspected  of  swearing  false  in  every  other.  He 
who  offends  against  the  law  in  any  part  is  guilty  of  the  breach  of 
the  whole  law.  Mrs.  Clarke's  credit  therefore  in  my  opinion  is 
not  to  be  impeached,  at  least  not  materially  so,  in  consequence  of 
the  deviations  alluded  to,  as  it  would  have  been  had  she  been 
speaking  on  oath — the  grounds  of  my  distrust  (it  is  not  necessary 
for  me  to  say  disbelief),  of  my  refusal  to  consider  her  evidence 
as  conclusive,  is,  that  she  is  not  entitled  to  be  believed  on  her  own 
mere  assertion,  in  circumstances  where  she  has  the  strongest 
temptations  to  falsehood,  and  where  she  knows,  that,  say  what 
she  will,  she  is  secure  from  all  possibility  of  detection. 

It  does  not  occur  to  me,  though  many  smaller  points  have,  I 
am  aware,  befen  omitted,  that  there  is  any  thing  important  with 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK  I73 

which  it  is  necessary  for  ine  further  to  trouble  the  house,  on  this 
great  division  of  the  cause,  viz.  what  is  the  opinion,  which  the 
house  ought  to  form,  of  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  Duke  of  York 
in  respect  to  participation  or  connivance  ?  When  I  give  a  decided 
negative  to  each  of  these  charges,  it  still  remains  to  be  consider- 
ed, agreeably  to  the  principle  for  which  I  have  strongly  contended 
in  the  beginning,  what  it  is  fit  for  the  house  to  do,  in  respect  to 
the  continuance  of  His  Royal  Highness  in  the  high  and  confiden- 
tial situation  which  he  has  held.  Nothing  is  more  clear  than  that 
the  degree  of  proof  necessary  to  convict  a  person  of  a  crime,  is 
far  different  from  that  which  is  sufficient  for  the  removal  of  him 
from  a  situation  of  trust  and  confidence.  The  removal  of  per- 
sons from  such  situations,  however  painful  to  the  persons  removed, 
and  so  far  partaking  of  the  character  of  punishment,  is  often  a 
matter  merely  optional,  and  which  requires  no  reason  to  be  assign- 
ed ;  and  even  where  reasons  are  necessary,  or  ought  to  be  assign- 
ed, as  in  great  public  concerns,  they  are  of  a  sort  wholly  differ- 
ent from  those,  which  are  required  in  cases  of  criminal  judgment, 
that  is  to  say,  where,  for  alleged  offences,  pain  or  loss  is  inflicted 
on  an  individual,  in  violation  of  rights  which  he  would  otherwise 
have  possessed.  Who  ever  thought  that  a  judicial  process  was 
necessary  to  induce  this  house  to  concur  in  an  address,  entreating 
His  Majesty  that  he  would  remove  his  ministers?  It  maybe  fit 
that  ministers  should  be  removed,  not  only  without  a  crime  pro- 
ved, but  without  a  crime  alleged.  Though  I  should  dislike  the 
case,  it  is  impossible  to  deny,  that  ministers,  with  all  the  merit 
that  men  can  possess,  may  become  unfit  for  their  offices,  may  be 
rendered  incapable  of  serving  the  country,  merely  because  the 
country,  on  grounds  the  most  erroneous,  has  chosen  to  consider 
them  so.  I  deprecate  (nobody  more)  the  sacrificing  any  one  to 
public  opinion,  nor  should  any  thing  induce  me  to  do  so,  in  a  mat- 
ter properly  judicial.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  behold  with  indig- 
nation the  attempts  made  out  of  doors,  and  countenanced,  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  within  doors  likewise,  to  awe  this  house  in  the  deci- 
sion,  which  we  are  to  give,  by  the  threat  of  popular  displeasure ; 
that  is  to  say,  to  set  us,  as  judges,  to  try  a  question,  and  then  tell 
us  what  verdict  we  are  to  give.  If  it  is  possible  for  any  attempt 
to  be  more  insulting  and  audacious,  for  any  submission  to  be  more 
degrading  than  another,  it  is  the  attempt  thus  made,  and  the  sub- 
mission thus  expected,  and  which  many  Gentlemen  seem  to  think 
was  expected  justly.  I  will  not  suppose  that  any  instance  of  such 
a  degrading  and  criminal  acquiescence  can  exist,  but  if  there  does, 
it  is  certainly  not  to  be  looked  for  among  those,  who  acquit  the 
Duke  of  York,  but  must  be  found,  if  at  all,  on  the  contrary  side, 
and  among  those  who  are  most  inclined  to  vapour  about  their 
independence,  and  to  talk  of  votes  being  given  under  an  influence 
15* 


174         CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

foreign  from  that  of  the  merits  of  the  question.  This  I  say  as 
appHcable  particularly  to  the  judicial  part  of  the  question,  by 
which  I  mean  the  judgment  to  be  pronounced  on  the  question  of 
guilty  or  not  guilty  of  connivance  or  participation  ;  but  a  compli- 
ance with  popular  opinion  merely  as  such,  that  is  to  say,  as  afiect- 
ing  the  situation  and  interests  of  the  person  so  complying,  is 
hardly  less  base,  to  whatever  part  of  the  question  it  applies.  When 
I  talk  of  pubHc  opinion  as  deserving  of  any  consideration,  it  is 
upon  the  grounds  which  I  have  stated,  not  as  affecting  the  indi- 
vidual giving  his  judgment,  but  as  applying  to  the  subject  on  which 
the  judgment  is  to  be  given.  A  great  distinction  must  likewise 
be  made,  as  to  the  nature  and  character  of  the  public  opinion 
supposed.  Is  it  the  mere  cry  of  ignorance  or  malevolence ;  of 
wantonness  or  of  faction ;  the  clamour  of  persons  having  their 
own  ends  to  answer,  and  not  believing  what  they  say ;  and  of 
others,  believing  only  because  they  wish  the  facts  to  be  true,  and 
are  delighted  with  any  thing  which  tends  to  lower  the  great  to  a 
level  with  themselves  ?  Or  does  the  opinion  in  question  include  in  it 
much  of  the  sound  sense  and  sober  discretion  of  the  country,  and 
proceed  from  persons  not  ill  qualified  to  judge,  nor  likely  to  have 
their  judgment  warped  by  undue  feelings  and  motives  ?  If  the  pub- 
lic opinion  is  in  any  considerable  degree  of  the  latter  description ; 
as  cannot,  I  fear,  be  denied ;  attention  is  due  to  it,  both  on  account 
of  the  persons  themselves,  and  because,  as  the  very  statement 
implies,  an  opinion  of  that  sort  can  not  well  exist,  without  some 
plausible  grounds,  that  it  is  founded  on  truth.  But,  here  again,  a 
material  question  arises.  Are  the  grounds,  thus  supposed,  the 
mere  combination  of  extraneous  circumstances,  or  are  they  pro- 
duced by  the  conduct  of  the  party  himself,  acting  improperly, 
though  possibly  not  in  a  way  really  to  merit  the  suspicions  which 
he  has  excited  ?  However  hard  it  is  that  any  one  should  fall  a 
sacrifice  to  unjust  suspicions,  the  hardship  is  less,  and  the  danger 
to  society  less,  when  the  suspicion  is  grounded  on  acts  of  the 
party,  and  those  acts  such  as  are  in  their  own  nature  culpable. 
No  one  can  claim  from  society  the  same  protection  against  the 
consequences  of  his  own  misconduct,  as  is  due  to  a  person,  who 
if  not  wholly  guilty,  is  wholly  innocent.  This  is  the  distinction 
which  I  took  and  acted  upon  in  the  case  of  a  Noble  Lord  which 
formerly  fell  under  the  cognizance  of  this  house.  I  declared  at 
the  time  my  persuasion,  that  the  Noble  Lord  had  not  been  guilty 
of  the  gross  part  of  the  charge :  but  I  could  not  deny  that  ground 
was  laid  for  the  suspicion,  by  conduct  of  the  Noble  Lord  which 
it  was  impossible  to  justify,  namely,  by  the  continued  departure 
which  he  had  permitted  from  the  rule  laid  down  in  his  own  Act 
Whatever  therefore  my  own  conviction  might  be,  I  could  not 
deny  the  justness  of  the  suspicion  on  the  part  of  those,  who  might 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUICE  OF  YORK.  175 

have  less  opportunity  of  knowing  the  Noble  Lord  than  I  had :  and 
to  that  suspicion  so  formed,  so  much  deference  was  due,  as  in 
combination  with  the  misconduct,  which  was  admitted,  warranted 
the  judgment  which  the  house  pronounced,  even  in  the  view  of 
those,  who,  like  me,  might  acquit  the  Noble  Lord  of  the  grosser 
part  of  that  which  the  suspicion  imputed  to  him.  The  suspicion 
was  just,  in  respect  to  those  who  entertained  it,  though  it  might 
not  be  just,  in  point  of  fact,  in  respect  to  the  Noble  Lord.  The 
same  reasoning  is  applicable  to  the  present  case.  The  Royal 
Personage  must  abide  the  consequences  of  such  a  connection  as 
he  has  formed,  and  the  opportunities  which  he  has  afforded  to 
such  a  testimony  as  has  been  given  against  him.  It  is  not  fit  that 
a  person  of  his  description  and  situation  should  be  allowed  with 
impunity  to  place  himself  in  a  state  in  which  suspicions  of  the 
most  injurious  nature  can  be  entertained  against  him,  by  persons 
of  good  intentions  and  of  reasonably  sound  and  good  judgment. 
*  CsBsar's  wife  ought  not  to  be  suspected.'  While  I  am  anxious, 
therefore,  that  the  house  should  declare  emphatically  its  disbelief 
of  the  accusations  brought  against  His  Royal  Highness,  I  should 
hear,  I  must  confess,  with  great  delight,  that  no  necessity  existed 
for  any  further  opinion,  but  that  the  Royal  Personage  had  of  him- 
self decided  to  quit  a  situation,  which  he  could  not  hold,  with  sat- 
isfaction to  himself,  longer  than  while  he  could  hold  it  to  the  gene- 
ral satisfaction  of  the  country.  Such  a  decision  could  not  be 
construed  as  admitting  in  the  smallest  degree  the  truth  of  any 
thing  that  has  been  charged  against  him.  Did  it  contain  such  an 
admission,  I  should  find  it  impossible  to  recommend  the  adoption 
of  it.  It  is  a  submission  to  public  opinion,  it  is  not  a  submission 
of  an  unworthy  sort,  nor  to  those  parts  of  public  opinion,  which 
are  undeserving  of  consideration.  Nothing  can  do  more  credit 
to  the  feelings  of  the  country,  nor  at  the  same  time  show  more 
strongly  the  general  purity  of  the  administration  of  its  afl^airs, 
than  the  commotion  excited  by  any  thing  that  has  the  appearance 
even  of  a  departure  from  that  purity.  It  is  a  feeling,  which  one 
cannot  wish  less,  however  the  effects  of  it  may  be  at  times  irreg- 
ular, and  productive  of  injustice  in  particular  instances.  A  hom- 
age paid  to  such  a  feeling  is  no  admission  of  the  truth  of  its  ap- 
plication in  the  particular  case. 

This  is  all  with  which  I  wish  to  trouble  the  house  on  the  ques- 
tion itself  A  very  few  observations  only,  I  am  desirous  to  offer, 
in  answer  to  some  reflections  which  have  been  cast  on  the  part 
taken  in  this  business,  by  those  with  whom  I  have  in  general  the 
pleasure  to  act.  They  are  accused  of  having  been  slow  to  come 
forward,  or  to  give  to  the  Honourable  Mover  that  support  at  the 
time,  which  they  are  now,  it  is  said,  eager  to  proffer  when  he  no 
longer  stands  in  need  of  their  assistance.     This  accusation  does 


176         CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

not  touch  me  personally,  who  was  absent  at  the  time  alluded  to, 
having  been  detained,  by  circumstances,  in  the  country,  till  long 
after  the  charges  had  been  fully  adopted.  I  have  nothing,  there- 
fore, to  restrain  me,  so  far  as  related  to  any  former  conduct  or 
language  of  mine,  from  declaring  in  favour  of  any  course  of  pro- 
ceeding, that  I  may  now  see  fit:  nor  have  I  been  backward, 
certainly,  on  other  occasions  to  support  unprotected  accusers 
against  powerful  culprits,  as  in  the  case  of  the  late  unfriended 
and  hardly-treated  Mr.  Paull,  when  accusing  a  Governor-General 
of  India.  But  with  these  disposhions,  and  exempt  as  I  am  from 
any  necessity  of  declaring  my  opinion  at  all,  I  cannot  be  easy 
not  to  say,  that  had  I  been  present,  my  conduct  would  have  been 
precisely  the  same  as  that  of  my  Honourable  Friends.  What 
else  could  I  have  done  than  keep  aloof  from  a  charge,  with  the 
grounds  and  with  the  author  of  which  I  was  equally  unacquainted, 
and  which  certainly  did  not  exhibit  at  the  outset  any  thing  so 
attractive,  either  as  to  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  conceived,  the 
mannerin  which  it  was  conducted,  the  success  to  which  it  was  likely 
to  lead,  or  the  objects  which  it  might  be  suspected  to  have  ulti- 
mately in  view,  as  that  all  to  whom  it  was  proposed  must  instantly 
fall  in  love  with  it,  and  rush  impetuously  to  its  support.  In  fact, 
the  cause,  as  known  to  the  Honourable  Mover  at  the  time,  was 
not  such  as  many  men  would  have  chosen  to  engage  in,  whether 
their  own  credit  or  the  interests  of  the  public  had  been  the  prin- 
ciple to  guide  them.  For  it  must  never  be  forgotten,  that  the 
cause  is  now  in  a  very  different  state  from  that  in  which  it  was 
originally  contemplated  by  the  Honourable  Mover ;  and  that  the 
principal  part  of  the  evidence,  by  which  it  is  now  supported,  was 
as  little  known  to  him,  and  could  be  as  little  anticipated  by  him, 
as  it  could  be  by  the  house.  But  the  matter  does  not  end  here : 
if  much  was  wanting,  that  was  necessary  to  invite  support ;  there 
was  much  on  the  other  hand  that  must  have  the  effect  of  repelling 
it.  It  does  not  tell  greatly  in  favour  of  a  cause,  that  it  begins  by 
a  breach  of  confidence,  and  that  it  owes  the  possession  of  the 
main  part  of  its  evidence  to  an  act  of  violence,  committed  in  a 
house  to  which  admission  has  been  procured  upon  terms  of  appa- 
rent friendship.  This  is  the  statement  admitted,  or  not  contra- 
dicted, by  the  party.  Mrs.  Clarke  says,  that  the  papers  were 
taken  from  the  table  in  her  presence,  but  both  without  her  consent, 
and  against  her  consent.  If  this  protest  of  hers,  made  at  the 
time,  was  mere  pretence ;  if  her  resistance  was  merely  feigned ; 
if  the  whole  was  a  sort  of  permitted  rape ;  or  a  little  love-strug- 
gle, pfgnusdereptum  laceriis,  aut  digito  male  periinaci,  I  shall  only 
observe,  that  it  is  not  treating  the  house  very  respectfully,  in  a 
matter  pretty  important,  if  upon  such  grounds,  they  are  to  be 
made  to  believe,  that  Mrs.  Clarke  is  an  unwilling  witness,  and  en- 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.  I77 

titled  to  all  the  additional  credit  on  one  side,  which  such  a  cha- 
racter would  give  her.  But  if  the  facts  really  are  as  she  stated, 
and  as  the  Honourable  Mover  does  not  seem  to  deny,  if  the  papers 
were  in  truth  taken  by  him  from  her  table,  he  entering  the  house 
as  he  did,  and  she  protesting  bona  fide  against  the  proceeding, — 
other  Gentlemen  must  think  as  they  like,  but  I  must  declare,  for 
my  own  part,  that  there  was  no  one  article  of  the  charges,  proved 
or  unproved,  which  I  would  not  rather  confess  to,  than  be  guilty  of 
the  act  so  described.  It  is,  at  least,  a  pretty  good  reason  why  I 
have  been  shy,  as  my  Honourable  Friends  are  accused  of  being, 
of  mixing  in  a  cause  of  which  such  an  act  stands  in  the  front. 

The  Right  Honourable  Gentleman  concluded  with  observing, 
that  if  the  motion  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  was  pressed, 
and  that  no  other  alternative  was  offered,  he  must  perforce,  though 
by  no  means  satisfactorily  to  himself,  vote  for  the  Address  pro- 
posed by  the  Honourable  Gentleman  on  the  floor  (Mr.  Bankes). 

On  the  15th  the  debate  was  concluded,  and  on  a  division,  the  numbers 
were, 

For  Mr.  Bankes's  Amendment 199 

Against  it 294 

Majority 95 

A  second  division  took  place  on  Mr.  Perceval's  Amendment  to  Mr.  War- 
die's  Address, 

For  the  Amendment 364 

Against  it     .     , 123 

Majority 241 

X 


(     178     ) 
MR.  CURWEN'S   REFORM  BILL. 

MAY  26th,  1809. 

Mr.  Curwen  moved  the  order  of  the  day  for  resuming  the  adjourned  de- 
bate on  a  Bill  "  for  the  better  securing  the  Independence  and  Purity  of  Par- 
liament, by  preventing  the  procuring  or  obtaining  of  Seats  by  corrupt  Prac- 
tices." The  Speaker  explained  that  the  question  was,  that  he  do  now  leave 
the  Chair.  Sir  Francis  Burdett  opposed  the  Bill,  on  the  ground  of  its  insuf- 
ficiency to  the  purpose  of  such  a  Reform  of  Parliament  as  he  considered  to 
be  called  for  by  the  country,  as  also,  because  he  conceived  the  bill  would  ope- 
rate as  an  indemnity  to  past  delinquencies.  After  some  observations  from  Mr. 
Fuller  and  Mr.  Wilberforce, 

Mr.  Windham  rose,  and  said : 
Sir, 

I  AM  well  satisfied  to  have  heard,  before  I  address  you,  the 
speeches  of  the  two  Honourable  Gentlemen  who  have  last  sat 
down,  as  those  speeches  will  have  helped  to  recall  our  attention 
to  the  question  more  immediately  before  us,  from  which  the  speech 
of  the  Honourable  Baronet  (Sir  F.  Burdett)  had,  in  some  mea- 
sure, led  us  away,  though  not  to  any  topics,  which  I  mean  to 
describe,  or  which  I  wish  the  house  to  consider,  as  unconnected 
with  the  subject.  Those  topics  are  indeed  most  closely  connected 
with  it,  as  they  are  in  themselves  also  of  a  nature  and  character, 
to  which  I  must  not  fail  hereafter  to  advert,  and  with  which  the 
house  will,  I  hope,  be  duly  impressed. 

In  the  meanwhile,  I  must  fairly  profess,  that  upon  the  subject 
of  the  question  immediately  submitted  to  us,  I  have  found  no  rea- 
son, from  any  thing  that  I  have  heard  to-night,  or  upon  other 
occasions,  or  that  my  own  reflections  or  inquiries  have  furnished, 
to  alter  the  opinions  with  which  I  took  the  liberty  of  troubling  the 
house  on  the  night  on  which  it  was  first  brought  forward.  I 
equally  think  it  a  measure  ill-timed,  injudicious,  founded  upon  false 
views,  false  facts,  and  false  assumptions,  calculated  to  produce  no 
good  in  the  first  instance,  and  liable  and  likely  to  lead  to  the  most 
serious  mischiefs  in  future. 

The  whole  measure  rests,  1st,  upon  an  assumption,  which,  in 
he  sense  in  which  it  is  used,  and  the  extent  to  which  it  is  carried, 
I  utterly  deny,  namely,  that  the  transactions  in  question  are  cor- 
rupt ;  arid,  2dly,  upon  a  position,  which  is  true  indeed,  but  of  no 
effect  or  operation  without  the  other,  namely,  that  acts  criminal 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  179 

and  abusive  in  themselves,  cannot  be  protected  by  the  length  of 
time  that  they  have  been  suflered  to  prevail,  or  by  the  number  or 
authority  of  the  persons,  who  have  been  found  to  practise  them. 

Nobody  pretends  to  say,  that  fraud,  falsehood,  theft,  robbery, 
the  whole  list  of  crimes  by  which  society  is  disfigured  and  injured, 
though  co-evil  and  co-extensive  with  society  itself,  are,  for  that 
reason,  less  crimes,  or  call  less  for  reprobation  and  punishment, 
than  they  did  at  their  first  appearance  in  the  world.  There  are 
innumerable  offences  and  depravities,  which  no  authority  can 
support,  or  sanction,  but  which  will  to  the  end  of  time  pull  down 
the  character,  and  reputation  of  all  those,  be  they  w^ho  they  may, 
who  shall  be  found  to  have  been  guilty  of  them.  What  we  are 
to  inquire  is,  whether  the  acts  now  meant  to  be  proceeded  against 
are  of  that  sort  1  whether  they  are,  like  many  others,  acts  which 
those  who  commit  them  know,  at  the  time,  to  be  wrong,  though, 
under  the  impulse  of  strong  temptation,  they  may  not  have  the 
virtue  to  abstain  from  them  ;  which  degrade  the  person  in  his  own 
opinion,  and  would,  if  known,  degrade  him  in  that  of  others; 
which  he  is  compelled  to  condemn  at  the  very  moment  he  yields 
to  them ;  which  are  attended  in  the  immediate  instance  with  in- 
injury  to  others ;  or,  at  least,  tend  to  weaken  the  authority  and 
observance  of  some  rule,  which  the  interests  of  society  require  to 
be  upheld  ?  Let  us  consider  how  the  matter  stands  in  respect  to 
the  nature  and  description  of  the  act.  Let  us  open  the  plead- 
ings by  stating  the  case. 

A  minister  in  the  time  of  Geo.  I.  or  Queen  Anne,  or  King 
William,  has  a  friend  come  to  him,  at  the  moment  of  a  general 
election,  who  says,  "  I  have  a  great  interest  in  the  borough  of 
such  a  place.  I  have  a  large  property,  and  I  have  laid  out  a 
great  deal  of  money  there ;  I  have  obliged,  in  various  ways, 
numbers  of  the  voters  and  their  connexions ;  many  are  dependent 
on  me,  many  look  up  to  me  for  favours  that  they  have  received, 
or  favours  they  expect:  in  short,  I  may  venture  to  say,  that  I 
can  bring  in  both  members.  One  of  the  seats  I  must  reserve  for 
my  son ;  but  for  the  other  I  shall  be  very  happy  to  take  by  the 
hand  any  one  whom  you  will  recommend.  I  have  been  always, 
as  you  know,  warmly  attached  to  you  and  your  friends ;  and 
anxious  to  give  every  support  in  my  power  to  a  set  of  men,  whom 
I  have  always  acted  with  in  and  out  of  office,  and  whom  I  rejoice 
to  see  in  their  present  situations,  because  I  think  them  in  my  con- 
science the  fittest  men  to  whom  the  interests  of  the  country  can 
be  entrusted :  I  want  nothing  for  myself,  and  should  be  very  glad 
to  offer  this  seat  to  your  friend  free  of  all  expense ;  but  the  sums 
which  I  have  been  obliged  to  lay  out  in  cultivating  this  interest; 
the  property  which  I  have  been  obliged  to  purchase,  on 
terms  yielding  but  a  very  inadequate  return  in  point  of  income ; 


180  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL. 

the  heavy  charges  incurred  in  supporting  the  rights  of  the  free- 
men in  the  two  last  contests,  joined  to  the  probable  expense 
of  the  present  election,  will  oblige  me,  towards  replacing  in  part 
what  these  will  have  cost  me,  to  require  a  sum  to  such  and  such 
an  amount,  from  the  friend,  whoever  he  is,  whom  you  shall  re- 
commend."— The  minister  says,  "I  am  exceedingly  obliged  to 
you;  nothing  could  come  more  opportunel}^ :  I  have,  at  this 
moment,  a  young  man,  the  son  of  our  friend  Lord  Such-a-One, 
for  whom  I  am  most  anxious  to  procure  the  means  of  his  getting 
into  Parliament,  not  only  on  account  of  our  friend  his  father,  but 
because  he  is  a  young  man  of  most  extraordinary  promise,  with 
his  whole  mind  turned  to  public  business,  and  likely  to  become  in 
time  one  of  the  greatest  ornaments  and  supports  of  the  country. 
His  father  will,  I  am  sure,  have  no  objection  to  advance  the  sum 
which  you  require,  and  which  is  very  moderate ;  and  you  will,  I 
am  persuaded,  be  happy  in  introducing  into  public  life  a  young 
man  likely  to  do  so  much  credit  to  your  recommendation." 

All  this  I  am  taught  to  understand  is  grossly  corrupt,  much  in 
the  same  way  as  any  act  of  peculation  or  embezzlement. — I  can 
only  say,  in  the'  first  instance,  that  I  am  sorry  for  it ;  because 
some  such  things  have,  I  am  afraid,  been  done  even  in  the  best 
times,  and  by  those  commonly  accounted  the  best  men.  I  am 
sorry  to  be  obliged  to  part  with  so  much  of  the  admiration  which 
I  have  been  accustomed  to  feel  for  supposed  virtue  and  character, 
and  to  confess  that  those  eminent  men,  early  and  recent,  whom 
we  have  hitherto  looked  up  to  as  patterns  of  virtue  and  the  pride 
and  ornament  of  the  country,  were  little  better  than  corrupt 
knaves.  It  is  painful,  I  say,  to  part  with  these  convictions,  and 
to  be  compelled  to  confess  the  world  less  virtuous  than  we  had 
supposed  it.  It  may  be  forgiven  to  us,  therefore,  if  we  make  some 
struggle  in  defence  of  our  former  opinions,  and  if  I  venture  to 
ask,  as  an  humble  inquirer,  and  for  the  sake  of  information,  what 
is  the  precise  nature  and  character  of  this  corruption,  and  in  what 
part  of  the  transaction,  that  is  to  say,  with  which  of  the  parties, 
it  is  supposed  principally  to  reside. 

As  to  the  minister,  who  is  the  party  first  seized  upon,  and 
against  whom  the  charge  is  most  pressed,  his  guilt  can  be  only 
derivative  and  dependent  on  that  of  others.  He  is  only  the  go- 
between,  the  broker,  the  procuress,  if  you  please,  who  brings  the 
parties  together :  but  unless  the  parties  meet  for  some  ill  purpose, 
his  office  is  innocent.  Of  the  two  remaining  parties  then,  which 
is  the  most  criminal,  the  giver  or  the  receiver  ?  the  buyer  or  the 
seller  ?  or  is  their  guilt  equal  1  Let  us  know  a  little  more  distinctly, 
what  are  the  rule  and  principles  which  we  mean  to  lay  down. 

Is  it  meant  to  be  stated  generally,  that  no  place  of  trust  and 
confidence,  no  place  to  which  important  duties  are  annexed,  shall 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  181 

be  disposed  of  for  a  valuable  consideration  ?  that  the  sale  of  a 
place  of  trust  is,  in  all  circumstances  and  in  every  instance,  a 
corrupt  and  criminal  transaction?  If  it  is,  then  does  both  the  law 
and  the  practice  of  various  countries,  and  of  this  country  among 
others,  sanction  and  authorise  most  corrupt  and  criminal  trans- 
actions. I  would  quote,  in  the  first  instance,  the  whole  of  the 
parliaments  under  the  old  monarchy  of  France;  which,  though 
not  parliaments  in  our  sense  of  the  word,  were  of  a  nature  to 
make  the  disposal  of  seats  in  them  for  money,  a  proceeding,  if  it 
were  wrong  at  all,  infinitely  more  wrong  than  the  same  proceed- 
ing would  be  here.  For  the  parliaments  in  France  were  judicial 
tribunals,  courts  of  judicature,  in  which  the  whole  civil  and  crimi- 
nal justice  of  that  renowned  and  enlightened  kingdom,  was 
administered ;  and  where,  in  spite  of  those  vulgar  national  pre- 
judices, under  which  we  have  sometimes  been  thought  to  labour, 
and  which  lead  us  to  believe  that  nothing  can  be  right  or  good, 
but  what  is  conformable  to  our  peculiar  notions  and  institutions, 
justice  was,  for  the  most  part,  I  believe,  most  ably  and  uprightly 
administered,  and  where  certainly  as  great  and  eminent  lawyers 
and  jurists  have  been  produced,  and  men  of  as  pure  and  unspotted 
character,  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  legal  history  of  any  country 
whatever.  Yet  were  all  the  seats  in  these  assemblies,  regularly, 
publicly,  and  avowedly  bought  and  sold.  So  little  do  the  effects 
of  civil  and  political  institutions,  or  the  laws  relating  to  them,  an- 
swer, in  fact  and  practice,  to  what  the  theories  even  of  the  wisest 
and  best  informed  men,  would  previously  pronounce  of  them  ! 
That  these  tribunals,  whether  such  or  not  as  I  have  described 
them,  could  not  be  such  as  our  coarse  and  narrow  prejudices,  or 
our  hasty  and  inconsiderate  theories,  would  lead  us  to  suppose, 
is  demonstrable  from  the  fact.  For  no  country,  much  less  such 
a  one  as  I  am  adverting  to,  would  consent  for  ages  together, 
that  the  whole  source  of  its  justice  should  be  polluted  and 
corrupt. 

But  to  avoid  all  reference  to  instances  liable  to  dispute,  let  us 
only  ask  whether  we  have  not,  among  ourselves,  appointments, 
which,  if  not  absolutely  judicial,  are  very  closely  connected  either 
with  judicial  functions,  or  with  others  not  less  repugnant  to  the 
admission  of  any  thing  corrupt  or  impure ;  of  which  the  sale  is 
not  only  practised,  but  publicly  tolerated  and  authorised.  In  what 
department,  too,  of  the  state,  are  these  offices  found  ?  In  the  law, 
and  in  the  church.*    Is  it  not  notorious,  that  part  of  the  salary 

*  To  these  should  have  been  added  the  army.     It  will  be  curious  to  hear  a 
general  and  unqualified  condemnation  of  the  sale  of  places  of  trust  and  con- 
fidence, in  a  country  which  publicly  authorises  the  sale  of  all  its  military 
commissions,  and  in  which  the  practice  is  defended :  objectionable  as  it  is,  in 
16 


182  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL. 

or  emoluments  of  our  judges,  the  well-earned,  necessary,  inade- 
quate emoluments  of  our  judges,  arises  from  the  sale  of  places, 
having  duties  belonging  to  them  connected  with  the  business  of 
their  courts  ?  Yet  does  any  man,  on  this  account,  impeach  the 
integrity  or  purity  of  our  judges ;  which  are  on  the  contrary  (and 
deservedly)  the  constant  subject  of  our  boast  ?  or  find  ground  for 
insinuating  that  the  functions  of  these  offices  are  not  as  well  per- 
formed, and  the  persons  filling  them,  as  respectable  and  proper 
persons,  as  they  could  be,  if  they  were  appointed  in  any  other 
manner?  The  church  furnishes  examples  likewise,  which,  if  not 
directly  in  point,  equally  contradict  the  position  above  supposed, 
if  laid  down  to  its  full  extent ;  and  in  such  a  manner  as  not  to 
shelter  itself  under  the  distinction,  not  a  very  creditable  one,  be- 
tween an  actual  and  a  virtual  sale.  For  what  does  any  man  do, 
who  purchases  or  who  sells  the  advowson  of  a  living  ?  or  who 
purchases  or  sells  the  next  presentation  ?  does  not  he,  both  in  effect 
and  intentionally,  purchase  or  sell  the  nomination  to  an  office  of 
the  highest  trust  and  confidence  ?  and  if  this  be  morally  wrong, 
can  it  cease  to  be  so,  because  the  act  of  appointment  is  not  to 
take  place  immediately,  but  is,  in  some  degree,  contingent  and 
remote  ?  Can  that  which  is  corrupt  and  criminal,  if  carried  into 
effect  immediately,  become  perfectly  innocent,  because  the  exe- 
cution of  it  is  made  to  depend  upon  an  event,  which,  though  cer- 
tain, may  not  happen  for  several  months  ?  It  is  impossible,  there- 
fore, to  maintain,  that  the  sale  of  seats  in  parliament  is  corrupt, 
simply  upon  the  principle,  that  it  is  corrupt  to  take  a  valuable 
consideration  for  a  nomination  to  a  place  of  trust  and  confidence. 
The  known,  recognised,  authorised,  avowed  practice  of  our  own 

various  respects,  and  unknown  to  the  ordinances  of  any  other  service ;  upon 
the  ground  of  its  being  the  best  method  for  keeping  down  the  military  in- 
fluence of  the  crown. 

Nothing  can  mark  more  strongly,  in  what  a  loose,  careless,  and  summary 
way,  upon  what  imperfect  consideration  and  hasty  views,  opinions  are  often 
formed  and  acted  upon,  even  in  matters  of  the  highest  concern.  The  authors 
of  the  bill,  notwithstanding  the  care  and  thought  they  must  be  presumed  to 
have  bestowed  upon  a  measure  replete  with  so  many  important  consequences, 
appear  totally  to  have  overlooked  this  (rather  prominent)  instance,  of  the  army. 
It  ought,  at  least,  to  have  been  noticed.  It  is  not  sufficient  to  answer  that 
the  two  cases  are  not  precisely,  and  at  all  points,  the  same.  What  two  cases 
are  precisely  the  same  1  The  army  is,  at  least,  a  case  in  point,  in  an  argu- 
ment which  proceeds  throughout  on  an  assumption,  that  the  sale  of  a  place 
of  trust  and  confidence  is  in  genere  a  corrupt  act.  At  any  rate,  the  diflference 
between  the  two  cases  is  not  the  difference  between  all  and  none ;  between 
the  most  fiirious  and  unrestricted  reprobation,  and  the  absence  of  even  a  sus- 
picion, that  there  was  any  thing  amiss. 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  183 

country,  in  departments  the  most  exempt  from  any  suspicion  of 
impurity,  and  where  the  admission  of  any  thing  incorrect  would 
be  most  anxiously  guarded  against,  is  in  direct  contradiction  to 
such  a  position. 

We  have  still,  therefore,  to  look  for  the  ground  on  which  either 
the  buyer  or  the  seller,  in  such  a  transaction  as  that  above  stated, 
is  to  be  represented  as  being  a  man  morally  corrupt.  In  fact,  if 
their  proceeding  is  corrupt,  it  will  be  dillicult,  or  as  I  should  say, 
utterly  impossible,  to  stop^  there,  and  not  to  go  on,  and  declare 
corrupt  the  very  influence  itsell*,  by  which  they  are  enabled  to 
carry  into  eflect  this  corrupt  bargain.  If  the  buying  and  selling 
be  corrupt,  it  can  only  be  so  for  reasons,  which  will  make  it  cor- 
rupt to  have  the  commodity  which  is  capable  of  being  so  bought 
and  sold.  This  is  the  true  seat  of  the  grievance,  as,  it  must  be 
confessed  to  be,  the  true  place  in  which  to  apply  the  remedy.  So 
long  as  there  are  persons  in  a  situation  to  say,  I  can  make  an 
offer  of  a  seat  in  parliament,  so  long  will  there  be  persons  to  treat 
with  them  for  that  object,  and  so  long  will  means  be  found,  for 
commuting  in  some  way  or  other  the  influence  so  possessed,  for 
considerations  valuable  to  the  possessor.  The  only  eflTectual  way 
will  be  to  get  rid  of  the  influence  altogether ; — to  make  it  penal 
for  any  one  to  have  such  goods  in  his  possession.  This,  the 
Honourable  Mover  may  be  assured,  is  the  use  that  will  be  made 
of  his  measure  (nay,  it  is  the  just  and  legitimate  use)  by  those, 
who  do  not  scruple  now  to  oppose  it,  because  they  like  to  argue 
the  question  both  ways,  to  be  ready  for  either  event ;  and  may 
think,  possibly,  that  more  is  to  be  gained  by  procuring  the  rejection 
of  it,  and  by  the  ground  thereby  laid  for  raising  a  clamour  against 
parliament,  than  they  can  hope  for  from  the  argument  and  the 
authority  which  it  will  furnish,  towards  subverting  the  greater 
part  of  the  influence,  which  property  is  now  allowed  to  retain. 

I  know  how  prompt  the  answer  to  this  will  be,  and  how  tri- 
umphantly I  shall  be  told,  that  no  two  things  can  be  more  remote 
from  each  other,  than  the  influence  of  property,  the  just,  whole- 
some, legitimate  influence  of  property,  and  the  sale  of  seats. — 
But  let  us  recollect  that,  in  the  present  business,  we  are  arguing 
throughout  upon  principle,  and  that  it  is  of  the  nature  of  principle, 
to  unite  things  the  most  various  and  opposite  in  their  individual 
forms  and  circumstances.  It  is  not  a  question  how  far  things  may 
be  distinguished :  but  how  far  those,  which  are  naturally  distin- 
guished, may  be  assimilated  and  made  one.  Those  who  can 
make  no  distinctions  between  an  oflJence  against  the  bribery  laws, 
by  giving  money  to  a  particular  voter,  and  the  sale  of  a  seat, 
can  hardly  be  expected  to  distinguish  between  the  sale  of  a  seat, 
and  such  a  use  of  influence  as  w  ill  give  them  the  seat  to  sell. 

I  am  as  well  aware  as  another,  that  there  is  much  influence 


184  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL. 

which,  though  ultimately  to  be  traced  to  property,  is  so  remote 
from  its  primary  source,  has  been  so  changed  in  the  gradations 
which  it  has  passed  through,  has  been  so  improved  by  successive 
graftings,  as  to  retain  little  or  nothing  of  its  original  character, — 
of  the  harshness  and  acerbity  of  the  parent  stock.  The  case  is 
the  same  as  with  that  passion  in  our  nature,  which,  though  too 
gross  to  be  named,  is  often  the  source  of  every  thing  dehcate 
and  sentimental ;  which,  as  the  poet  describes, 

through  some  certain  strainers  well  refined, 

Is  gentle  love,  and  charms  all  woman-kind. 

All,  in  these  instances,  that  property  may  have  done,  is  to  have 
given  to  virtue  the  means  of  acting,  and  the  opportunity  of  dis- 
playing itself;  to  have  furnished  the  instrument  without  which  its 
energies  must  have  been  useless,  and  to  have  erected  the  stage 
without  which  it  would  have  remained  unknown.  I  am  under 
no  apprehensions  for  the  fate  of  influence  of  this  sort.  My  Hon- 
ourable Friend  and  others,  notwithstanding  the  operation  of  this 
bill,  will  be  at  full  liberty,  I  trust,  to  lay  out  their  thousands  in 
acts  of  beneficence  and  bounty,  in  building  bridges,  or  endowing 
hospitals,  in  relieving  the  wants  or  advancing  the  fortunes  of  the 
indigent  and  meritorious.  They  may  still  enjoy,  together  with  all 
the  heartfelt  satisfaction,  all  the  influence  which  will  naturally 
arise  from  property  so  employed ; 

Him  portion'd  maids,  apprenticed  orphans  blest, 
The  young  who  labour,  and  the  old  who  rest. 

But  is  this  the  only  way  in  which  property  exerts  its  powers  ? 
Is  it  always  taken  in  this  finer  form  of  the  extract  or  essence  ?  is 
it  never  exhibited  in  the  substance  ?  It  is  here  that  the  comparison 
will  begin,  and  that  the  question  will  be  asked ;  which  the  advo- 
cates of  this  bill,  w^ho  do  not  mean  it  to  extend  to  the  abolition  of 
the  influence  of  property,  will  do  well  to  be  prepared  to  answer ; 
How,  if  the  sale  of  a  seat  or  any  commutation  of  services  con- 
nected with  such  an  object  be  gross  corruption,  can  we  tolerate 
the  influence  which  property  gives,  in  biassing  the  minds  of  those 
who  are  to  give  their  votes  ?  J&ow  a  landlord,  for  instance,  should 
have  any  more  influence  over  his  own  tenants,  than  over  those  of 
another  man?  How  a  large  manufacturer  should  be  able  to  bring 
to  the  poll  more  of  his  own  workmen,  than  of  those  employed  in 
the  service  of  his  neighbour  ?  How  an  opulent  man  of  any  descrip- 
tion spending  his  fortune  in  a  borough  town,  should  be  able  to 
talk  of  his  influence  among  the  smaller  tradesmen :  or  be  at  lib- 
erty to  hint  to  his  baker  or  his  butcher,  that,  laying  out  every 
week  such  a  sum  with  them,  as  he  does,  he  expects  that  they 
should  oblige  him  by  giving  a  vote  to  his  friend,  Mr.  Such-a-One, 
at  the  next  election  1  If  all  this  is  not  corrupt,  upon  the  principles 


MR.  CLTRWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  185 

on  which  we  are  now  arguing,  I  know  not  what  is.  What  has 
money  spent  with  tradesmen,  or  work  given  to  manufacturers,  or 
farms  let  to  tenants,  to  do  with  tlie  independent  exercise  of  their 
right,  and  tlie  conscientious  discharge  of  tlieir  duty,  in  the  election 
of  a  member  to  serve  them  in  parliament?  A  fine  idea  truly, 
that  their  decision  in  the  choice  of  a  representative  is  to  be  influ- 
enced by  the  consideration  of  what  is  best  for  their  separate  and 
private  interest !  or  that  persons,  the  advocates  of  purity,  and  who 
will  hear  of  nothing  but  strict  principle,  should  attempt  to  distin- 
guish between  the  influence  which  engages  a  man's  vote  by  the  ofl^er 
of  a  sum  of  money,  and  that  which  Ibrbids  the  refusal  of  it,  under 
the  penalty  of  loss  of  custom  or  loss  of  work,  or  of  the  possession 
of  that  on  which  his  wife  and  family  must  depend  for  their  bread  ? 
I  shall  be  curious  to  hear  in  what  manner,  not  the  advocates  of 
this  bill,  but  the  advocates  for  the  principles  on  which  this  bill  is 
enforced,  will  defend  themselves  against  these  questions ;  and  be 
able  to  show,  that  while  it  is  gross  corruption,  gross  moral  depra- 
vity, in  any  one  who  possesses  such  influence,  to  connect  his  own 
interest  with  the  use  of  it,  even  though  he  should  not  use  it  impro- 
perly, it  is  perfectly  innocent  to  create  that  influence  by  the  means 
just  described  ?  Or  on  the  other  hand,  if  such  means  are  not  law- 
ful, how  the  influence  of  property  is  to  continue,  such  as  it  has  at 
all  times  subsisted  in  practice,  and  been  at  all  times  considered  as 
lawfully  subsisting?  It  is  indifl?erent  to  me  which  side  of  the  alter- 
native they  take ;  but  let  them  be  well  aware  that  such  is  the  al- 
ternative to  which  they  will  be  reduced ;  and  that  if  they  contend 
generally,  as  is  now  done,  that  such  and  such  things  are  corrupt, 
because  they  admit  the  consideration  of  interest  in  matters  which 
ought  to  be  exclusively  decided  on  principles  of  duty,  it  is  in  vain 
for  them  hereafter  to  contend  that  any  man  has  a  right  to  influ- 
ence his  tenants,  or  tradesmen,  or  workmen,  by  any  other  means 
at  least  than  those  by  which  he  may  equally  influence  the  tenants, 
tradesmen,  or  workmen  of  any  other  person ;  that  is  to  say,  by 
his  talents  or  by  his  virtues,  by  the  services  which  he  may  have 
done,  and  the  gratitude  he  may  have  inspired. 

When  I  look,  therefore,  to  the  moral  qualities  of  these  acts,  as 
independent  of  and  antecedent  to  positive  law,  I  am  at  a  loss  to 
find  what  it  is,  either  on  the  score  of  principle  or  of  authority, 
that  determines  them  to  be  corrupt,  or  that  enables  us,  if  they  are 
corrupt,  to  exempt  from  the  same  sentence  of  corruption  nine- 
tenths  of  the  influence,  which  has  hitherto  been  supposed  to  be 
attached,  and  legitimately  attached,  to  property,  and  which,  for 
aught  that  at  present  appears,  there  is  no  intention  of  taking 
away. 

But  though  such  may  be  the  result  of  an  inquiry  into  the  moral 
constitution  of  these  acts,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  the  law 
16*  Y 


186  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL. 

may  render  corrupt  any  act  which  it  pleases,  that  is  to  say,  the 
law  may  make  any  act  which  it  pleases  illegal ;  and  to  do,  or 
procure  to  be  done,  an  illegal  act,  from  an  interested  motive,  is,  I 
apprehend,  corruption. 

We  are  to  inquire  therefore,  in  what  manner  and  to  what  de- 
gree, those  acts,  which  generally  speaking  are  not  corrupt,  have 
been  rendered  so  by  positive  law.  And  first,  without  affirming  or 
denying  the  fact,  let  us  examine  the  conclusiveness  and  validity 
of  the  arguments,  by  which  it  has  hitherto  been  attempted  to  be 
proved.  It  has  been  said  by  those  from  whom  I  should  have  ex- 
pected better  reasoning,  that  the  corruption  follows  of  necessity 
from  the  laws  respecting  bribery  in  the  case  of  individual  voters ; 
for  that  it  is  impossible  that  the  law  should  be  guilty  of  such  mon- 
strous inconsistency,  as  well  as  of  such  flagrant  injustice,  as  to 
punish  the  poor  for  bribery  in  retail,  while  they  suffer  it  to  be 
practised  with  impunity  by  the  rich  in  wholesale. 

There  is  something  so  widely  inconclusive  in  this  argument,  as 
to  make  it  difficult  to  set  about  formally  to  confute  it.  I  cannot 
better  illustrate  its  fallacy  than  by  an  argument  something  of  the 
same  sort,  quite  as  good  in  respect  to  conclusiveness,  and  much 
better  in  respect  to  point  and  archness,  which  I  remember  to  have 
heard,  as  a  boy,  at  a  contested  election  for  the  county  of  Nor- 
folk; where  one  of  the  candidates,  a  most  respectable  man,  had 
rendered  himself  obnoxious  by  the  inclosure  of  a  common  (a  pro- 
ceeding less  familiar  at  that  time,  and  better  calculated  therefore 
for  a  subject  of  popular  clamour) ;  upon  which  the  wit  of  the  day 
was  to  ask,  in  way  of  dialogue,  what  that  man  deserved  who 
should  steal  a  goose  from  a  common  ?  and  when  the  answer  was 
given,  to  follow  up  the  question  by  another,  what  then  shall  be 
xlone  to  him  who  steals  the  common  from  the  goose  ?  This  was 
very  good  election  wit,  but  certainly  very  bad  argument,  (though 
just  as  good  as  that  to  which  I  have  been  adverting ;)  for  what  is 
the  affinity  between  the  two  offences,  so  as  to  justify  the  consid- 
ering the  one,  as  differing  from  the  other,  only  by  being  upon  a 
larger  scale  ?  A  man  by  procuring  the  enclosure  of  a  common, 
where  such  enclosure  ought  not  to  take  place,  may  do  a  much 
worse  moral  act,  with  less  temptation  probably,  and  with  far  more 
injury  to  others'  interests,  than  by  the  theft  of  many  geese :  yet 
who  would  ever  dream  of  describing  these  as  kindred  acts,  or 
propose  that  the  encloser  of  commons,  if  convicted  of  having 
enclosed  when  he  ought  not,  should  be  punished  by  imprisonment 
and  whipping?  Other  instances  may  be  cited  more  directly  in 
point.  There  are,  or  have  been,  I  believe,  laws  to  restrain  the  re- 
tail sale  of  spirits.  Should  we  think  that  a  man  argued  verj'- 
wisely  or  conclusively,  with  much  fairness  of  representation,  or 
much  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  legislation,  who  should  ha- 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  187 

rangue  at  the  door  of  an  alehouse  (the  only  place  however  fit  for 
such  a  discourse)  against  the  justice  of  laws,  who  could  punish  a 

f)ublican  for  selling  a  dram  to  a  poor  wretch,  who  wanted  it  per- 
laps  to  solace  him  under  the  effects  of  cold  and  hunger,  to  whom 
it  must  stand  in  the  place  of  food  and  raiment ;  while  the  same 
law  did  not  scruple  to  permit  the  sale  of  these  spirits  by  whole- 
sale on  the  part  of  the  rich  merchant  or  still  more  opulent  planter? 
and  should  take  occasion  thence  to  ask  (exactly  in  the  style  of 
•my  Honourable  Friend)  if  such  was  the  punishment  for  selling  a 
dram  or  gill,  what  did  they  deserve-  who  sold  these  spirits  by 
puncheons  and  ship-loads  ?  The  answer  is,  that  these  acts  do  not 
stand  to  each  other  in  the  relation  of  more  or  less,  but  are  per- 
fectly disparate  or  dissimilar;  are  productive  of  different  conse-" 
quences ;  are  to  be  regulated  by  different  provisions ;  are  so  wide- 
ly separated  in  character,  as  that  the  one  may  be  an  object  of 
national  encouragement,  a  source  of  public  wealth  and  benefit, 
while  the  other  can  produce  nothing  but  mischief,  and  is  a  prac- 
tice requiring  to  be  restrained  by  penal  statute.  Nothing  therefore 
can  be  more  false  than  the  inference  by  which  it  is  concluded 
that  the  sale  of  a  seat,  in  cases  where  it  can  be  effected,  must  be 
deemed  corrupt,  because  there  are  laws  which  prohibit  the  gift  of 
money  to  individual  voters.  Both  may  be  corrupt,  and  both  may 
require  to  be  prohibited  :  but  not  the  one  on  account  of  the  other. 
Supposing  however  the  fact  to  be,  that  by  fair  construction  of 
the  law  of  parliament,  such  bargains  as  are  here  in  question, 
must  be  considered  as  illegal,  and  may  in  consequence  be  denomi- 
nated corrupt :  it  is  so  far  from  following  that  the  present  bill  is 
therefore  necessary,  that  the  presumption  would  rather  lie  the 
other  way,  and  the  conclusion  be  that  a  new  bill  was  not  wanted ; 
inasmuch  as  it  could  only  prohibit  that  which  was  already  pro- 
hibited. In  general,  the  precedent  of  any  law  tells  as  much  for 
what  it  does  not,  as  for  what  it  does.  If  we  have  the  authority 
of  our  ancestors  for  doing  so  much,  we  have  their  authority  also 
for  doing  no  more.  If  they  tell  us,  that  such  things  ought  to  be 
prevented,  they  tell  us  Ukewise,  so  far  as  their  practice  is  our 
guide,  that  the  attempts  at  prevention  ought  not  to  be  pushed  be- 
yond a  certain  extent.  It  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  laws,  right  in 
their  object,  may  be  deficient  in  their  means,  or  that  change  of 
times  and  circumstances  may  require  new  penalties  and  provi- 
sions to  effect  that  to  which  the  old  were  formerly  adequate.  But 
then  this  change  and  this  necessity  should  be  shown  ;  and  after  all 
it  is  no  just  conclusion,  that  because  our  ancestors  wished  to  pre- 
vent certain  things  by  certain  means,  they  would  therefore  be 
willing  to  accomplish  their  object  at  any  price,  or  have  recourse 
to  any  means,  be  they  what  they  would,  which  the  attainment  of 
that  object  might  require  at  a  subsequent  period. 


188  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL. 

Our  business  therefore  is  to  ascertain,  what  it  is  right  for  us  to 
do,  with  respect  to  an  object,  on  which  neither  morals,  nor  law 
as  antecedently  established,  prescribe  to  us  any  certain  mode  of 
action,  nor  even  impose  upon  us  the  necessity  of  acting  at  all. — 
The  acts  in  question  are  not  in  themselves  corrupt  or  immoral. 
The  law  has  either  prescribed  nothing  about  them,  or,  having 
prescribed  what  it  has  thought  fit,  has  left,  to  say  the  least,  the 
necessity  of  any  further  provisions,  to  the  judgment  of  tiie  legis- 
lature of  the  time. — It  may  be,  that  what  it  is  proposed  to  sup- 
press is  a  political  evil,  tending  to  render  parliament  a  less  fit  in- 
strument for  promoting  the  general  welfare.  If  it  is  so,  let  us,  in 
God's  name,  set  about  in  earnest  to  devise  the  means  of  suppress- 
ing it:  taking  care  always  as  in  other  instances,  that  in  eradica- 
ting what  is  bad,  we  do  not  injure  what  is  good,  that  in  removing 
one  evil  we  do  not  introduce  others  of  far  greater  amount.  But 
with  this  view,  let  us  be  sure,  that  attempting  change,  with  all  the 
dangers  to  which  change  is  liable ;  particularly  in  a  machine  so 
delicate,  so  complicated,  the  movements  of  which  can  be  so  little 
defined,  and  are  so  imperfectly  understood,  as  those  of  the  British 
constitution ;  we  are  not  proceeding  upon  assumptions,  which  we 
ourselves  at  the  moment  suspect  to  be  false,  and  which  we  adopt 
rather  in  compliance  with  the  clamour  of  persons  out  of  doors, 
than  in  conformity  to  our  own  sober,  deliberate,  and  unbiassed 
judgment. 

It  is  in  fact  in  deference  to  the  former  of  these  motives,  that 
is  to  say,  to  the  voice  of  what  is  called  The  Public,  that  the  adop- 
tion of  the  measure  now  proposed  is  principally  urged.  And  this 
being  the  case,  it  is  in  a  more  especial  manner  incumbent  upon 
us,  to  consider  what  is  the  nature  of  this  call,  by  what  causes  it 
has  been  excited,  with  what  circumstances  it  is  combined,  and 
from  what  classes  and  descriptions  of  persons  it  chiefly  proceeds. 
It  would  be  the  height  of  weakness  and  folly  in  any  case  to 
adopt  a  great  political  measure  without  considering  something 
more  than  the  mere  measure  itself,  without  looking  to  the  right 
and  to  the  left,  and  inquiring  what  consequences  it  was  likely  or 
liable  to  produce  beyond  those  immediately  in  view\ 

We  have  been  told  that  this  measure  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  great  question  of  Parliamentary  Reform.  If  this  be  so,  we 
have  all  been  under  a  strange  misconception,  for,  with  one  excep- 
tion only,  not  a  gentleman  has  spoken  upon  the  measure,  on  either 
side,  or  in  any  stage  of  its  progress,  who  has  treated  the  subject 
upon  any  other  footing.  It  would  in  fact  be  perfect  childishness 
to  consider  this  measure,  otherwise  than  as  arising  out  of  the  tem- 
per and  fashion  of  the  times,  and  as  part  of  that  wild  rage,  which 
has  suddenly  seized  us ;  nobody  knows  why  or  wherefore ;  for 
pulling  to  pieces  the  government  and  the  constitution.     It  is  one 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  189 

of  the  introductory  steps,  which,  it  is  hoped,  may  lead  us  in  time 
to  conclusions  of  greater  importance :  one  of  the  early  symptoms, 
the  little  eruptive  pustule  which  shows,  that  we  have  received  the 
infection,  that  the  disease  has  got  hold  of  us.  The  disease  itself 
is  however  denied ;  and  we  are  required  to  believe,  that  the  whole 
of  the  present  cry  originates  in  nothing,  but  in  the  abuses  recent- 
ly discovered  in  the  business  of  the  Duke  of  York. 

Let  this  opinion  be  examined.  The  amount  of  what  the  Inqui- 
ry into  the  Conduct  of  the  Duke  of  York  has  discovered,  is,  that 
the  mistress  of  a  man  in  power  had  received  money  for  the  use 
of  the  influence,  which  she  had,  or  pretended  to  have,  in  procu- 
ring places  and  appointments.  This,  if  it  stood  alone,  would  be 
an  odd  ground  for  bringing  a  general  charge  of  corruption  against 
the  government,  or  even  for  arraigning  the  person  himself:  for 
who  is  there  in  oflice  that  is  not  surrounded  by  connexions,  official 
and  others,  by  whom  such  a  pretence  of  influence  might  at  any 
time  be  set  up,  and  by  whom,  in  many  cases,  it  might  be  main- 
tained, with  a  degree  of  plausibility  far  more  than  sufficient  for 
imposing  upon  persons  who  by  their  eagerness  and  their  ignorance 
have  shown  themselves,  as  we  have  seen,  so  well  prepared  to  be 
imposed  upon  ?  As  for  participation  or  connivance,  though  there 
are  persons  who  accuse  the  Duke  of  both  of  these,  their  numbers 
are  few,  (speaking  always  of  those  whose  quahfications  for  judg- 
ing are  such  as  to  make  their  judgment  of  any  value,)  and  even 
of  those  few,  fewer  still  think  that  their  suspicions,  whether  true 
or  false,  admit  of  any  sufficient  proof.  The  whole  of  the  proof, 
with  the  exception  of  a  single  doubtful  passage  from  Miss  Taylor, 
rested  on  the  authority  of  such  a  witness  as  Mrs.  Clarke,  speak- 
ing, too,  to  facts  which  passed  only  between  her  and  the  party 
accused.* 

*  Since  the  above  remarks  were  made,  some  curious  circumstances  have 
occured,  materially  affecting  the  complexion  of  the  cause  as  it  appeared  ori- 
ginally before  the  House  of  Commons. 

Colonel  Wardle  has  found  out  that  his  principal  witness,  the  witness  on 
whose  testimony  the  charge,  as  applicable  to  the  Duke  of  York,  almost  exclu- 
sively rested,  was  a  person  not  fit  to  be  believed  upon  her  oath. 

It  is  thought  perfectly  right  and  fitting,  that  Mrs.  Clarke's  unsworn  and 
unsupported  testimony,  on  a  question  of  private  conversation,  in  which  she 
and  the  party  accused  were  the  only  persons  present,  was  to  be  good  against 
the  Duke  of  York ;  while  her  sworn,  supported,  and,  till  the  last  trial,  uncon- 
tradicted testimony,  in  matters  not  passing  in  secret,  and  in  support  of  facts 
having  nothing  in  them  incredible  or  even  difficult  of  belief,  was  not  to  be 
good  against  Colonel  Wardle. 

This  is  popular  justice ! 

Considering  what  was  the  point  really  at  issue  in  the  late  trial,  it  is  difii- 


190  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL. 

Yet  with  all  this,  such  is  the  surprise  excited  in  this  country  by 
a  suspicion  even,  of  corruption  in  persons  of  high  rank  and  sta- 
tion, and  such  the  commotion  which  any  suspicion  to  that  effect 
never  fails  to  create,  that  the  Duke  of  York,  a  member  of  the 
royal  family,  the  King's  own  son,  in  full  possession  of  his  father's 
favour,  and  of  the  respect  and  good  will  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  nation,  is  fain  to  quit  the  situation  of  Commander  in  Chief, 
which  he  has  held  with  credit  for  fourteen  years  and  more,  and 
to  withdraw  into  retirement,  sooner  than  run  the  risk  of  the  steps, 
which  parliament,  it  was  feared,  would  otherwise  be  induced  to 
take. 

Can  any  man  believe  that  it  was  an  instance  like  this  which  has 
inspired  the  country  with  a  distrust  of  its  Government,  and  ex- 
cited a  desire  of  new-modelling  its  parliament,  as  being  too  sub- 
missive to  the  wishes  of  the  court?  We  must  look  to  other 
motives  and  purposes ;  to  which  the  present  bill  is  meant  to  serve 
as  an  instrument,  and  for  which  the  business  of  the  Duke  of  York 

cult  to  say,  which  of  the  two  decisions,  the  one /or,  as  it  is  called,  or  the  one 
against,  was  that  which  Colonel  Wardle  ought  most  to  have  deprecated.  If 
the  credit  of  his  witness  was  established,  he  stood  convicted  of  having  made 
pecuniary  engagements,  for  the  purpose  too,  as  it  must  appear,  of  suborning 
evidence,  and  of  refusing  afterwards  to  make  them  good.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  his  witness  was  disbelieved ;  in  which  case  she  could  be  considered 
only  as  a  woman  deliberately  perjured ;  what  atonement  or  apology  could  he 
make  to  the  several  parties  and  interests,  which  had  suffered  or  been  endan- 
gered by  his  proceeding,  (to  the  Duke  of  York,  the  immediate  object  of  the 
attack ;  to  the  King,  whose  best  feelings  had  been  tortured ;  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  whose  confidence  had  been  abused,  whose  time  had  been  misspent, 
and  whose  character  had  been  committed,  to  the  general  cause  of  injured 
justice ;)  for  having  brought  forward  a  cause,  which,  in  the  sole  material 
point,  namely,  the  application  of  the  charge  to  the  person  accused,  was  to 
rest  principally,  if  not  exclusively,  on  the  testimony  of  such  a  witness  1  And 
it  must  not  be  supposed,  that  the  dilemma,  to  which  Colonel  Wardle  is  thus 
reduced,  is  one  that  can  be  retorted  upon  those  who  urge  it,  or  be  made  to 
tell  in  favour  of  him  as  well  as  against  him.  Though  the  conclusion  be  in- 
evitable, that  if  Mrs.  Clarke  was  forsworn  on  the  trial,  she  was  not  a  credible 
witness  in  the  Examination  before  the  House  of  Commons,  it  does  not  follow 
e  contra,  that  the  belief  of  her  testimony  in  Court,  where  she  was  examined 
upon  oath,  and  was  speaking  to  matters  that  passed  in  the  presence  of  others, 
implies  the  necessity  of  believing  her,  when  she  was  not  upon  oath,  and  was 
delivering  a  testimony,  which,  whether  true  or  false,  left  her  equally  free 

from  the  possibility  of  detection. (This  note  was  subjoined  to  tlie  text  by 

Mr.  Windham,  when  the  speech  was  separately  printed  in  the  form  of  a 
pamphlet.— Ed.) 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  191 

is  made  to  serve  as  a  pretext,  being  after  all,  it  must  be  confessed, 
a  very  flimsy  and  sorry  one. 

Upon  what  principle  is  it  that  we  are  told,  that  it  is  to  libel  the 
people  of  England,  to  say  that  there  are  among  them  thousands 
and  thousands,  who  wish  the  destruction  of  the  present  order  of 
things,  and  who  are  labouring  night  and  day  to  carry  into  effect 
that  laudable  purpose  (  And  with  what  decency,  it  may  be  added, 
is  this  libel  complained  of  by  those,  who  are  every  day  libelling 
this  house,  and  all  the  higher^orders  of  the  state,  in  the  grossest 
and  most  unmeasured  terms?  Why  is  it  more  a  libel  than  to  say, 
that  there  are  among  the  people  of  England,  robbers,  murderers, 
and  housebreakers,  and  offenders  of  all  descriptions,  and  who, 
numerous  as  they  are,  would  soon  show  themselves  in  tenfold 
greater  numbers,  if  the  fear  of  the  law  did  not  keep  them  dow^n  ? 
Are  there  not  as  powerful  motives,  passions  as  fierce  and  strong, 
and  interests  as  tempting  and  urgent,  to  arm  men  for  the  over- 
throw of  all  Government,  as  there  are  to  incite  them  to  depreda- 
tions on  private  property,  or  any  other  act  of  violence  ?  There  is 
no  Government,  bad  or  good,  that  can  boast  of  owing  its  stability 
(or  quiet,  at  least,)  to  any  other  cause  than  to  the  difficulty  and 
danger  which  is  opposed  to  every  attempt  to  subvert  it.  Let  but 
the  project  be  easy,  let  but  hopes  be  entertained  of  its  success,  and 
thousands  will  be  found,  w^ho,  from  motives  of  different  sorts, — • 
some  from  folly,  and  some  from  wickedness;  some  because  they 
know  not  what  they  are  about,  some  because  they  do  know ;  some 
as  knaves,  and  more  as  dupes;  many  from  motives  of  interest, 
and  more  from  motives  of  passion;  some  because  they  hate  one 
part  of  the  establishment,  and  others  because  they  hate  another ; 
some  as  mere  fanatics,  and  because  they  have  entangled  their  un- 
derstandings (commonly  of  the  most  inferior  cast)  in  speculations 
to  which  they  are  wholly  unequal ;  others  from  mere  restlessness 
and  love  of  something  to  do ;  but  far  the  greater  part,  from  some 
species  of  bad  passion  or  other,  (not  excluding,  of  course,  those 
most  powerful  and  general  ones,  vanity  and  love  of  distinction,) 
are  desirous  of  seeing  some  great  change  in  the  order  of  things 
as  they  find  it  established  :  not  all  of  them,  by  any  means,  desiring 
a  change  of  the  same  sort,  or  to  the  same  extent :  Oh,  no !  but 
all  of  them  a  change  suited  to  their  several  views,  and  propor- 
tioned to  their  several  interests  and  situations. 

My  Honourable  Friend,  the  author  of  the  measure,  and  a  great 
landed  proprietor,  thinks  that  there  would  be  signal  advantage  in 
a  change  which  would  throw  more  weight  into  the  scale  of  the 
landed  interest.  Another  Honourable  Friend  of  mine,  likewise 
a  great  landed  proprietor,  is  of  opinion,  that  those  who  can  only 
purchase  their  seats,  are  intent  upon  nothing  but  getting  back  their 
money.    To  these  are  opposed  many  Gentlemen  of  the  moneyed 


192  MR.  CUR  WEN'S  REFORM  BILL, 

interest,  who  see  no  reason  (nor  do  I,  I  confess,  see  any),  why 
they  who  may  have  paid  a  sum  for  their  seats  once  for  all,  should 
be  more  desirous  of  getting  back  their  money,  than  he  who  has 
spent  that  sum,  or  three  times  as  much,  in  a  contested  popular 
election.  I  am  far,  too,  from  being  convinced,  from  any  observa- 
tions that  I  have  made  of  the  conduct  of  men  in  parliament,  that 
such,  in  point  of  fact,  is  the  case.  To  my  apprehension,  many  of 
those  who  may  be  suspected  to  have  come  into  parliament  through 
these  condemned  and  reprobated  ways,  have  been  among  the 
most  upright,  honourable,  and  independent  members,  that  parlia- 
ment has  had  to  boast,  far  exceeding  others  that  could  be  named, 
who,  from  the  money  they  have  spent,  and  the  interests  they  have 
staked,  in  elections  pretending  to  be  of  higher  account,  have  only 
brought  themselves  to  be  the  mere  slaves  of  popular  opinion,  that 
is  to  say,  of  their  own  future  hopes  in  the  places  which  they 
represent.  Many  of  the  former  description,  from  the  class  to 
which,  for  the  most  part,  they  belong,  will  be  of  opinion,  probably, 
that  the  best  improvement  would  be  that  which  conspires  best 
wdth  the  general  change  in  the  circumstances  of  the  country,  and 
by  taking  something  from  the  old  and  obsolete  privileges  of  the 
landed  aristocracy,  the  barbarous  remains  of  feudal  times,  give 
a  free  scope  to  men  who  owe  their  wealth,  not  to  dull  hereditary 
descent,  but  to  their  own  enterprise  and  industry,  and  have  grown 
rich  by  means  that  have,  at  the  same  time,  enriched,  or  otherwise 
benefited,  the  country. 

But  there  is  a  third  and  more  numerous  class  (and  by  no  means 
an  inactive  or  inefficient  one),  who,  looking  with  no  very  friendly 
eye  to  advantages  which  they  do  not  share,  and  knowing  to  a 
certainty  that  they  have  neither  land  nor  money,  yet  fully  per- 
suaded that  they  have  talents,  will  be  for  levelling  to  the  ground 
all  those  barriers,  which  have  hitherto,  as  they  are  firmly  con- 
vinced, been  the  sole  obstacles  to  their  advancement,  and  have 
alone  hindered  them  from  figuring  in  the  first  situations  of  the 
state. 

The  general  rule  will,  I  believe,  be,  that  each  man's  opinions 
will  be  found  to  lean  to  that  state  of  things,  which  he  conceives 
to  be  the  most  favourable  to  his  own  consequence.  Political  con- 
sequence is  probably  a  far  more  powerful,  as  it  is  a  far  more  ex- 
tensive motive,  than  prospects  of  private  advantage.  The  num- 
bers may  be  few,  who  can  hope  to  better  themselves  by  any 
change  in  a  pecuniary  view:  and  these  will  of  course  be  found, 
for  the  most  part,  among  persons  of  no  great  authority  from  their 
present  wealth  or  station.  But  many  will  have  in  their  minds 
(and  the  highest  in  rank  and  fortune  not  less  than  others),  some 
scheme  of  things,  in  w^hich  they  may  hope  to  become  more  con- 
siderable in  point  of  general   consequence.  ,  And  if  such  men 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  193 

should  be,  as  they  are  the  most  likely  to  be,  men  of  ardent  and 
daring  minds,  jealous  of  their  importance,  eager  for  distinction, 
impatient  of  control,  less  awed  by  the  fear  of  loss,  than  sanguine 
in  their  hopes  of  gain,  materials  will  not  be  wanting  for  furnish- 
ing out  a  revolution  even  from  among  the  higher  orders ;  in  oppo- 
sition to  that  childish  notion,  so  false  even  in  theory,  and  so 
contrary  to  all  experience,  that  men  will  not  engage  in  such 
enterprises  who  have  much  to  lose ;  or,  as  it  is  often  expressed, 
have  a  great  stake  in  the  country. 

Heretofore,  in  fact,  disturbances  in  the  state  were  confined  en- 
tirely to  the  class  that  had  much  to  lose,  namely,  to  persons  in  the 
highest  rank  of  society;  and  though,  since  the  example  of  the 
French  Revolution,  this  limitation  is  done  away,  and  the  lottery 
of  revolution  thrown  open  even  to  adventurers  of  the  lowest  de- 
nomination, yet  the  rich  are  not  excluded,  and  we  see  every  day 
that  they  are  not  at  all  disposed  to  exclude  themselves.  For 
though  the  French  Revolution  exhibits  the  most  striking  example 
of  failure,  that  the  lovers  of  right  could  ever  have  wished  to  the 
authors  of  wrong;  yet  this  failure  relates  only  to  the  professed 
objects,  the  peace  and  happiness  and  liberty  of  mankind.  In  other 
respects,  and  with  relation  to  the  views  and  interests  of  individual 
reformers,  who,  in  truth  and  fact,  trouble  themselves  but  little 
with  the  peace  and  happiness  and  liberty  of  mankind,  the  example 
is  most  encouraging ;  and  particularly  with  respect  to  those,  who 
are  not  likely  to  be  deterred  by  personal  risk ;  for  nothing  can 
show  so  strikingly  the  facility  with  which  the  object  can  be  accom- 
plished, and  with  which  men  from  the  lowest  stations  may  be 
lifted  suddenly  to  the  highest.  This  is  all  that  is  wanted ;  for  give 
but  the  chance  of  success,  even  a  very  indifferent  chance,  and 
thousands  will  not  be  wanting,  high  and  low,  to  engage  in  the 
undertaking,  and  to  labour  with  all  the  restless  activity  and 
increasing  industry  with  which  we  see  the  work  carrying  on  at 
this  instant. 

Still  the  means  must  be  supplied.  They  cannot  make  bricks 
without  straw.  Even  these  reformers  or  revolutionists,  numerous 
as  they  are,  and  strenuous  as  their  exertions  are,  cannot  make  a 
revolution  of  themselves,  nor  by  their  utmost  efforts  throw  the 
country  off  that  happy  basis,  on  which  it  has  rested  for  so  many 
centuries,  an  object  of  admiration  and  envy,  and  never  more  so 
than  at  the  present  moment.  The  great  mass  of  the  community 
is,  no  doubt,  against  them :  but  industry  and  perseverance  may 
do  much.  Those  who  would  never  listen  to  such  a  proposal  in 
its  full  extent,  may  yet  be  drawn  in  by  degrees. 

Formerly,  that  is  to  say,  some  five-and-twenty  years  ago,  the 
attempt  was  made  through  the  medium  of  mere  abstract  reason- 
ing. Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  the  idea  was  entertained,  as  I 
17  Z 


194  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL. 

should  say,  of  overturning  the  government,  but,  as  even  the 
authors  of  the  attempt  must  say,  of  totally  changing  the  constitu- 
tion of  parliament,  not  by  pointing  out  any  practical  grievance 
under  which  men  laboured,  but  by  convincing  them  that  the 
whole  of  the  British  constitution,  such  as  it  had  existed  for  ages, 
was  an  infraction  upon  the  rights  of  man.  The  notion  was  new 
•  of  attempting  to  m^ke  a  great  change  in  the  practical  concerns 
of  mankind  by  the  mere  force  of  metaphysical  reasoning.  But 
wild  and  extravagant  as  such  an  attempt  may  be,  and  little,  hap- 
pily, as  was  its  final  success  at  the  period  alluded  to,  we  must  not 
speak  too  slightingly  of  it,  when  we  recollect  what  share  such 
notions  had  in  bringing  about  the  French  Revolution,  of  which 
they  ostensibly  made  the  basis.  At  the  end  of  twelve  or  fourteen 
centuries,  the  French  monarchy,  at  the  moment  of  its  greatest 
mildness,  and  when  all  that  w^as  harsh  and  odious  in  it  was  daily 
wearing  away,  was  overthrown,  with  all  the  circumstances  which 
we  have  witnessed,  ostensibly  by  the  mere  force  of  metaphysical 
reasoning ;  and  what  is  more  humiliating,  if  not  more  surprising, 
by  metaphysical  reasoning  of  the  most  contemptible  sort ! 

This  mode,  however,  has  now  lost  much  of  its  efficacy,  and 
has  got  to  be  rather  out  of  fashion.  In  seeking  to  embody  the 
natural  and  unavoidable  discontents  of  mankind  for  the  purpose 
of  overturning  governments,  which  is  the  general  description  of 
what  I  should  understand  by  Jacobinism,  it  has  become  necessary 
to  have  recourse  to  something  more  solid  and  substantial  than 
mere  grievances  of  theory,  and  to  take  the  discontents  arising 
from  real  causes,  whether  the  discontents  themselves  be  reasona- 
ble or  not,  and  then  to  connect  these  as  effect  and  cause,  with 
something  wrong,  or  said  to  be  wrong,  either  in  the  frame  or 
practice  of  the  government.  The  discontents  you  are  sure  of; 
they  can  never  be  wanting,  as^long  as  men  are  men,  and  that  so- 
ciety is  composed  of  various  ranks  and  conditions,  whereof  some 
are  higher  and  better  than  others.  Since  the  days  of  qui  fit 
MeccBnas,  down  to  the  present  moment,  few  have  ever  been  found, 
who  were  so  contented  with  their  lot,  whether  chosen  by  them- 
selves, or  cast  upon  them  by  Providence,  ut  Hid  contenii  vivant; 
and  if  they  cannot  be  said,  laudare  diversa  sequentes,  they  at 
least  think  that  their  own  situation  is  not  so  good  as  it  ought  to 
be,  or  as  a  little  change  would  make  it.  In  a  country  like  this, 
where  a  great  portion  of  our  immense  riches  is  paid  in  contri- 
butions to  the  public  service,  no  man  will  ever  think  himself  as 
rich  as  he  ought  to  be :  for  though  the  wealth  of  the  country  has 
increased  in  full  proportion,  I  believe,  to  its  burthens,  that  is  to- 
say,  to  its  expenses ;  and  though  there  never  was  a  time  when 
that  wealth  was  more  evenly  diffused  through  all  ranks  and 
classes  of  people,  yet  as  luxury  has  increased  at  the  same  time. 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  195 

not  to  say  with  equal  rapidity,  every  man  may,  in  some  sense, 
describe  himself  as  poor,  inasmuch  as  the  interval  between  his 
income  and  his  expenditure  will,  as  a  proportionate  part,  be  less 
than  it  was  before.  Let  his  wealth  be  what  it  will,  if  his  expenses 
increase  in  such  a  way  as  to  continue  to  press  equally  upon  the 
bounds  of  his  income,  he  will  never  be  a  bit  richer,  with  respect 
to  any  disposable  surplus,  but  will  be  equally  under  the  necessity 
of  parting  with  some  article  of  pride  or  enjoyment  which  he 
wishes  to  keep,  whenever  he  is  called  upon  for  any  contribution 
to  the  service  of  the  state.  It  is,  therefore,  the  singular  and  me- 
lancholy characteristic  of  the  state  of  poverty  here  described, 
that  it  is  one  which  riches  cannot  cure.  In  common  cases,  if  a 
man  be  poor,  give  him  money  enough,  and  he  is  poor  no  longer. 
But  here  we  may  almost  say,  that  the  richer  the  nation  is,  the 
poorer  it  is.  It  is  in  vain  that  wealth  is  pouring  in  upon  us  from 
every  quarter,  and  through  an  endless  variety  of  channels ;  that 
it  is  not  confined,  as  national  wealth  in  truth  never  can  be,  to 
particular  persons  or  classes,  but  is  diffused  throughout  with  won- 
derful exactness;  or  rather  in  larger  measure,  in  fact,  to  the 
lower  and  middling  orders ;  that  foreigners,  resorting  hither,  can- 
not behold  without  astonishment  a  display  of  wealth  and  enjoy- 
ment, unknown  at  any  former  time,  or  in  any  other  country; 
that  we  are  reproached  every  day  from  the  continent  with  our 
opulence  and  prosperity  as  contrasted  with  the  penury  and  misery 
of  other  countries;  and  are  regarded  with  greedy  eyes  by  the 
master  of  all  the  rest  of  Europe,  as  a  mine  of  wealth,  which  he 
is  longing  only  to  get  possession  of;  all  this  while,  we,  who  know 
these  things  better,  are  full  of  complaints  and  lamentations,  and 
representing  ourselves  as  an  oppressed,  burthened,  and,  above  all, 
impoverished  nation. 

In  the  midst  of  this,  there  is  nevertheless  one  remedy,  which, 
if  men  could  be  persuaded  to  take  it,  would  do  away,  as  by  a 
charm,  all  this  dreadful  state  of  poverty,  and  restore  them  in  an 
instant  to  a  condition  of  ease  and  affluence. — It  seems  Hke  quack- 
ery to  suppose  the  existence  of  such  a  nostruniy  but  it  is  explained 
in  two  words — Let  every  man  resolve  to  live  with  no  greater 
measure  of  enjoyments  than  his  father  did  before  him,  than  peo- 
ple of  the  same  rank  and  class  did  forty  years  ago.  I  do  not  ask 
that  they  should  lay  out  only  the  same  money;  the  same  money 
would  not  now  procure  the  same  enjoyments :  but  that  they  should 
only  require  the  same  enjoyments.  Let  those  who  formerly  walk- 
ed on  foot,  be  content  to  v^^alk  on  foot  now,  and  forego  the  use  of 
a  horse,  when  the  price  too  of  a  horse  and  the  expense  of  keep- 
ing one  are  so  much  greater.  Let  those  whose  means  extended 
no  further  than  to  the  keeping  a  horse,  be  willing  to  go  back  to 
that  indulgence,  and  dispose  of  their  gi^s  and  whiskeys  and  tan- 


196  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL. 

dems,  now,  too,  that  every  article  of  that  sort  has  risen  to  such 
an  enormous  amount.  Let  the  former  riders  in  gigs  and  whiskeys 
and  one-horsed  carriages,  continue  to  ride  in  them,  and  not  as- 
pire to  be  rolling  about  in  post-chaises  or  barouches,  or  often  both 
in  the  one  and  the  other.  By  this  simple  expedient,  pursued  mu- 
tatis, mutandis,  through  every  class  of  the  community,  one  may 
venture  to  say,  (speaking  always  of  persons  whose  misfortunes 
or  imprudence  have  not  reduced  them  already  to  actual  indigence,) 
that  nine-tenths  of  those  who  are  filling  the  country  with  their 
clamours  and  wailings  about  the  distresses  of  the  times,  all  but 
the  holders  of  fixed  incomes  of  an  early  date,  or  persons  in  the 
lowest  class  of  labourers,  will  find  themselves  instantly  in  a  state 
of  ease  and  comfort  fully  able  to  satisfy  all  the  demands  of  the 
state,  and  to  lay  by  something  as  a  future  provision  for  their 
families. 

But  as  the  expedient,  we  are  sure,  whatever  its  merits  may  be, 
will  never  be  adopted,  there  will  forever  remain,  in  the  feeling 
excited  by  the  payment  of  taxes,  an  inexhaustible  fund  of  discon- 
tent, of  force  sufficient  to  produce  any  effect  desired,  provided 
means  can  be  found  to  give  it  a  proper  direction.  This  is  the 
great  work  on  which  the  artificers  of  revolution  are  at  present 
employed.  They  say  to  the  people,  you  are  all  sensible  of  the 
burthens  under  which  you  labour:  you  all  dislike  the  payment  of 
taxes.  Now  what  is  it  that  carries  the  taxes  to  this  immense 
amount? — A  common  man  would  say,  the  immense  amount  of 
the  civil  and  military  establishments  of  a  great  empire  extending 
over  half  the  world ;  the  number  of  civil  officers  necessary  to 
carry  on  its  business  in  time  of  peace,  and  the  armies  and  navies, 
with  all  their  attendant  train  of  expenses,  to  provide  for  its  secu- 
rity in  case  of  war.  But,  no,  say  the  band  of  patriots  here  allu- 
ded to,  the  objects  here  stated  are,  to  be  sure,  such  as  cannot  be 
provided  for  but  at  a  considerable  expense.  Wars  cannot  be 
carried  on,  armies  and  navies  cannot  be  maintained,  without  mo- 
ney. But  these  expenses  alone  might  be  well  borne :  what  sinks 
the  country  is  the  wasteful  expenditure  of  the  public  money  in 
jobs  and  corruption,  in  sinecure  places  and  pensions.  It  is  the 
abuses  that  undo  us ;  the  abuses  that  we  must  correct :  and  as  it 
is  parliament  that  sanctions,  if  it  is  not  itself  the  great  seat  of,  the 
abuses,  it  is  parliament  that  we  must  correct  and  reform. 

The  argument  is  perfectly  regular,  and  the  conclusion  inevita- 
ble, if  you  admit  the  several  antecedent  positions  on  which  it  is 
made  to  rest.  The  statement  contains  in  it  too  all  that  is  neces- 
sary to  give  it  effect.  A  willing  audience  will  never  be  wanting 
to  statements  which  hold  but  a  hope  of  exempting  men  from  the 
necessity  of  paying.  Once  persuade  them  that  all  their  payments 
and  burdens  are  tlie  consequence  of  abuse  or  mismanagement  in 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  197 

some  part  of  the  government,  and  you  produce  a  state  of  feeling 
adequate  to  almost  any  purpose  for  which  it  can  be  wanted.  Tax- 
es and  abuses,  joined,  generate  a  kind  of  expansive  force,  that 
will  burst  asunder  even  the  best  compacted  governments.  The 
abuses,  too,  serve  to  give  a  direction  to  the  discontent  and  angry 
feeling,  produced  in  the  first  instance  by  the  taxes.  They  stand 
in  the  place  of  the  abstract  rights  of  a  few  years  ago,  and  are  the 
last  improvement  made  in  the  machine  for  overturning  states, 
from  which  it  is  conceived  to  derive  a  much  greater  heft  and  pur- 
chase, than  in  its  old  form  of  *  taxes  and  the  rights  of  man.* 

A  number  of  persons  are  accordingly  in  a  constant  state  of 
active  search,  prying  among  the  estabhshments,  and  winding 
about  like  a  wood-pecker  round  a  tree,  in  the  hopes  of  finding 
some  unsound  part  into  which  they  may  strike  their  beaks  and 
begin  to  work:  but  not  like  the  honest  wood-pecker,  who  is  only 
in  search  of  the  grubs  and  worms  on  which  he  may  make  a  meal, 
and  is  at  least  indifferent  as  to  the  fate  of  the  tree.  They  on  the 
contrary  only  take  the  grubs  and  worms  for  their  pretext,  and 
have  for  their  ultimate  object,  to  open  a  hole,  into  which  the  wet 
and  the  rot  may  enter,  and  by  which  the  tree,  the  British  oak,  (a 
beautiful  shaft  of  I  know  not  how  many  load,  and  the  growth  of 
ages,)  may  decay  and  perish.  Did  their  labour  really  terminate 
in  their  professed  purpose,  did  they  really  mean  only  to  pick  off 
the  vermin  that  prey  upon  the  state,  they  might  be  as  useful  as 
rooks  and  jackdaws  to  a  flock  of  sheep;  or  might  share  the  high- 
er honours,  which  are  paid,  in  countries  infested  by  locusts,  to 
the  bird  that  rids  them  of  that  destructive  insect.  But  to  merit 
these  honours,  their  endeavours  must  be  directed  to  far  diflferent 
objects,  be  carried  on  in  a  different  manner,  and  be  dictated  by 
very  different  motives. 

Let  us  consider  what  it  is  that  is  comprehended  under  this  gen- 
eral head  of  abuses,  which  forms  the  great  instrument  whereby 
the  discontents  of  a  country  are  made  subservient  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  its  government ;  which  collects  and  compounds  the  sepa- 
rate elements  of  dissatisfaction,  to  be  found  floating  in  society,  so 
as  to  prepare  them  for  those  grand  explosions  by  which  states  are 
overthrown. 

By  abuses  is  meant,  I  suppose,  either  the  abuse  of  patronage  ; 
the  granting  to  favour  or  interest,  what  ought  to  be  granted  only 
to  merits  and  services ;  or,  secondly,  the  purloining,  embezzling, 
or  corruptly  applying  the  public  money.  Let  us  endeavour  to 
ascertain  how  much  of  either  of  these  species  of  abuse  exists: 
how  much  of  them  is  to  be  charged  to  government :  and  how 
much,  in  any  event,  is  likely  to  be  corrected  by  what  is  called  a 
Reform  of  Parliament. 

As  to  the  last  of  these  heads  of  abuse,  the  purloining  or  em- 
17* 


198  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL. 

bezzling  of  the  public  money;  by  which  must  be  understood  the 
transferring,  by  false  accounts  or  otherwise,  into  the  pocket  of 
the  individual,  what  was  intended  for  the  public  service ;  I  suppose 
it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say,  that  the  idea  of  such  an  offence  as 
existing  among  those  who  constitute  what  can,  with  any  propriety, 
be  called  the  Government,  could  be  generated  only  in  the  gross 
imaginations  of  persons  totally  ignorant  of  the  principles  and  mo- 
tives by  which  men  in  such  situations  must  of  necessity  be 
actuated.  It  is  not  a  question  of  their  virtue  or  probity ;  but  of 
their  feelings,  habits,  manners,  and  prudence.  They  may  be,  as 
they  often  are,  mercenary,  selfish,  rapacious,  unprincipled.  But 
it  is  not  in  acts  like  those  alluded  to,  that  these  dispositions  will 
show  themselves,  even  in  the  persons  who  feel  them  most.  It 
might  as  well  be  supposed,  that  they  could  seek  to  enrich  them- 
selves by  conveying  away  a  diamond  snuff-box,  or  pilfering 
guineas  out  of  a  drawer.  Nothing  can  prove  more  clearly  the 
degree  to  which  this  is  true,  than  the  commotion  excited,  and 
the  effects  produced  by  any  appearance  of  irregularity,  even  of 
a  minor  sort,  among  persons  in  higher  stations,  in  transactions 
connected  with  the  administration  of  money. 

With  respect  to  the  abuse  of  patronage,  one  of  those  by  which 
the  interests  of  countries  will,  in  reality,  most  suffer,  I  perfectly 
agree,  that  it  is  likewise  one,  of  which  the  Government,  properly 
so  called,  that  is  to  say,  persons  in  the  highest  offices,  are  as  likely 
to  be  guilty,  and,  from  their  opportunities,  more  likely  to  be 
guilty,  than  any  others.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  greediness,  the 
selfishness,  the  insatiable  voracity,  the  profligate  disregard  of  all 
claims  from  merit  or  services,  that  we  often  see  in  persons  in  high 
official  stations,  when  providing  for  themselves,  their  relations  or 
dependants.  I  am  as  little  disposed  as  any  one,  to  defend  them 
in  this  conduct.  Let  it  be  reprobated  in  terms  as  harsh  as  any 
one  pleases,  and  much  more  so  than  it  commonly  is.  But  the 
evil  from  persons  of  this  description  is  necessarily  fimited,  not 
possibly  by  their  own  moderation,  but  by  the  extent  to  which 
their  desires  are  capable  of  being  carried.  They  can  eat  no  more 
than  their  stomachs  can  contain.  The  list  is  small  of  those  im- 
mediately connected  with  them,  nor  is  the  number  unHmited  of 
those  whom  they  may  wish  to  serve  from  motives  of  vanity  or 
interest.     When  the  leech  is  full,  it  will  drop  off  of  itself. 

But  what  shall  set  bounds  to  those  streams  of  abuse  that  take 
their  rise  among  the  people  themselves?  Let  us  trace  the  genealogy, 
the  birth,  parentage,  and  education,  of  nine-tenths  of  the  jobs  that 
are  done  in  the  army  and  navy,  or  in  the  other  departments  of  the 
state,  and  see  from  what  they  originate,  and  in  what  manner  they 
are  brought  forward.  A  gentleman,  at  the  eve  of  a  general 
election,  or  on  some  vacancy  in  a  borough  or  county,  is  addressed 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  199 

by  some  one  who  is,  or,  who,  he  hopes,  will  be  his  constituent, 
some  full-grown  manufacturer,  or  opulent  brewer,  or  eminent  at- 
torney, who  says,  "  You  know  my  son  Tom,  who  is  in  the  navy. 
He  has  been  for  some  time  a  lieutenant :  I  should  be  very  glad  if 
you  would  get  him  made  master  and  commander."  The  candi- 
date or  member  bows  assent,  (Mr.  Such-a-One  is  not  a  man  to 
be  disobliged,)  he  speaks  to  his  friend  the  minister;  the  minis- 
ter speaks  to  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  and,  without  further 
inquiry,  the  thing  is  done ;  nobody  being  able  to  divine,  of  those 
who  are  not  in  the  secret,  and  only  know  our  son  Tom  profession- 
ally, for  which  of  his  good  qualities  or  meritorious  actions  he  has 
been  made,  so  much  out  of  his  turn,  and  over  the  heads  of  so 
many  old  and  deserving  officers,  a  master  and  commander.  Here 
then  is  a  complete  job,  passing  through  several  successive  stages, 
and  disgraceful  enough  in  its  progress  to  all  the  parties  concerned 
in  it,  including  the  member,  the  minister,  and  the  First  Lord  of 
the  Admiralty,  but  certainly  not  excluding  the  constituent,  the 
corrupt  constituent,  who  is  no  member  of  the  Government,  high 
or  low,  but  one  of  the  people,  and  the  prime  author  and  mover 
of  the  whole.  When  this  constituent  shall  hereafter  reproach  his 
member,  as  one  of  a  body  that  is  all  corrupt,  composed  of  per- 
sons who  think  of  nothing  but  their  own  interests,  without  any 
regard  to  the  interest  of  the  country,  the  member  may  possibly 
be  able  to  reply,  "  The  most  corrupt  act  I  ever  was  guilty  of, 
was  that  scandalous  job  by  which  I  bought  your  vote  and  interest, 
when,  contrary  to  all  right  and  justice,  I  procured  your  son  to  be 
made  a  master  and  commander." 

We  have  here  the  history  of  a  job,  which,  though  springing  from 
a  root  that  lies  wholly  among  the  people,  is  supposed  not  to  con- 
fine itself  to  the  place  of  its  original  growth,  but  to  extend  its 
shoots  into  the  parliament,  and  into  the  executive  government. 
With  a  view,  however,  of  showing  the  temper  of  some  of  these 
declaimers  against  abuses,  let  us  take  another  case,  (not  more 
difficult,  I  hope,  to  be  met  with,)  where,  after  inquiry  made,  either 
the  member,  or  the  minister,  or  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty, 
has  virtue  enough  to  say,  that  the  pretensions  and  merits  of  the 
person  in  question  are  so  small,  and  the  injustice  of  promoting 
him  would  be  so  great,  that  in  spite  of  all  the  wish  that  one  of 
them  necessarily  has  to  promote  his  own  success,  and  the  others 
may  have  to  promote  the  success  of  an  important  parliamentary 
friend  and  adherent,  and  much  as  it  may  even  be  their  duty  to 
promote  by  all  honest  means  the  success  of  one,  whose  conduct 
m  parliament  is  likely  to  be  what  they  think  right,  they  feel  it  im- 
possible to  comply  with  the  application  that  has  been  made.  Is  it 
quite  certain,  is  it  quite  a  matter  of  course,  that  the  author  of  the 
application,  this  inveigher  against  the  corruptions  of  the  times,  is 


SOO  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL. 

satisfied  with  this  answer,  however  fully  explained  to  him ;  that 
he  does  not  turn  away  with  a  sulky  look  from  his  late  friend,  and 
without  disputing  at  all  the  truth  of  the  reasons  on  which  the  re- 
fusal is  founded,  of  which  he,  perhaps,  is  better  aware  than  any 
other  person,  or  which  he  does  not  consider  as  being  any  thing 
to  the  purpose,  that  he  does  not  signify  in  pkin  terms,  that  his 
rule  is  to  **  serve  those  who  serve  him ;"  and  from  that  moment 
does  not  transfer  himself  and  all  those  whose  votes  he  commands, 
to  the  other  side,  taking  what  is  called  the  independent  line,  and 
exhibiting  himself  among  the  first  bawlers  against  the  corruptions 
of  the  great,  "who  think  of  nothing  but  their  own  interest?" 

Here  at  least  is  an  instance  of  abgse,  (supposed  indeed,  but  not 
on  that  account  to  be  considered  as  a  mere  creature  of  the  imagi- 
nation,) which,  while  it  begins  with  one  of  the  people,  ends  there 
likewise,  and  does  not  touch  the  Government  or  the  parliament  at 
all.  And  such,  we  may  venture  to  affirm,  is  the  case  of  nine- 
tenths,  or  rather  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  the  abuses  complained 
of.  The  whole  country,  it  is  said,  is  full  of  abuses  from  top  to 
bottom.  I  am  very  much  of  that  opinion ;  with  this  correction, 
that  the  description  would  be  more  just  if  we  were  to  say  from 
bottom  to  top ;  it  being  here,  with  this  floating  mass  of  abuses,  as 
with  other  media,  the  parts  of  which  are  left  to  move  freely,  that 
the  strata  are  denser,  and  grosser,  the  lower  you  descend,  and 
that  the  highest  region  is  the  purest. 

We  have  already  seen  to  what  source  may  be  traced  the  great- 
er part  of  the  abuse  of  patronage,  an  abuse  which  with  the  others 
is  to  be  cured,  I  suppose,  by  the  favourite  remedy,  an  extension 
of  the  representation,  that  is  to  say,  by  multiplying  a  hundredfold 
the  chief  causes  to  which  the  abuse  is  to  be  at  present  ascribed. 
But  if  of  this  the  far  greater  part  is  found  to  lie  in  the  people 
themselves,  who  cannot  otherwise  be  brought  to  support  the  very 
government  which  they  thus  reproach  for  yielding  to  their  venal- 
ity, what  shall  we  say  of  those  abuses,  more  properly  so  called, 
and  upon  which  the  people  are  much  more  intent,  though  they  are 
really  perhaps  less  important,  viz.  the  various  instances  of  fraud, 
embezzlement,  peculation,  and  imposition,  by  which  the  expendi- 
ture of  the  country  is  swelled  far  beyond  its  natural  size,  and  a 
million  or  two  possibly  taken  from  the  pockets  of  the  people,  over 
and  above  what  the  real  exigencies  of  the  country  require  ?  This 
is  the  part  that  we  chiefly  hear  of;  and  very  proper  it  is  that  we 
should  hear  of  it ;  but  let  us  take  care  that  we  impute  the  blame 
to  the  right  quarter,  that  we  put  the  saddle  upon  the  right  horse. 

With  what  approach  to  truth  or  propriety  do  we  speak  of  these 
abuses,  as  abuses  in  the  Government  ?  Who  are  the  persons  whom 
we  mean  to  designate  under  the  name  of  Government  ?  What  are 
the  abuses  complained  of?  and  by  what  description  of  persons 


MR.  CUR  WEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  201 

are  they  committed  ?  Is  it  an  abuse  in  tlie  government,  that  is,  in 
the  members  of  the  cabinet,  and  the  persons  holding  high  offices, 
inckiding  if  you  please  the  parliament,  that  a  store-keeper,  or 
commissary,  in  the  West  Indies,  or  in  Ceylon,  embezzles  the  pub- 
lic stores,  or  sends  in  false  accounts,  by  which  the  public  is  de- 
frauded ?  Is  it  corruption  in  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  or 
in  the  ministry  or  parliament  collectively,  that  gross  frauds  are 
daily  and  hourly  practised  on  the  revenue;  that  the  taxes  are  elu- 
ded ;  that  false  returns  are  made ;  that  excise  and  custom-house 
officers  are  perpetually  bribed  to  betray  their  trust;  that  the  tribes 
of  officers,  high  and  low^,  at  home  and  abroad,  of  more  denomi- 
nations than  can  be  enumerated,  which  an  empire  like  this  is 
obliged  to  employ  in  its  servi(;e,  are  often  more  intent  upon  ad- 
vancing their  own  fortunes,  than  upon  discharging  their  duty 
or  guarding  the  interests  of  the  public ;  and  that  all  those,  not 
being  persons  in  office,  with  whom  the  Government  must  occa- 
sionally have  deahngs,  have  no  consideration,  but  how  to  make 
the  most  they  can,  and  to  cheat  the  public  by  every  means  in 
their  power  ?  I  should  be  glad  to  know,  how  many  of  these  ar- 
raigners  of  the  profusion  of  the  Government,  if  they  had  a  piece 
of  land  to  sell  in  the  neighbourhood  of  a  barrack  or  military 
hospital,  would  limit  the  price  they  asked  by  any  other  considera- 
tion, than  what  they  thought  the  necessity  of  the  case  would  com- 
pel Government  to  give,  or  would  scruple,  if  they  saw  any  pros- 
pect of  success,  to  bribe  the  barrack-master,  or  other  officer,  to 
betray  his  trust,  and  contribute  to  give  effect  to  their  exactions. 
It  is,  in  the  first  place,  perfect  folly  to  talk  as  if  the  parliament 
and  the  Government,  (the  parliament  being  a  body  that  neither  in 
fact  nor  theory  can  know  any  thing  of  the  matter,  and  the  Gov- 
ernment consisting  of  some  ten  or  twenty  persons,  the  members 
of  the  cabinet,  and  a  few  of  the  heads  of  great  departments,)  can 
be  responsible  for  the  individual  conduct  of  the  thousands  and 
thousands  of  subordinate  officers  and  agents,  who  must  be  em- 
ployed in  the  public  service,  and  who  are  distributed,  far  and  near, 
through  all  parts  of  a  widely  extended  empire :  to  say  nothing  of 
the  fact,  that  the  greater  part  of  these  are  obtruded  or  palmed 
upon  the  government,  by  persons  not  being  themselves  in  any 
office,  but  in  the  strictest  sense  a  part  of  the  people,  and  who  are 
thinking  of  nothing,  but  to  serve,  by  whatever  means,  their  own 
friends  and  relations.  In  the  next  place,  these  frauds,  committed 
by  persons  within  the  pale  of  the  Government,  are  for  the  most 
part  of  a  sort,  that  imply  a  confederate  without.  Like  other  acts 
which  in  the  system  of  animal  life  cannot  well  be  dispensed  with, 
they  require  of  necessity  two  parties.  If  the  exciseman  connives 
at  the  frauds  of  the  brewer  or  the  distiller,  it  is  the  distiller  and 
brewer  by  whom  he  is  bribed  to  do  so.    If  the  custom-house  offi* 

2A 


202  3VIR-  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL. 

cer  permits  false  entries,  and  allows  goods  to  be  imported  or  ex- 
ported without  the  proper  duties,  and  thereby  affords  an  example 
of  an  abuse  committed  (if  any  one  choose  so  to  describe  it,)  by 
one  of  the  Government,  meaning  a  custom-house  officer,  what 
are  we  to  say  of  the  merchant  or  trader,  by  whose  bribe  he  has 
been  induced  to  do  this?  who,  it  cannot  be  disputed,  is  one  of  the 
people,  and  one  of  the  people  merely ;  and  very  possibly,  with  the 
distiller,  brewer,  or  other  trader,  one  of  those  who  think  that  the 
country  can  never  thrive,  till  a  radical  reform  shall  have  put  an 
end  to  abuses.  The  fact  is,  that  when  the  matter  comes  to  be 
searched  to  the  bottom,  it  is  the  people  throughout,  who  are 
cheating  the  people ;  the  people  individually  cheating  the  people 
collectively,  and  then  finding  in  their  own  frauds  and  knaveries  a 
reason  for  tearing  to  pieces  the  Government.  How  is  Government 
a  party  to  these  frauds  ?  Even  in  respect  to  patronage ;  the  part 
in  which  the  government,  properly  so  called,  will  be  found  most 
to  offend :  it  is  not  ascribing  much  to  persons,  at  the  head  of  de- 
partments, to  suppose,  that  when  their  own  immediate  connections 
and  dependants  are  satisfied,  they  would  be  willing  to  promote 
good  men  rather  than  bad,  if  they  were  not  controlled  by  the 
insatiable  demands  of  those,  whom  they  cannot  disoblige  without 
renouncing  tiie  means  of  carrying  on  the  public  service,  and  who 
never  think  for  a  moment  of  merit  or  demerit,  or  of  any  thing 
else,  but  of  providing  for  those,  whom,  for  spme  reason  or  other, 
they  wish  to  serve.  So,  in  respect  to  pecuniary  abuse  or  waste, 
it  is  no  great  compliment  to  a  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  to 
suppose  that  he  is  desirous  of  making  the  taxes  as  productive  as 
possible.  We  need  not  look  to  his  virtue  or  sense  of  duty  as  a 
security  for  this  endeavour.  His  own  interest  will  be  a  sufficient 
pledge,  and  particularly  that  interest  which  it  is  most  the  fashion 
to  throw^  in  the  teeth  of  public  men,  namely,  the  desire  of  keeping 
his  place.  The  crime  of  Government,  therefore,  in  almost  all 
these  instances,  is  that  of  not  being  able,  with  all  its  efforts,  ani- 
mated even  with  the  strongest  sense  of  self-interest,  to  prevent  the 
crimes  of  others.  The  people  in  all  quarters  and  by  all  opportu- 
nities are  preying  upon  the  public,  and  then  make  it  the  reproach 
of  the  Government  that  it  has  not  the  power  to  prevent  them. 
Such  a  reproach  might,  it  is  confessed,  be  w^ell  founded,  if  a  fail- 
ure in  the  performance  of  this  task  on  the  part  of  Government, 
proceeded  from  neglect,  remissness,  or  want  of  proper  zeal.  But 
besides  that  interest,  as  was  before  observed,  concurs  here  with 
duty,  let  us  see  how  the  matter  stands,  on  a  consideration  of  what 
would  be  in  the  power  of  government,  supposing  exertion  to  be 
pushed  to  the  utmost 

What  is  the  sense  of  supposing  that  Government  must  be  able 
to  do  with  respect  to  the  public,  what  no  man  is  able  to  do  in  his 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  203 

own  affairs  and  family?  Who  is  there  that  can  boast  to  have 
established  a  system  of  superintendence  so  complete,  or  to  be 
blessed  with  a  set  of  servants  of  such  rare  honesty  and  so 
attached  to  his  interest,  as  not  to  leave  him  a  prey  to  innumerable 
abuses,  greater  or  less,  in  his  stables,  his  still-room,  his  kitchen, 
his  butler's  pantry,  in  every  department,  in  short,  of  his  house- 
hold? If  this  is  the  ca^e  of  men  acting  in  the  management  of 
their  own  private  affairs,  and  quickened  by  every  motive  of  self- 
interest,  as  may  be  predicated  with  truth  probably  of  every 
domestic  establishment  in  the  kingdom,  down  even  to  the  most 
limited,  what  shall  we  say  of  the  reasonableness  of  the  expecta- 
tion, that  any  zeal  or  strictness  in  thirty  or  forty  persons,  (or  in 
ten  times  that  number,)  who  can  be  described  with  any  pro- 
priety as  forming  the  executive  Government,  shall  be  able  to 
exclude  abuses  from  the  innumerable  subordinate  departments, 
over  which  they  are  to  preside,  and  which  extend  over  half  the 
globe  ?  The  amount  of  abuse,  be.  it  observed,  incident  to  estab- 
lishments, does  not  increase  merely  with  the  size  of  the  estabhsh- 
ment,  so  as  for  the  abuse  in  larger  establishments  to  bear  the 
same  proportion  only  to  the  establishment  itself,  as  it  does  in 
smaller  ones ;  it  rises  at  a  much  greater  rate :  first,  because  the 
superintending  power,  the  number  of  persons  having  a  direct  inte- 
rest in  the  well-being  of  the  whole,  cannot  be  multiplied  in  the 
proportion  of  the  establishment :  secondly,  because  the  parts  are 
further  removed  from  observation:  thirdly,  on  account  of  the 
complication  and  mixture  of  interests,  which  increase  the  com- 
binations far  beyond  the  increase  of  the  number  of  objects ;  and, 
lastly,  from  the  greater  laxity  apt  to  prevail  in  respect  to  frauds 
upon  large  funds,  compared  with  something  of  stricter  feeHng 
which  may  be  hoped  for  towards  funds  more  limited.  We  see 
every  day  what  a  total  carelessness  there  is  in  the  expenditure  of 
money,  which,  being  money  of  the  public,  seems  to  belong  to  no- 
body. This  indifference  about  expending,  will  be  attended  with 
a  correspondent  want  of  scruple  in  appropriating.  As  the  scale 
of  expenditure  becomes  larger,  the  injury  sustained  by  the  state 
from  the  loss  or  misapplication  of  any  particular  sum  becomes 
less  perceptible ;  and  men  yield  with  more  facility  to  the  argu- 
ment, that  what  is  great  to  them  is  little  to  the  country,  and  will 
never  be  missed.  This  is  the  morality,  I  fear,  of  a  large  portion 
of  the  nation,  and  I  am  sure,  is  not  least  found,  as  far  as  any  ob- 
servation of  mine  ever  went,  in  those  who  would  pass  themselves 
off  as  the  only  persons,  zealous  for  the  rights,  or  authorized  to 
speak  the  sentiments,  of  the  people.  Yet  with  a  system  of  public 
probity  thus  relaxed,  in  the  midst  of  a  nation  thus  disposed  to 
prey  upon  itself,  and  upon  a  scale  of  expenditure  like  that  which 
must  of  necessity  prevail  in  an  empire  extended  as  ours  now  is, 


204  MR.  CURWEN^S  REFORM  BILL. 

it  is  thought  a  reason  for  breaking  up  the  Government,  that  it 
cannot  exclude  abuses  from  our  establishments,  to  a  decree  which 
few  persons  find  attainable,  in  the  management  even  of  their  own 
domestic  concerns.  It  is  our  business,  no  doubt,  to  keep  those 
abuses  as  low  as  possible;  and  the  more  corrupt  the  public  is, 
the  more  are  such  exertions  necessary :  but  let  us  not  complain 
that  we  do  not  attain  what  is  not  attainable,  and,  above  all,  let  us 
understand  the  fact  truly,  that  the  corruptions  charged  are,  ex- 
cept in  a  few  inconsiderable  instances,  not  the  corruptions  of  the 
Government,  but  the  corruptions  of  the  people  which  the  Govern- 
ment is  unable  to  prevent. 

Having  thus  far  examined  the  nature  of  the  charges,  let  us 
inquire  a  Httle  whether  there  is  any  thing  which  we  are  bound  to 
yield  to  the  authority  of  those,  by  whom  they  are  brought  for- 
ward. I  do  not  know  why  the  members  of  this  house,  or  of  any 
other  body,  are  to  stand  quietly  by,  and  hear  themselves  stigma- 
tized collectively  with  all  sorts  of  opprobrious  epithets,  w^hich  they 
do  not  feel  individually  to  deserve,  without  so  far  retaliating  upon 
their  revilers,  as  to  ask  with  submission,  who  they  are,  who,  by 
thus  dealing  out  their  invectives  to  the  right  and  left,  seem  to 
arrogate  to  themselves  the  character  of  being  the  only  honest 
men  in  the  kingdom.  We  want  to  know  a  Httle  upon  what  they 
found  their  pretensions.  After  defending  ourselves  as  well  as  w^e 
can,  we  may  be  allowed  to  exert  a  portion  of  the  freedom  which 
they  so  largely  take  with  us,  and  request  to  be  informed,  what 
are  the  pledges  which  they  have  given,  what  the  sacrifices  which 
they  have  made,  as  vouchers  for  this  integrity  and  public  spirit, 
which  they  seem  to  consider  as  to  be  found  nowhere  but  with 
themselves?  A  reputation  for  patriotism  seems  to  require  for  the 
attainment  of  it  less  than  is  necessary  for  the  acquisition  of  any 
other  object,  however  trivial.  Nothing  seems  to  be  requisite,  but 
the  assurance  which  gets  up  and  says,  I  am  the  only  honest  man, 
all  others  are  rogues.  Indeed,  the  former  part  of  the  declaration, 
the  testimonial  given  by  the  party  to  his  own  integrity,  seems 
hardly  to  be  called  for :  if  the  abuse  of  others  be  sufSciently  loud 
and  general,  the  honesty  of  the  person  himself  is  assumed  as  mat- 
ter of  course.  No  trial  or  examination  is  necessary,  no  previous 
stock  of  reputation,  no  evidence  from  former  conduct;  the  trade 
of  a  patriot,  like  that  of  an  attorney  or  apothecary,  is  of  the 
class  of  those  who  may  be  set  up  without  capital.  I  should  be 
glad  to  know,  for  instance,  what  are  the  sacrifices  which  have 
ever  been  made  by  the  Honourable  Baronet  (Sir  Francis  Burdett) 
as  the  foundation  of  that  high  tone  which  he  assumes  with  respect 
to  all  unfortunate  public  mqn  who  have  ever  been  in  office.  I 
am  far  from  meaning  to  insinuate  (I  have  bo  fact  to  warrant  the 
insinuation),  that  the  Honourable  Baronet  would  not  be  ready,  at 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL»  205 

any  time,  to  make  all  the  sacrifices  to  his  principles  that  could  be 
called  for :  he  might  or  he  might  not :  but  I  mean  to  say,  that 
none  such  having  been  called  for,  none  have  in  point  of  fact  been 
made.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  so  happened  that  the  Honourable 
Baronet  has  got  by  his  patriotism,  by  the  natural  spontaneous, 
(unlooked  for,  if  you  please,)  efiects  of  his  patriotism,  all  that 
many  men  have  been  willing  to  obtain,  or  have  pursued  without 
obtaining,'  at  the  expense  of  half  their  fortunes.  By  this  no  credit 
may  have  been  lost  to  the  Honourable  Baronet,  but  none  can  be 
gained.  Virtue  can  only  be  proved  by  trials  and  sacrifices.  A 
man  cannot  show  his  disinterestedness  by  what  he  gets,  however 
honestly  he  may  come  by  it.  No  one,  surely,  will  pay  so  ill  a 
compliment  to  the  Honourable  Baronet,  or  to  the  country,  as  to 
give  for  a  proof  of  rare  and  distinguished  virtue,  that  he  has 
never  asked  a  favour  of  any  minister  either  for  himself  or  for  a 
friend.  How  many  might  make  the  same  boast,  who  yet  never 
thought  of  inveighing  against  all  the  rest  of  the  world  as  corrupt 
and  dishonest!  And  after  all,  what  does  the  boast  amount  to? 
With  respect  to  friends,  the  praise  is  rather  equivocal.  A  man 
may  happen  to  have  no  one,  who  is  at  once  capable  of  being 
served  by  place  or  appointment,  and  for  whom  he  is  particularly 
anxious.  And  as  to  office  for  himself,  is  it  known  that  the  offer 
was  ever  made  to  the  Honourable  Baronet  ?  or  that  he  himself 
ever  wished  it  ?  With  a  large  fortune,  and  all  the  comforts  and 
pleasures  of  life  before  him,  he  may  never  have  thought  the  pride 
or  power  of  office  a  compensation  for  its  cares  and  constraints, 
or  even  for  the  privilege  which  he  now  enjoys  (and  is  not  sparing 
in  the  use  of)  of  railing  at  those  whose  opinions  and  feelings  upon 
that  point  have  been  different  from  his  own.  The  merit  of  sacri- 
ficing office  can  alone  be  found  among  those,  for  whom  office 
has  charms;  and  upon  that  principle  the  Honourable  Baronet 
must  not  be  surprised,  though  in  other  respects  he  will,  no  doubt, 
if  I  look  for  proofs  of  political  virtue,  to  be  contrasted  to  any  on 
his  part,  in  quarters  from  which  he  would  turn  with  scorn,  as 
from  the  very  hot-beds  of  all  corruption. 

What  will  the  friends  of  the  Honourable  Baronet  say,  when 
they  hear  me  quote  for  my  instance,  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Pitt? 
The  general  career  of  Mr.  Pitt's  political  life,  and  his  adminis- 
tration of  the  affairs  of  this  country,  during  the  great  crisis  in 
which  he  latterly  acted,  I  perhaps  as  little  approve  as  the  Hon- 
ourable Baronet  can  do ;  though  for  reasons  altogether  different : 
but  one  of  the  very  charges  ^^hich  many  might  bring  against  Mr. 
Pitt,  (I  mean  his  love  of  power,)  is  the  pledge  of  his  merit  in  the 
instance  to  which  I  am  alluding,  I  mean  his  resignation  of  power 
in  the  year  1801.  It  is  no  reproach  to  Mr.  Pitt  to  say  that  he 
was  an  ambitious  man.  It  may  be  something  of  a  reproach,  though 
18 


206  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM   BILL. 

I  am  afraid  the  fact  is  true,  that  his  ambition  showed  itself  too 
much  in  love  of  power  and  office.  The  habits,  in  fact,  of  official 
life  had  begun  so  early  with  him  and  continued  so  long,  that  they 
must  have  become  a  sort  of  second  nature;  place  and  power 
were  almost  among  the  necessaries  of  life  to  him ;  yet,  with  all 
those  feelings  upon  him,  original  and  acquired ;  with  a  possession  of 
power,  longer  enjoyed  and  more  firmly  established  than  can  be 
found  possibly  in  any  other  instance,  not  excepting  that  of  Sir 
Robert  Walpole ;  with  a  perception,  as  quic/c  as  man  ever  had, 
of  what  was  likely  to  be  useful  or  prejudicial  to  him  in  any  po- 
litical step ;  Mr.  Pitt  did  not  hesitate  in  withdraw  ing  from  office, 
at  the  period  alluded  to,  the  moment  he  found  it  could  be  no  longer 
held,  but  upon  terms  inconsistent,  as  he  thought,  with  his  duty,  and 
derogatory  from  his  character.  It  is  in  vain  to  say,  that  this 
might  not  be  an  act  of  pure  virtue,  but  be  mixed  up  with  feelings 
of  shame,  or  pride,  or  policy,  or  others  of  that  sort.  There  is  no 
end  of  such  objections ;  which,  after  all,  can  make  no  difference 
here,  where  w^e  are  upon  a  question  of  comparison ;  since,  if  ad- 
mitted at  all,  they  must  appear  equally  on  both  sides  of  the 
account.  It  is  just  as  easy  to  say,  that  the  Honourable  Baronet, 
in  the  course  which  he  has  pursued,  has  acted  with  a  view  to 
what  he  has  got,  as  that  Mr.  Pitt,  on  the  occasion  alluded  to, 
acted  with  a  view  to  what  he  did  not  get.  The  exact  measure 
of  virtue  that  enters  into  any  act,  can  be  known  'only  to  the 
Searcher  of  all  hearts:  we  must  be  content  to  take  for  virtue 
what  contains  all  the  usual  indications  of  it,  and  produces  all  the 
effects.  There  is  no  reason  to  suspect  the  sacrifice  thus  made  by 
Mr.  Pitt,  to  be  less  genuine  than  it  purports  to  be.  He  did  not 
sacrifice  what  he  did  not  highly  value :  and  no  man  was  more 
likely  to  foresee  (what  the  event  proved,)  that  ministerial  power, 
which  owes  so  much  to  the  length  of  its  continuance,  could  hardly, 
after  an  interruption,  be  ever  completely  restored  to  w^hat  it  was 
before.  The  Honourable  Baronet,  I  have  no  doubt,  had  the  occa- 
sion been  offered,  would  equally  have  shown  that  personal  consi- 
derations had  no  weight  with  him  when  placed  in  competition  with 
the  calls  of  duty,  or  even  with  those  of  honest  fame.  But  the 
opportunity,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  has  never  been  afforded  him ; 
and  no  one  can  be  allowed  to  claim  the  same  credit  for  what  he 
has  only  intended  and  believed  himself  capable  of  doing,  as  others 
for  what  they  have  actually  done. 

Upon  the  whole  of  this  subject  of  the  corruptions  of  the  great, 
we  may  venture  to  say,  that  be  their  virtue  what  it  may,  it  is  at 
least  at  par  with  that  of  the  persons  by  whom  it  is  arraigned. 
There  are  very  few  men  in  public  life,  who  could  not,  if  they 
thought  it  worth  while,  if  they  could  bring  themselves  to  be  proud 
of  merit  so  little  rare,  quote  instances  of  sacrifices  which  they 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  207 

had  made — to  duty,  to  point  of  honour,  to  estimation  of  friends, 
to  party  spirit,  if  you  please,  but  to  something  far  superior  to  the 
mere  sordid  desire  of  profit  or  emolument, — to  which  the  greater 
part  of  these  patriotic  declaimers  could  not  only  show  nothing 
parallel  in  their  own  conduct,  but  which  they  would  not,  as  far 
as  related  to  themselves,  dream  even  to  be  possible. 

So  much  for  this  great  topic  of  abuses,  which  is*  now  made  the 
foundation-stone  of  the  system,  and  gives  to  the  authors  of  the 
system  all  that  was  wished  by  the  philosopher  of  old,  when,  in 
order  to  move  the  world  from  its  basis,  he  asked  for  nothing  but 
a  place  whereon  to  fix  his  machine.  But  far  the  greater  portion 
of  abuses,  even  of  those  which  do  finally  reach  the  Government, 
proceed  from  the  people  themselves.  They  are  the  bribes  which 
Government  pays  to  the  people,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  prevent 
them  from  pulling  the  Government  to  pieces.  This  is  more  espe- 
cially exemplified  in  that  worst  and  most  pernicious  species  of 
abuses,  though  by  far  the  least  complained  of,  the  abuse  of  patron- 
age. But  the  great  mass  of  abuse,  that  which  forms  nine-tenths, 
at  least,  or,  more  probably,  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  the  whole, 
and  which  alone  directly  affects  the  pockets  of  the  people,  both 
begins  and  ends  with  the  people,  and  consists  of  the  frauds,  impo- 
sitions, embezzlements,  and  peculations,  committed  by  the  tribes 
of  officers,  high  and  low ;  (with  the  exception  only  of  the  high- 
est ;)  who,  though  employed  under  the  Government,  can  still,  in  no 
rational  view,  be  considered  otherwise  than  as  part  of  the  people ; 
as  well  as  by  all  those,  who,  not  being  in  any,  even  the  most  sub- 
ordinate office,  have  still  occasional  dealings  with  the  public,  or 
opportunities  in  some  way  or  other  of  turning  its  interests  to  their 
account 

The  mode  proposed  for  putting  a  stop*to  these  abuses,  is  to  re- 
form the  parhament:  that  is  to  say,  to  have  a  scheme  of  repre- 
sentation, in  which,  the  elections  being  more  popular,  the  parlia- 
ment should  issue  more  directly  from  the  general  mass  of  the 
people,  and  a  larger  portion  of  it  in  consequemce  be  likely  to  con- 
sist of  persons  taken  from  the  lower  orders,  the  country  in  the 
meanwnile,  by  the  increased  number  of  competitors,  and  by  the 
means  through  which  they  must  hope  to  succeed,  being  thrown 
into  an  additional  ferment.  The  plan,  with  a  view  to  its  professed 
object,  cannot  be  said  either  to  promise  much  or  to  be  chosen 
with  very  peculiar  felicity.  It  is  not  an  otvious  way,  for  making 
the  liquor  run  clear,  to  give  a  shake  to  the  cask  and  to  bring  up 
as  much  as  possible  from  the  parts  nearest  the  bottom.  Could  it 
be  believed,  without  proof  from  the  fact,  that  men  could  be  found 
seriously  to  indulge  speculations  so  destitute  of  every  foundation 
in  reason  or  common  sense  ?  The  reform  wanted,  for  the  pur- 
poses said  to  be  intended,  is  either  a  reform  of  the  whole  people, 


208  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL. 

which  it  is  childish  to  hope,  or  a  reform  in  the  government,  by 
arming  it  with  such  new  powers,  as  might  indeed  answer  the  end 
proposed,  but  would  in  the  mean  time  be  wholly  incompatible 
with  the  nature  of  our  free  constitution. 

There  are  but  three  ways  in  which  mankind  can  be  governed ; 
by  their  virtues,  their  interests,  or  their  fears.  To  be  able  to  gov- 
ern men  by  their  sense  and  their  virtues  is  unquestionably  the 
best  of  all.  If  men  will  be  ready  always  to  support  gratuitously 
what  they  think  right,  and  oppose  nothing  but  what  they  con- 
scientiously believe  to  be  wrong,  the  task  of  government  would 
comparatively  be  easy,  and  corruption  without  excuse.  The 
minister  would  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  choose  right  measures ; 
and  the  merit  of  the  measure  might  be  expected  to  carry  it 
through.  But  if  the  fact  should  be,  that  there  are  numbers  who 
cannot  be  brought  to  support  even  what  they  themselves  approve, 
without  being  paid  for  it,  and  who  if  they  have  not  been  so  paid, 
or  think  they  can  get  better  payment  elsewhere  (whether  that 
payment  consist  in  place,  or  money,  or  popular  applause,  or  the 
gratification  of  some  malignant  or  selfish  passion,)  will  combine 
and  cabal,  and  create  every  sort  of  obstruction  and  impediment, 
there  is  then  no  other  way,  in  a  free  government,  for  the  purpose 
of  carrying  on  the  public  service,  but  to  gain  over  such  persons 
by  their  interests,  which,  in  the  language  of  the  time,  is  to  be 
guilty  of  corruption ;  but  a  corruption  surely  of  which  the  guilt 
cannot  fairly  be  charged  on  the  government. 

In  governments  indeed  of  another  sort,  such  as  that  which 
makes  so  conspicuous  a  figure  in  the  present  times,  I  mean  the 
government  of  Buonaparte,  the  case  is  altogether  different ;  and 
no  more  necessity  exists  for  corruption  under  such  a  rule  than  in 
a  nation  of  men  perfectly  wise  and  virtuous.  He  (Buonaparte) 
is  under  no  necessity  to  bribe  men's  concurrence  to  measures  that 
are  for  the  interest  of  the  country,  and  has,  moreover,  methods 
far  more  effectual  than  any  which  free  countries  possess,  to  pre- 
vent the  abuses  arising  from  fraud,  or  peculations.  A  man  who 
could  hang  without  ceremony  a  custom-house  officer  who  should 
be  found  conniving  at  any  fraud  on  the  revenue,  and  hang  or  send 
to  the  galleys  the  merchant  who  should  bribe  him  to  such  conni- 
vance, may  be  pretty  sure  of  confining  within  reasonable  bounds 
all  abuses  of  that  description.  The  same  will  be  the  case  with 
any  other  species  of  abuse.  But  how,  in  countries  where  conduct 
is  free,  men  can  be  prevented  from  selling  that,  which  they  will 
not  consent  to  give,  and  how,  where  law  is  formal  and  scrupulous, 
and  beset  on  all  sides  with  guards  and  defences  for  the  protection 
of  innocence,  it  can  be  made  to  retain,  in  all  cases,  sufficient  ce- 
lerity for  the  overtaking  of  guilt,  are  problems,  with  which  the 
authors  of  these  complaints  never  seem  to  trouble  themselves* 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL.  209 

They  call  boldly  and  loudly  for  the  suppression  of  abuses ;  and 
if  the  suppressing  abuses  was  the  only  object  to  be  attended  to, 
the  task  would  be  easy.  There  is  a  government  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, the  same  to  which  I  have  just  alluded,  that  tells  us  how  that 
work  is  to  be  done.  I  will  pay  so  much  homage  to  Buonaparte's 
government  as  to  say,  that  it  either  is,  or  may  be,  one  of  the  most 
free  from  abuses  of  any  that  ever  existed.  But  will  the  clamour- 
ers  for  this  salutary  reformation  be  content  to  have  it  upon  the 
same  terms'?  We  have  seen  already,  what  the  nature  of  the  great- 
er part  of  these  abuses  is,  and  from  what  source  they  spring. 
And  do  not  let  us  take  this  upon  trust.  Let  those  who  doubt,  go 
into  the  inquiry,  and  examine,  one  by  one,  the  instances  in  which 
they  complain  that  the  public  money  has  been  transferred  wrong- 
fully into  the  pockets  of  individuals,  or  the  public  patronage  per- 
verted, and  see  what  the  utmost  extent  is  of  that  portion,  which 
has  been  appropriated  to  the  interests  of  ministers,  or  of  those  for 
whom  they  were  personally  anxious. 

Upon  this  issue  we  may  suffer  the  question  to  rest,  considered 
as  part  of  a  general  system,  which  aims  at  a  great  change  in  the 
constitution  (a  subversion  of  it  as  I  should  say)  under  the  name 
of  Reform,  and  grounds  the  necessity  of  such  reform  upon  the 
extent  and  number  of  the  subsisting  abuses.  It  remains  only  that 
we  say  a  few  words  upon  the  more  narrow  view  of  the  subject, 
as  introduced  by  the  Honourable  Mover. 

The  direct  end  and  object  of  the  motion,  as  we  collect  from 
some  passages  in  his  speech,  the  specific  effect  which  he  means 
to  produce,  is  that  of  erecting  a  barrier  to  the  too  great  influx 
into  this  house  of  the  moneyed  interest.  The  means  proposed  are 
such  as  cannot  but  be  approved,  if  the  description  of  them  be  true, 
viz.  that  they  consist  entirely  in  the  correction  of  a  practice  which 
is  in  the  highest  degree  corrupt.  The  consequences,  as  usual  in 
all  cases  where  new  remedies  are  advertised,  are  to  extend  far 
beyond  the  removal  of  the  immediate  complaint,  and  to  benefit 
the  constitution  in  a  thousand  different  ways.  It  happens  whimsi 
cally  that  the  primary  object  of  the  mover,  (a  pretty  important 
one,  and  requiring,  one  should  think,  a  good  deal  of  nice  conside- 
ration), namely  the  altering  the  balance  between  the  landed  and 
the  moneyed  interest,  seems  to  be  no  object  at  all  with  those  to 
whom  the  motion  is  principally  addressed,  and  not  much  indeed 
to  the  Honourable  Mover,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  small  portion 
which  it  has  occupied  of  his  speech.  It  slips  in  almost  by  paren- 
thesis. It  is  lost  and  hid,  in  the  splendour  of  the  incidental  advan- 
tages which  the  motion  is  to  bring  with  it,  in  the  confidence  it  is 
to  restore,  the  unanimity  it  is  to  inspire,  the  heats  it  is  to  allay, 
the  effect  it  is  to  have  in  silencing  gainsayers,  the  foundation  it  is 
to  lay  of  a  new  and  glorious  era,  from  the  commencement  of 
18*  2B 


210  MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM  BILL. 

which  nothing  will  be  known  throughout  the  country  but  one  spir- 
it of  loyalty  and  patriotism,  and  a  determination  to  live  and  die 
by  the  constitution.  What  a  pity  that  prospects  so  bright,  and 
which  my  Honourable  Friend  contemplates  with  such  unspeaka- 
ble satisfaction,  should  be  so  soon  obscured !  Never  was  hope  so 
sanguine,  so  suddenly  blasted !  It  is  nipped  in  its  first  bud.  It  does 
not  live  to  the  second  reading.  It  is  consigned  to  the  tomb  almost 
at  the  moment  of  its  birth. 

"  Oh  just  beloved  and  lost,  admired  and  mourned !" 

This  medicine,  which  was  to  produce  such  wonderful  effects, 
which  was  to  operate  like  a  charm,  so  comfortable  in  the  stomach, 
so  exhilarating  to  the  spirits,  so  restorative  of  all  the  vital  functions, 
has  totally  falsified  the  first  assurance  respecting  it,  namely,  that 
it  would  be  very  pleasant  to  the  taste.  What  it  may  be  in  the 
stomach,  or  afterwards,  we  cannot  well  say  ;  for  those  for  whose 
special  use  it  was  intended,  who  were  to  seize  it  so  greedily,  find 
it  so  little  pleasant  that  they  will  not  suffer  it  to  remain  within 
their  lips ;  but  spit  it  out  upon  the  hands  of  my  Honourable  Friend, 
at  the  very  moment  when  he  is  in  the  act  of  administering  it. 

MuchxUseful  instruction  and  information  may  be  derived  from 
this  fact,  as  well  to  my  Honourable  Friend  as  to  ourselves.  My 
Honourable  Friend,  I  hope,  will  learn  a  lesson,  of  great  utility  to 
all  reformers,  to  distrust  a  little  the  more  remote  consequences  of 
their  measures,  when  they  see  how  liable  they  are  to  error,  even 
in  those  which  they  expect  to  take  place  immediately.  The  house, 
it  is  hoped,  will  learn  this  distrust  with  respect  to  the  measure 
now  proposed.  It  is  no  great  recommendation  of  any  medicine 
that  its  effects  are  totally  mistaken  by  the  person  who  advises  it. 
All  our  confidence  in  the  physician  is  already  lost.  The  only 
certain  knowledge  which  we  have,  as  yet,  of  the  measure,  is,  that 
it  will  not  do  what  the  Honourable  Mover  predicted  of  it.  It  will 
not  satisfy  those,  who  at  present  inveigh  against  the  abuses  of  the 
system,  and  contend  that  it  ought  to  be  reformed.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  say  that  this  measure,  unless  accompanied  with  others 
far  more  extensive,  will  only  make  things  worse. 

I  have  already  endeavoured  to  show  that  the  practice  meant 
to  be  corrected,  has  no  crime  in  it  abstractly  considered;  that  it 
is  not  a  malum  in  se.  It  is  culpable  only  as  it  may  be  made  so 
by  law,  or  as  it  may  practically  be  found  to  produce  effects  inju- 
rious to  the  public  interest.  When  opinion  out  of  doors  is  urged 
as  a  reason  for  adopting  it,  the  answer  is,  that  opinion  out  of 
doors,  such  as  is  here  in  question,  is  a  very  bad  reason  for  adopt- 
ing any  measure,  inasmuch  as  there  can  hardly  be  a  worse  crite- 
rion of  what  is  really  for  the  public  benefit ;  and  that,  after  all, 
the  public  opinion  does  not  call  for  this  measure  separately  and 


MR.  CURWEN'S  REFORM   BILL.  211 

unaccompanied  with  certain  others,  which  the  Honourable  Mover 
himself  would  declare  that  he  does  not  wish  to  see  take  place. 
The  inducements,  therefore,  to  a  compliance  with  the  present 
motion  lie  in  a  very  small  compass  indeed.  They  are  simply  its 
own  merits;  for,  as  to  the  splendid  incidental  consequences  dwelt 
upon  with  such  rapture  by  the  Honourable  Mover,  they  are  all  at 
an  end  already.  There  will  be  no  satisfaction  produced.  What 
is  called  the  public  will  not  thank  you  for  the  measure,  otherwise 
than  as  it  may  be  made  a  subject  of  triumph  and  a  stepping-stone 
to  other  objects.  The  objections  to  it  on  the  other  hand,  are  the 
dangers  of  this  triumph,  and  of  those  other  objects  to  which  it  is 
meant  to  lead. 

Upon  the  result  of  these  opposite  considerations,  first  examined 
separately,  and  then  compared  together,  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
earnestly  conjuring  the  house  not  to  adopt  the  motion.  The  prac- 
tice complained  of  has  subsisted  at  all  times,  without  any  ground 
to  suspect,  or  any  suspicion  being  in  fact  entertained,  that,  accord- 
ing to  the  discovery  now  made,  it  has  been  sapping  and  under- 
mining the  constitution.  The  reasons  in  support  of  the  measure 
now  proposed  for  the  abolition  of  the  practice  are  perfectly  un- 
satisfactory and  inconclusive.  We  know  the  mischievous  use 
intended  to  be  made  of  it ;  and  there  can  hardly  indeed  be  any 
thing  more  mischievous  in  the  first  instance,  than  the  yielding  to 
public  clamour,  what  we  do  not  feel  that  we  are  yielding  to  truth 
and  reason. 

After  a  debate  of  some  length,  the  motion  was  agreed  to  without  a  division. 


(     212    ) 
MR.  CURWEN'S  BILL. 

THIRD  READING. 

JUNE  12th,   1809. 

The  Bill,  which  occasioned  the  preceding  speech,  received  in  the  Commit- 
tee, on  the  8th  of  June,  some  material  alterations,  particularly  a  clause  pro^ 
posed  by  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  for  levying  certain  penalties  on 
any  person  procuring  his  return  by  any  express  covenant  to  give  any  offices 
by  way  of  consideration  for  it.  Lord  Henry  Petty  moved  that  the  word 
"express"  should  be  omitted,  as  otherwise,  he  contended,  a  power  of  pro- 
curing seats  by  means  of  patronage  would  be  left  to  the  Treasury.  On  a 
division,  the  numbers  were, 

For  the  Amendment 43 

Against  it 78 

Majority 35 

On  the  9th,  another  division  took  place  on  an  Amendment  to  the  same 
effect,  which  was  moved  by  Lord  Milton,  when  the  numbers  were, 

For  omitting  the  word  "  express" 74 

For  inserting  it 97 

Majority 23 

On  the  12th,  Mr.  Curwen  moved  the  order  of  the  day  for  the  third  read- 
ing of  the  Bill. 

Mr.  Windham  said,  that  he  felt  it  necessary  for  him  to  make 
some  observations,  as  the  bill  had  been  so  completely  altered  in 
the  Committee,  that  there  was  danger  lest,  in  voting  against  it 
novsr,  after  having  voted  against  it  before,  he  should  appear  to  be 
guilty  of  inconsistency.  It  appeared  to  him  as  full  of  objections 
in  its  altered  as  in  its  original  state ;  although  the  objections  were 
of  a  different  nature.  His  former  objections  rested,  first,  on  the 
denial  of  that  assumption  which  was  made  the  foundation  of  the 
bill ;  secondly,  that  he  conceived  the  reasonings  by  which  it  was 
supported,  to  be  false,  and  dangerous  in  the  extreme ;  and,  thirdly, 
that  he  conceived  that  it  would  open  the  door  to  infinite  mischiefs. 
As  to  this  implied  corruption,  if  it  is  what  the  law  had  declared 
corruption,  the  law,  of  course,  had  also  pointed  out  hov\^  it  was 
to  be  punished ;  and  if  the  utmost  attention  paid  to  the  subject  of 
these  corruptions  could  produce  nothing  better  than  this  bill,  he 
thought  the  old  legislators  had  done  very  well  to  stop  where  they 


MR.  CURVVEN'S  BILL,  THIRD  READING.  213 

did.  He  deprecated  the  bill  originally,  because  he  saw  tne  diffi- 
culty of  stopping  at  the  point  they  might  wish.  It  was  easy  to 
remove  any  abuse,  if  the  removal  of  the  abuse  was  the  only  thing 
to  be  considered,  and  if  no  regard  need  be  had  of  the  means  to 
be  employed,  and  of  the  mischiefs  that  might  eqsue.  To  take  off 
a  wen  or  other  excrescence,  the  butcher  would  do  as  well  as  the 
surgeon,  were  no  consideration  necessary  of  what  might  be  the 
consequence  of  cutting  it  off  unskilfully.  The  real  question  would 
be,  whether  the  patient  would  not  be  left  in  a  more  dangerous 
state  than  that  of  the  original  disease,  and  especially  when  it  was 
considered  that  there  were  numbers  who,  instead  of  healing, 
would  perpetually  apply  caustics  to  the  wound. 

He  thought  the  Honourable  Gentleman  (Mr.  Curwen)  was 
himself  somewhat  inconsistent  in  voting  for  a  bill  so  opposite  in 
its  nature  and  tendency  to  that  which  he  had  originally  introduced. 
He  seemed  to  think  that  it  was  better  to  get  half  his  measure  than 
none  of  it.  "  Half  a  loaf,"  it  was  said,  "  is  better  than  no  bread," 
but  not  so,  half  a  reform.  It  was  a  gross  error  to  suppose,  as 
was  perpetually  done,  that  the  half  of  an  act  by  which  a  benefit 
might  be  obtained  was  any  thing  like  half  the  benefit.  For  in- 
stance, if  the  grievance  complained  was  a  beard  of  a  month's 
growth,  or  a  pair  of  those  absurd  whiskers  with  which  the  faces 
of  some  of  our  soldiers  were  now  disgraced,  and  the  barber 
should  say  he  had  not  soap  enough  to  hold  out  for  the  whole  face, 
but  he  would  shave  half  of  it,  would  the  person  so  shaved  be 
considered  as  getting  rid  of  half  the  grievance  ?  and  more  es- 
pecially, if  the  barber  should  say,  as  in  the  present  instance,  that 
although  he  shaved  the  hair  from  one  side  of  the  face,  it  would 
grow  so  much  thicker  on  the  other,  so  that  there  would  be  pre- 
cisely the  same  quantity,  although  only  on  one  side  of  the  face. 
That  was  really  the  case  in  the  present  instance ;  for,  as  the  Hon- 
ourable Baronet  (Sir  F.  Burdett)  has  observed,  the  removal  of 
the  competition  of  private  wealth  would  increase  the  power  of 
the  treasury.  By  the  amended  bill,  the  Honourable  Gentleman 
(Mr.  Curwen)  might  get  half  of  his  measure,  but  no  part  of  his 
object. 

He  considered  it  most  degrading  and  impolitic  for  a  Govern- 
ment to  comply  with  every  temporary  popular  opinion ;  but  he 
thought  it  more  degrading  still  to  endeavour  to  delude  the  people 
by  giving  them  what  was  worse  than  nothing.  The  delusion,  how- 
ever, would  not  pass.  The  people,  he  was  persuaded,  would  find 
out  the  trick,  and  would  not  be  made  to  take  Birmingham 
counters  for  sterling  gold.  The  preamble,  and  the  first  clause  of 
this  bill,  appeared  to  be  merely  calculated  to  deceive  the  people, 
and  make  them  suppose  that  something  was  done,  which  was,  in 
fact,  not  done.    The  people,  to  be  sure,  collectively  considered, 


214  MR.  CURWEN'S  BILL,  THIRD  READING 

seemed  to  be  made  only  to  be  duped.  They  were  resolved  always 
to  be  duped  by  somebody.  They  were  duped  by  those  haranguers, 
who  told  them  that  eleven  millions  and  a  half  of  the  public  ex- 
penditure might  be  saved.  They  were  now  about  to  be  duped  by 
ministers,  who  were  ready  to  pass  a  bill,  holding  out  a  promise 
which  could  never  be  realized. 

As  to  the  parental  affection  which  the  Honourable    Member 

(Mr.  Curvven)  had  manifested  for  his  bill,  it  was  surely  of  the 

oddest  sort  possible ;  for  it  was  for  a  child  not  his  own.     The 

child  was  a  perfect  changeling,  with  no  resemblance  to  the  former 

'       either  in  features  or  colour. 

Qui  color  albus  erat,  nunc  est  contrarius  albo. 

It  must  have  been  got  by  a  negro  slave.  The  indifference,  too, 
of  the  Honourable  Gentleman  between  this  and  the  original  bill, 
was  not  less  extraordinary.  It  was  much  the  same  as  in  a  case 
that  he  remembered  of  a  gentleman  who  made  proposals  in  a 
family  where  there  were  several  daughters,  and  when  the  father 
inquired  which  of  his  daughters  it  was  that  was  honoured  with 
his  choice,  replied,  "just  which  you  please."  Upon  which  the 
father  was  said  to  have  replied,  very  properly,  "  Since  you  are 
so  indifferent,  I  think  it  may  as  well  be  neither."  The  case,  how- 
ever, was  stronger  here;  daughters  may  differ  widely,  but  they 
cannot  properly  be  said  to  be  contrary  or  opposite.  "  Substantia 
substantias  non  contra riatur."  Whereas,  these  bills  w^ere  in  that 
state  of  opposition  as  to  be  mutually  destructive  of  each  other. 
But  the  Honourable  Mover  was  determined  to  have  a  bill,  and 
provided  he  succeeded  in  that  object,  it  seemed  to  be  no  part  of 
his  consideration  what  the  bill  was. 

The  Bill,  with  the  Amendments,  was  supported  by  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  and  the  Solicitor-General,  and  opposed  by  Mr.  Adam,  Sir  Francis 
Burdett,  Mr.  Tierney,  and  Mr.  Wilberforce.  On  the  motion  that  the  Bill  do 
pass,  the  numbers  were, 

Ayes 97 

Noes 85 

Majority .12 

The  following  Amendment  was  proposed  by  Lord  FoJkstone,  as  a  proper 
title  to  the  Bill : — "  A  Bill  for  more  effectually  preventing  the  Sale  of  Seats 
in  Parliament  for  Money,  and  for  promoting  a  Monopoly  thereof  to  the  Trea- 
sury by  means  of  Patronage."    On  a  division,  there  appeared. 

For  the  original  Title •    .    .     133 

For  the  Amendment 28 

Majority 105 


(    215    ) 
CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL. 

JUNE  13th,  1809. 

A  Bill  "  for  the  more  effectual  Prevention  of  Cruelty  towards  Animals," 
had  been  brought  into  the  House  of  Peers  by  Lord  Erskine,  and  having  pass- 
ed that  House  without  a  division,  it  had  been  read  a  second  time  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  on  Sir  Charles  Bunbury*g  motion,  also  without  a  division.  On 
the  motion  for  going  into  a  Committee  upon  this  Bill,  Mr.  Windham  address- 
ed the  chair  in  the  following  speech : 

Sir, 

My  first  and  general  objection  to  this  bill  is,  that  the  object  of 
it,  however  commendable,  is  not  such  as  to  make  it  a  fit  subject 
of  legislation. 

For  this  opinion  I  have  at  least  a  pretty  strong  voucher,  in  the 
universal  practice  of  mankind  down  to  the  present  moment.  In 
no  country  has  it  ever  yet  been  attempted  to  regulate  by  law  the 
conduct  of  men  towards  brute  animals,  except  so  far  as  such 
conduct  has  operated  to  the  prejudice  of  men.  The  province 
of  criminal  legislation  has  hitherto  been  confined  to  the  injuries 
sustained  by  men. 

This  fact,  though  affording  a  pretty  strong  presumption,  (suffi- 
cient, one  should  think,  to  make  us  pause  and  not  hurry  through 
the  house,  with  hardly  any  discussion,  a  bill  of  so  novel  a  charac- 
ter,) is  yet,  I  will  confess,  not  absolutely  conclusive.  It  may  be 
right,  that  "  all  this  should  be  changed ;"  that  what  is  now  propo- 
sed, should  be  done,  though  it  has  never  been  done  before.  But 
the  question  is,  at  least,  of  some  importance,  and  not  to  be  deci- 
ded without  great  care  and  a  most  cautious  consideration  of  all 
the  consequences.  The  novelty  of  the  subject,  (not  in  its  details 
or  particular  application,  but  in  its  general  character,)  is  a  topic 
brought  forward  and  insisted  upon,  not  by  the  opposers  of  the  bill 
as  an  objection,  but  by  its  authors  as  a  merit.  In  a  pamphlet,  cir- 
culated with  great  industry,  (and  of  equal  authority,  as  coming 
from  the  same  source  with  the  bill  itself,)  it  is  expressly  stated, 
and  with  no  small  triumph,  that  the  bill  will  form  a  new  era  of 
legislation. 

Two  reflections  arise  upon  this :  first,  that  we  ought  to  take 
care,  (to  be  cautious  at  least,)  how  we  begin  new  eras  of  legisla- 
tion ;  secondly,  that  we  ought  to  have  a  reasonable  distrust  of  the 
founders  of  such  eras,  lest  they  should  be  a  little  led  away  by  an 
object  of  such  splendid  ambition,  and  be  thinking  more  of  them- 


216  CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL. 

selves  than  of  the  credit  of  the  laws  or  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munity. To  do  that  which  no  one  yet  has  ever  thought  of  doing ; 
to  introduce  into  legislation,  at  this  period  of  the  world,  what  has 
never  yet  been  found  in  the  laws  of  any  country,  and  that  too  for 
a  purpose  of  professed  humanity,  (or  rather  of  something  more 
than  humanity,  as  commonly  understood  and  practised ;)  to  be  the 
first  who  has  stood  up  as  the  champion  of  the  rights  of  brutes, 
is  as  marked  a  distinction,  even  though  it  should  not  turn  out 
upon  examination  to  be  as  proud  a  one,  as  a  man  can  well 
aspire  to. 

The  legislature,  however,  must  not  be  carried  away  with  these 
impulses,  of  whatever  nature  they  may  be,  but  must  consider 
soberly  and  coolly,  whether  it  may  not  have  been  something  more 
than  mere  indifference  or  want  of  thought  that  for  so  many  thou- 
sand years  has  kept  men  from  attempting  to  introduce  this  new 
principle,  as  it  is  now  justly  called,  of  legislation,  and  whether 
those  who  engage  in  the  attempt  at  present,  may  not  do  far  more 
harm  than  good. 

Of  the  desirableness  of  the  object,  speaking  abstractedly,  there 
can  be  no  doubt.  As  far  as  mere  uninstructed  wishes  go,  every 
man  must  wish,  that  the  sufferings  of  all  animated  nature  wWe 
less  than  they  are.  Why  they  are  permitted  at  all,  is  a  question, 
as  has  been  observed  by  a  great  and  pious  writer,*  which  must 
for  ever  continue  to  perplex  mankind,  as  long  as  we  are  allowed 
to  see  only  in  part. 

But  there  is  not  only  the  wish  that  suffering  universally  should, 
if  possible,  be  less  than  it  is ;  there  is  a  duty,  I  am  ready  to  admit, 
upon  man  (the  only  animal,  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  takes  cogni- 
zance of  others'  painf),  to  conform  himself  to  that  wish,  in  the 
little  sphere  to  which  his  influence  extends.  Morality  itself  may 
perhaps  be  defined,  "a  desire  rationally  conducted* to  promote 
general  happiness,"  and  consequently  to  diminish  general  pain; 

*  Dr.  Johnson's  Review  of  Soame  Jenyns  on  the  Origin  of  Evil. 

f  Compassion  proper  to  mankind  appears, 

Which  Nature  witness'd,  when  she  lent  us  tears: 

Of  tender  sentiments  we  only  give 

This  proof;  to  weep  is  our  prerogative. 

Trans,  of  Juvenal, 

And  further  on  in  the  Original, 

Separat  hoc  nos, 

A  grege  mutorum  :  atque  ideo  venerabile  soli 

Sortiti  ingenium,  divinorumque  capaces, 
******* 

Sensum  k  coelesti  demissum  traximus  Arce, 
Cujus  egent  prona  et  terram  spectantia, 


CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL.  217 

and  1  am  far  from  contending,  that  the  operation  of  that  principle, 
so  glorious  to  man,  should  not  be  made  to  embrace  in  its  effects 
the  whole  of  animal  life.  Let  the  duty  be  as  strongly  enforced, 
as  far  as  precept  and  persuasion  can  go,  and  the  feeling  be  as 
largely  indulged  as  its  most  eager  advocates  can  wish.  I  have 
no  objection  to  any  sacrifices,  which  any  one  may  be  disposed  to 
make  in  his  ow^n  person,  for  sparing  the  pain  or  promoting  the 
enjoyment  of  others  of  his  fellow-creatures,  whether  men  or  in- 
ferior animals.  The  more  lively  the  sympathy,  within  certain 
limits,  and  the  greater  the  sacrifice,  the  more  will  be  the  amiable- 
ness  and  the  merit.  Within  certain  Umits,  I  have  said,  because, 
theoretically,  there  do  appear  to  be  limits,  which  those  feelings 
cannot  pass,  without  defeating,  instead  of  promoting,  the.  ends  of 
Providence,  which  must  be  presumed  to  have  intended  them  as 
the  means  of  attaining'  the  greatest  quantum  of  happiness.  Sym- 
pathy seems  to  be  necessary  to  the  production  of  virtue,  as  well 
as  for  securing  a  better  use  of  those  po\vers,  which  man  is  allow- 
ed to  possess  for  the  good  or  harm  both  of  his  own  species  and 
of  other  portions  of  animal  life.  But  were  every  one  to  feel  w^ith 
equal  sensibility  the  pains  of  others  as  his  own,  the  world  must 
become  one  unvaried  scene  of  suffering,  in  which  the  woes  of  all 
would  be  accumulated  upon  each,  and  every  man  be  charged 
with  a  weight  of  calamity  beyond  what  his  individual  powers  of 
endurance  are  calculated  to  support. 

There  is  little  danger,  however,  of  this  excess.  One  may  safely 
lay  it  down  as  a  rule,  that  the  more  any  one  feels  for  the  suffering 
of  others,  the  more  virtuous  he  should  be  accounted ;  and  that  he 
is  at  liberty,  in  this  respect,  to  give  a  full  loose  to  his  feelings. 

But  the  very  same  considerations  will  make  it  dangerous  to 
allow  of  systems  in  which  men  are  to  become  virtuous  at  others* 
expense,  and  be  armed  with  powers  to  enforce  upon  others  those 
sympathies  and  feelings  w^hich  may  be  wanting  in  themselves.  It 
is  not  sufficient  to  state  of  any  thing,  that  it  is  matter  of  obliga- 
tion, to  justify  an  attempt  to  enforce  it  by  law.  Laws  are  almost 
universally  restrictive.  They  restrain  acts  which  are  injurious  to 
the  community,  and  which  are  such  moreover  as  can  be  clearly 
defined.  There  are  whole  classes  of  duties,  know  to  writers  on 
morals  under  the  name  of  Imperfect  Obligations,  which  no  one 
ever  thought  of  enforcing  by  law ;  not  because  they  are,  in  point 
of  moral  duty,  less  obligatory  than  others,  but  because  they  are 
of  a  nature  that,  to  exist  at  all,  must  be  spontaneous,  or  are  such 
as  that  law  cannot  be  made  to  apply  to  them.  What  idea  can 
any  one  have  of  a  law  to  enforce  charity,  gratitude,  benevolence, 
or  innumerable  others  of  the  Christian  virtues?  If  a  man  with 
thousands  in  his  coffers,  and  of  which,  perhaps,  he  makes  no  use, 
should  suffer  a  fellow-creature,  whose  case  is  fully  known  to  hjm, 
19  2C 


218  CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL. 

to  perish  in  the  next  street  for  want  of  a  few  shillings,  you  might 
inveigh  as  bitterly  as  you  pleased,  and  as  he  most  justly  would 
deserve,  against  his  want  of  humanity ;  but  would  you  ever  think, 
that  there  ought  to  be  a  law  to  punish  him  ?  The  same  may  be 
said  of  cases  that  occur,  I  fear,  too  frequently,  under  the  influence 
of  the  poor-laws,  where  paupers  at  the  point  of  death,  and  women 
expecting  at  every  moment  to  be  seized  with  the  pangs  of  labour, 
are  turned  out  into  the  streets  or  roads,  sooner  than  by  the  death 
in  the  one  case,  or  the  birth  in  the  other,  a  burthen  should  be 
brought  upon  the  parish.  The  poor-laws  are  an  example  of  an 
attempt  to  force  charity ;  and  fine  encouragement  they  give  to 
such  attempts !  But  after  all  that  they  have  done, — unfortunately 
done, — how  much  is  left,  which  the  law  does  not  attempt  to  reach  ! 

It  will  not  be  difficult  to  show,  that  the  case  is  much  the  same 
in  respect  to  the  objects  now  meant  to  be  provided  for.  The 
measure  sets  out  with  a  preamble,  containing  a  lofty  maxim  of 
morality  or  theology,  too  grand  to  be  correct,  too  sublime  to  be 
seen  distinctly,  and  most  ludicrously  disproportioned  to  the  enact- 
ments that  follow ;  wherein  it  is  declared  that  God  has  subdued 
various  classes  of  animals  to  the  use  and  benefit  of  man ;  and 
from  thence  it  seems  to  be  inferred,  not  very  consequentially,  that 
we  ought  to  treat  them  with  humanity. — That  we  ought  to  treat 
with  humanity,  that  is,  that  we  ought,  in  all  we  do  respecting 
them,  to  have  a  consideration  of  their  pains  and  pleasures,  is  a 
maxim  which  I  am  not  at  all  disposed  to  controvert ;  but  it  does 
not  seem  immediately  inferrible  from  the  permission  before  recited. 
If  humanity  indeed  be  carried  to  its  utmost  extent,  it  must  rather 
have  the  effect  of  abridging  that  permission,  and  of  leading  us, 
like  the  Gentoos,  at  least  to  abstain  from  eating  the  animals  thus 
consigned  to  us,  if  not  from  using  them  in  any  way  that  should  not 
be  productive  to  them  of  more  gratification  than  suffering.  The 
humanity,  however,  that  is  now  recommended,  is  not  meant,  it 
seems,  to  go  that  length.  We  may  destroy  them  for  the  purposes 
of  food,  that  is,  of  appetite  and  luxury,  to  whatever  amount,  and 
in  whatever  ways  those  purposes  require.  Another  class  of  us, 
likewise,  namely  the  rich,  may  destroy  them,  in  any  modes,  how- 
ever lingering  and  cruel,  which  are  necessary  for  the  purposes  of 
sport  and  diversion.  Even  independently  of  the  doubt  which  these 
striking  exceptions  create,  we  may  ask  reasonably,  what  is  hu- 
manity? Is  it  any  thing  capable  of  being  defined  by  precise 
limits'?  or  is  it  a  mere  question  of  degree,  and  something  conse- 
quently which  is  not  capable  of  being  set  forth  in  words,  but  must 
be  left  to  the  decision  of  some  living  tribunal,  giving  its  judgment 
upon  each  particular  case  ? 

Here  we  come  back  to  the  first  and  fundamental  objection,  to 
legislating  upon  this,  and  various   similar  subjects.     You  inflict 


CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL.  219 

pains  and  penalties,  upon  conditions  which  no  man  is  able  pre- 
viously to  ascertain.  You  require  men  to  live  by  an  unknoum 
rule.  You  make  the  condition  of  life  uncertain  by  exposing  men 
to  the  operation  of  a  law,  which  they  cannot  know  till  it  visits 
them  in  the  shape  of  punishment. 

What  is  humanity  ?  It  is  generally  the  having  a  consideration 
for  the  sufferings  of  others  (men  or  other  sentient  beings,)  as  com- 
pared with  pains  or  gratifications  of  our  own.  But  what  the 
proportion  is  necessary  to  be  observed  between  our  own  and 
others'  pain,  or,  (as  is  oftener  the  case  in  the  subject  now  under 
consideration,)  what  the  proportion  is  between  others'  pain  and 
our  pleasure  or  interest,  no  mortal  attempts  to  ascertain ;  nor  is 
it  one  and  the  same,  but  as  various  as  there  are  various  men,  and 
various  circumstances  and  subjects  to  which  it  is  applied.  It  is 
not  only  not  the  same  in  any  two  men,  but  not  the  same  in  the 
same  man  for  half  an  hour  together,  being  changed,  according  as 
he  applies  it  to  one  case  or  another,  or  is  in  one  humour  or  another, 
or,  above  all,  is  judging  in  the  case  of  others  or  of  himself.  This 
is  no  exaggerated  representation.  As  a  proof,  let  any  man  go 
through  the  instances  where  his  humanity  has  been  shocked  at 
one  time,  and  where  at  others  it  has  remained  perfectly  in  repose. 

The  instances  of  ill  treatment  of  animals,  which  most  frequent- 
ly occur,  (and  are  most  in  the  view  of  the  advocates  of  this  bill,) 
are  those  which  arise  from  passion;  a  coachman  whipping  his 
coach-horses,  a  carman  beating  his  cart-horse.  The  undisturbed 
spectator,  who  knows  nothing  of  the  causes  that  have  led  to  this, 
and  who,  as  Swift  says  of  men  bearing  others'  misfortunes,  can 
bear  the  provocations  which  have  inflamed  another,  "  perfectly 
like  a  Christian,"  is  full  of  virtuous  ire,  and  inveighs  hotly  against 
the  man  who  can  thus  go  into  a  senseless  passion  with  his  horse ; 
but  he  does  not  consider  that  the  irritability  here  shown  may  have 
come  upon  a  man  wearied  by  long  labour,  and  soured  by  some 
recent  vexation,  and  have  been  excited  withal  by  something  in 
the  horse  which  he  has  been  led,  foolishly  for  the  most  part,  to 
consider  as  perverseness ;  nor  does  the  blamer  recollect,  how  he 
himself,  the  day  before,  when  he  was  riding  comfortably  to  get 
an  appetite  for  his  dinner,  spurred  his  horse  most  unmercifully  (as 
violently  as  his  fears  would  let  him),  because  the  animal  had  been 
guilty  of  starting  or  stumbling. 

Here  is  an  instance  of  that  different  standard  of  humanity, 
which  men  have  in  their  breasts  for  themselves  or  others,  for  their 
cooler  and  for  their  passionate  moments ;  and  we  may  thence  see 
what  flagrant  and  scandalous  injustice  would  be  done,  under  a 
criterion  subject  to  such  variation. 

It  is  no  answer  to  say,  that  the  judgment  would  not  be  unjust, 
merely  because  the  judge  might  have  been  guilty  of  the  same 


220  CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL. 

offence :  and  that  as  he  might  punish  others,  others  might  punish 
him.  The  judge,  we  know,  would  not  be  punished.  Few  would 
inform  against  His  Worship,  the  'Squire,  because  he  had  rode  his 
hunter  to  death,  or  unmercifully  whipped,  or,  in  a  fit  of  passion, 
shot  his  pointer.  The  scandal  therefore  in  the  general  administra- 
tion of  the  law  would  remain,  even  though  those  who  were  con- 
victed were  punished  justly. 

But  it  is  not  true,  that  passion  would  not  be  mixed  even  in  the 
judgment  itself.  Passion  may  be  suspected  to  mix  itself,  and  does 
in  fact  continually  mix  itself,  in  all  judgments  carried  on  by  close 
and  summary  jurisdictions,  and  by  persons  who  are  little  likely  to 
be  made  responsible  for  their  conduct.  Such  jurisdictions  must 
of  necessity  perhaps  exist  in  many  cases,  and  where  the  necessity 
can  be  shown,  must  be  submitted  to ;  but  they  are  not  on  that 
account  the  less  to  be  deprecated,  or  more  fit  to  be  adopted  where 
their  establishment  must  be  a  matter  of  choice.  There  is,  in 
truth,  one  general  passion  applicable  to  the  present  case,  which 
would  not  fail  to  operate  in  every  part  of  the  process  ;  in  the  judg- 
ment often,  but  still  more  frequently  in  the  information ;  and  which 
will  form  a  complete  answer  to  that  childish  plea  in  favour  of  the 
bill,  viz.  that  as  no  reward  is  given,  no  temptation  will  be  held 
out  to  informers. 

The  passion  here  alluded  to  is  one  of  great  account  in  human 
nature,  though  not  so  often  noted  as  it  ought  to  be,  namely,  the 
love  of  tormenting.  There  was  a  book  written  some  years  ago, 
commonly  ascribed  to  a  sister  of  the  author  of  Tom  Jones,  but 
really  the  work  of  a  lady  of  the  name  of  Collyer,  which  treats 
this  passion,  under  the  title  of  '  The  Art  of  ingeniously  Torment- 
ing;' and  after  illustrating,  with  great  acuteness  and  much  nice 
observation  of  character  and  manners,  its  operation  in  various 
relations  of  domestic  life, — as,  how  to  torment  an  humble  com- 
anion,  how  a  wife  should  torment  her  husband,  and  a  husband 
is  wife, — concludes  with  a  chapter,  entitled,  '  General  Rules  how 
to  torment  all  your  acquaintance.'  It  will  be  found  by  any  one 
who  may  peruse  this  book,  how  much  there  is  of  this  principle 
continually  in  operation,  of  which  the  peruser  has  often  witness- 
ed the  effects,  without  at  the  time  having  understood  or  attended 
to  the  cause. 

But  frequent  as  these  instances  are,  as  seen  and  described  by 
the  author  referred  to,  they  are  nothing  in  extent  and  amount  to 
those  which  are  carried  on,  under  a  new  and  more  enlarged  head, 
which  did  not  come  within  the  scheme  of  her  work,  nor  fall, 
possibly,  within  the  scope  of  her  contemplation,  viz.  the  art  of 
tormenting  people  in  the  name  of  the  public  good,  an  art  which 
seems  to  have  been  gaining  ground  considerably  in  our  days,  and 
to  have  had  a  larger  share  in  the  acts  of  the  legislature,  as  well 


i; 


CRUELTY  TO  ANIMATE  BILL.  221 

as  to  have  produced  more  annoyance  in  society,  than  people  are 
commonly  aware  of.  Here  the  trade  of  course  is  wholesale,  and 
carried  on  upon  a  large  scale.  And  it  is  not  to  be  told,  how  eager 
the  passion  is,  when  animated  aiKi  sanctioned  by  the  auxiliary 
motive  of  supposed  zeal  for  the  public  service.  It  is  childish  of 
people  to  ask.  What  pleasure  can  any  one  have  in  tormenting 
others  1  None  in  the  mere  pain  inflicted,  but  the  greatest  possible 
in  the  various  effects  that  may  accompany  it, — in  the  parade  of 
virtue  and  in  the  exercise  of  power.  A  man  cannot  torment 
another  without  a  considerable  exercise  of  power, — in  itself  a 
pretty  strong  and  general  passion.  But  if  he  can  at  once  exer- 
cise his  power  and  make  a  parade  of  his  virtue  (which  will  emi- 
nently be  the  case  in  the  powers  to  be  exercised  under  this  law), 
the  combination  of  the  two  forms  a  motive,  which,  we  may  fairly 
say,  flesh  and  blood  cannot  withstand.  Young's  *  universal  pas- 
sion' has  not  a  wider  range,  nor  a  stronger  influence,  than  the 
union  of  these  two  feelings. 

In  what  a  state  then  should  we  put  the  lower  orders  of  people 
in  this  country  (for  they  are  the  only  persons  who  would  be  af- 
fected), when,  for  the  sake  of  punishing  some  rare  and  hardly 
heard-of  enormities,  (the  narrow  but  only  rational  object  of  the 
measure,)  we  should  let  loose  upon  them  a  principle  of  action  like 
that  above  described,  armed  with  such  a  weapon  as  this  bill  would 
put  into  its  hands  ?  All  the  fanatical  views  and  feelings',  all  the 
little  bustling  spirit  of  regulation,  all  the  private  enmities  and  quar- 
rels would  be  at  work,  in  addition  to  those  more  general  passions 
before  stated,  and  men  would  be  daily  punished  by  summary  ju- 
risdiction, or  left  to  wait  in  gaol  for  the  meeting  of  a  more  regu- 
lar tribunal,  for  offences,  which  are  incapable  of  being  defined, 
and  which  must  be  left  therefore  to  the  arbitrary  and  fluctuating 
standard  which  the  judge  in  either  case  might  happen  to  carry  in 
his  breast.  The  bill,  instead  of  being  called,  A  Bill  for  preventing 
Cruelty  to  Animals,  should  be  entitled,  A  Bill  for  harassing  and 
oppressing  certain  Classes  among  the  lower  Orders  of  His  Ma- 
jesty's Subjects. 

The  manner  in  which  it  would  be  thrown  upon  them,  and  the 
scandalous  injustice  with  which  it  would  be  attended,  may  be  ex- 
emplified by  one  of  the  instances  set  forth  by  the  authors  of  the 
bill  themselves.  The  cruelties  suffered  by  post-horses  are  a 
favourite  topic.  But  on  whom  is  the  punishment  to  fall  ?  On  the 
post-boy,  or  on  the  traveller  ?  On  the  post-boy,  who  is  the  only 
person  who  would  be  seen  inflicting  these  severities  ?  Or  on  the 
traveller,  who  sits  snug  in  the  chaise,  having  only  hinted  to  the 
post-boy,  that  he  meant  to  dine  at  the  next  stage,  and  that  if  he 
should  not  bring  him  in  in  time,  he  would  never  go  to  his  master's 
house  again,  nor  give  him  any  thing  for  himself. 
19* 


222  CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL. 

This  case  of  post-horses  belongs  also  to  another  head,  to  which 
I  will  now  proceed ;  namely,  the  objections  that  lie  against  the 
bill  on  the  score  that  it  is  doing  that  by  law,  which,  if  people  are 
sincere  in  their  feelings,  may  be  done  by  other  methods. 

Laws  never  ought  to  be  called  in  but  where  other  powers  fail. 
Upon  whom  is  the  whole  force  of  this  bill  to  be  discharged? 
what  are  the  instances  which  are  uppermost  in  every  one's  mind, 
which  have  been  first  cited  as  proofs  of  the  necessity  of  such  a 
measure,  and  in  which  indeed  the  bill  either  will  or  is  intended  to 
act  ?  Why,  the  cruelties  inflicted  on  horses  by  grooms,  coach- 
men, post-boys,  carmen,  servants  in  husbandry,  or  others,  to  whom 
such  animals  are  entrusted.  But  whose  property  are  these  ani- 
mals ?  Why,  the  property  of  persons,  who  have  some  (generally 
great)  power  respectively  over  the  several  classes  of  persons 
above  enumerated.  Why  do  not  these  masters  and  owners  exert 
themselves  in  earnest,  in  punishing  such  offences  whenever  they 
come  within  their  cognizance,  or  are  even  known  to  them  in  a 
way  which,  though  not  sufficient  possibly  for  a  legal  process, 
would  be  abundantly  sufficient  for  all  the  purposes  that  are  here 
in  question  ?  But,  no  ;  they  are  often  the  direct  parties,  the  parties 
interested  in,  and  the  parties  instigating,  the  very  cruelties  or 
severities  which  they  affect  to  decry. 

One  of  the  favourite  instances  in  the  fashionable  female  circles, 
as  they  are  called,  of  this  town,  and  who  appear,  by-the-bye,  to 
have  been  very  diligently  canvassed,  are  the  cases  with  which 
the  members  of  these  societies  have  been  continually  shocked,  of 
coachmen  whipping  their  horses  in  public  places :  an  instance,  by 
the  way,  by  no  means  of  magnitude  enough  to  call  for  the  inter- 
ference of  the  legislature.  But  be  its  magnitude  what  it  will, 
why  must  the  legislature  be  called  in  ?  are  there  not  means  (suffi- 
cient probably  for  punishing  the  offence  adequately  in  each  in- 
stance, but  certainly  for  preventing  the  practice,)  in  the  power 
possessed  by  masters  and  mistresses  ?  But  apply  "to  any  of  these 
ladies,  and  satisfy  them,  after  much  difficulty,  that  their  coachman 
was  the  most  active  and  the  most  in  the  wrong,  in  the  struggle, 
which  caused  so  much  disturbance  at  the  last  Opera,  and  the  an- 
swer probably  will  be,  '*  Oh !  to  be  sure ;  it  is  very  shocking ;  but 
then  John  is  so  clever  in  a  crowd !  the  other  night  at  Lady  Such- 
a-one's,  when  all  the  world  were  perishing  in  the  passage,  waiting 
for  their  carriages,  ours  was  up  in  an  instant,  and  we  were  at 
Mrs.  Such-a-one's  half  an  hour  before  any  one  else.  We  should 
not  know  what  to  do,  if  we  were  to  part  with  him."  Is  it  the 
coachman  here,  who  most  deserves  punishment?  or  is  it  for  the 
parties  here  described  to  call  for  a  law,  which  is  to  lay  the  foun- 
dation of  a  new  era  of  legislation,  and  to  operate  with  great 
severity  and  most  flagrant  injustice  upon  whole  classes  of  people  ? 


CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL.  223 

A  similar  instance  will  be  found  in  the  case  just  alluded  to,  of 
the  traveller  and  the  post-horses.  Whose  fault  is  it,  in  nineteen 
cases  out  of  twenty,  that  these  sufferings  are  incurred  ?  The  tra- 
veller drives  up  in  haste,  his  servant  having  half-killed  one  post- 
horse  in  riding  forward  to  announce  his  approach ;  the  horses  are 
brought  out;  they  are  weak,  spavined,  galled,  hardly  dry  from 
their  last  stage.  What  is  the  dialogue  that  ensues  (  Does  the 
traveller  ever  offer  to  stop  on  his  journey,  or  even  wait  till  the 
horses  can  be  refreshed  1  Such  a  thought  never  enters  his  head ; 
he  swears  at  the  landlord,  and  threatens  never  to  come  again  to 
his  house,  because  he  expects  to  go  only  seven  miles  an  hour, 
when  he  had  hoped  to  go  nine ;  when  the  landlord  has  assured  him, 
that  the  horses,  however  bad  in  their  appearance,  will  carry  His 
Honour  very  well,  and  has  directed  the  "  lads"  to  "  make  the  best 
of  their  way,"  the  traveller's  humanity  is  satisfied,  and  he  hears 
with  perfect  composure  and  complacency  the  cracking  whips  of 
the  postilions,  only  intimating  to  them,  by-the-bye,  that  if  they  do 
not  bring  him  in  in  time,  they  shall  not  receive  a  farthing. 

What  revolting  and  disgusting  hypocrisy  is  it  in  persons  daily 
witnessing  without  remonstrance,  or  acting  in  such  scenes,  who 
will  not  sacrifice  the  smallest  particle  of  their  convenience  in  consi- 
deration of  any  pain  that  is  to  result  from  it,  to  be  inveighing,  with 
such  exaggerated  sensibility,  against  the  cruelties  practised  on  the 
brute  creation,  and  calling  for  a  law  to  punish  them ;  much  of 
that  cruelty  being  incurred  in  their  service,  and  under  their  imme- 
diate inspection  and  orders !  Where  is  the  justice  of  punishing 
the  innkeeper  here,  who,  if  he  refuses  his  horses,  loses  his  custom- 
ers and  his  means  of  livelihood,  or  the  post-boy,  who,  when  once 
employed,  must  perform  the  task  assigned  him  by  such  means  as 
he  has,  and  must  ply  his  whip,  till  the  pain  or  threat  overcomes 
the  pain  of  the  effort,  which  is  requisite  to  carry  the  horses 
through  their  stage  ? 

Such,  Sir,  are  the  proofs  of  the  injustice  of  the  law,  and  such 
are  the  proofs  that  no  law,  just  or  unjust,  is  necessary,  even  in  the 
cases  to  which  it  applies. 

But  what  shall  be  said  of  the  flagrant  and  horrid  injustice,  of 
withdrawing  from  its  operation  and  cognizance,  a  whole  class  of 
cases,  which,  if  such  a  bill  be  to  pass,  could  not,  one  should  think,  be 
allowed  to  stand  an  instant,  as  being  more  than  any  others,  in  the 
very  line  and  point-blank  aim  of  the  statute,  and  having  nothing  to 
protect  them,  but  that  which  ought,  in  justice  and  decency,  to  be 
the  strongest  reason  against  them ;  namely,  that  they  are  the 
mere  sports  of  the  rich  ?  Is  it  to  be  endured  or  believed,  that  a 
legislature  setting  about  the  great  and  original  work  of  enacting 
laws  to  prevent  the  sufferings  of  the  brute  creation,  should  still 
reserve  to  themselves,  and  that  too  by  a  most  severe  and  invidious 


224  CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL. 

code,  the  privilege  of  killing  animals,  by  a  cruel  and  lingering 
death,  in  mere  sport  and  wantonness  ?  The  reason  assigned  for  this 
extraordinary  omission,  by  the  author  of  the  bill,  may  be  suspected 
as  having  been  intended  as  a  mere  mockery.  It  is  said  that  being 
feroi  naturcB  (a  learned  distinction,  but  never  before,  surely,  so 
whimsically  applied),  they  are  not  entitled  to  the  protection  of 
man.  But  why,  because  they  do  not  ask  his  protection,  are  they 
to  be  liable  in  consequence  to  be  persecuted  and  tormented  by 
him  1  On  the  contrary,  if  he  does  nothing  for  their  good,  he 
ought  the  rather  to  be  required  to  do  nothing  for  their  harm. 
They  would  perish,  it  is  said,  if  left  to  themselves,  often  by  a 
cruel  death.  But  what  is  the  animal,  man  not  excepted,  that  is 
not  hable  so  to  perish?  If  this  argument  be  good  for  any  thing,  it 
may  justify,  in  pure  kindness,  our  killing  one  another.  Another 
danger  is,  that  they  would  become  so  numerous  as  to  overrun  the 
earth.  But  this  danger,  formidable  as  it  may  be  in  respect  to 
other  animals,  certainly  does  not  apply  to  one  great  class,  with 
which,  notwithstanding,  we  make  pretty  free,  namely,  the  fishes. 

After  all,  when  humanity  is  the  question,  what  connection  is 
there  between  the  necessity  of  destroying  those  animals  and  the 
right  which  we  claim  of  being  ourselves  the  destroyers?  It  is 
very  public-spirited,  no  doubt,  in  all  the  higher  orders  of  people 
to  offer  themselves  gratuitously  as  vermin-killers  to  the  rest  of  the 
community ;  but  it  is  an  odd  choice  for  them,  as  men  of  human- 
ity; particularly  as  it  is  found,  that  these  vermin  are  encouraged 
and  protected  for  the  sake  of  being  afterwards  killed,  and  certain- 
ly by  a  mode  of  destruction,  in  many  instances,  not  capable  of 
being  exceeded  in  cruelty  by  any  to  which  they  could  naturally 
be  liable.  Even  in  the  case  of  sheep  and  oxen,  which  must,  it  is 
admitted,  be  killed,  and  might  be  killed  possibly  by  a  gentleman 
with  as  little  pain  as  by  the  butcher,  we  should  think  it  an  odd 
taste  in  any  one,  to  be  desirous  literally  to  kill  his  own  mutton 
and  to  beg  of  his  butcher  that  he  might  be  allowed  on  the  next 
slaughter-day  to  take  his  place. 

It  is  in  vain  therefore  by  such  wTetched  evasions  and  subter- 
fuges to  attempt  to  disguise  the  fact,  that  if  with  such  a  preamble 
on  our  statutes,  and  with  acts  passed  in  consequence  to  punish  the 
lower  classes  for  any  cruelty  inflicted  upon  animals,  w^e  continue 
to  practise  and  to  reserve  in  great  measure  to  ourselves,  the  sports 
of  hunting,  shooting,  and  fishing,  we  must  exhibit  ourselves  as  the 
most  hardened  and  unblushing  hypocrites  that  ever  shocked  the 
feelings  of  mankind.  I  do  not  know  any  thing,  that  could  so 
justly  call  for  a  measure,  which  I  have  always  been  among  the 
first  to  resist,  a  Parliamentary  Reform.  Strongly  as  I  have  always 
declared  against  such  a  measure,  as  wholly  uncalled-for  by  any 
thing  in  the  practice  of  parliament  as  now  constituted,  I  must 


CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL.  225 

fairly  confess,  that  if  it  should  appear  in  any  instance  that  so  scan- 
dalous a  distinction  could  be  made  between  the  interests  of  high 
and  low,  rich  and  poor,  I  should  be  not  a  little  shaken  in  my  opposi- 
tion, and  must  be  driven  in  a  great  measure  from  that  argument, 
w^hich,  as  long  as  it  can  be  maintained,  is  conclusive  against  every 
such  proposal,  namely,  that  there  is  no  class  in  the  community 
whose  interests,  even  as  parliament  is  at  present  constituted,  are 
not  upon  the  whole  fairly  taken  care  of  What  a  pretty  figure 
must  we  make  in  the  world,  if  in  one  column  of  the  newspapers 
we  should  read  a  string  of  instances  of  men  committed  under 
*  the  Cruelty  Bill,'  some  to  the  county-gaol  to  wait  for  trial 
at  the  assizes,  some  by  summary  process  to  the  house  of  correc- 
tion ;  and  in  another  part  an  article  of  *  Sporting  Intelligence,' 
setting  forth  the  exploits  of  my  Lord  Such-a-One's  hounds ; — how 
the  hounds  threw  off  at  such  a  cover ;  that  bold  Reynard  went 
off  in  a  gallant  style,  &c.  and  was  not  killed  till  after  a  chase  of 
ten  hours ;  that  of  fifty  horsemen  who  were  out  at  the  beginning  not 
above  five  were  in  at  the  death  ;  that  three  horses  died  in  the  field, 
and  several  it  was  thought  would  never  recover ;  and  that  upon 
the  whole  it  was  the  most  glorious  day's  sport  ever  remembered 
since  the  pack  w^as  first  set  up  !  Is  it  possible  that  men  could  stand 
the  shame  of  such  statements  ?  That  this  house,  which  tolerates 
such  sports,  nay,  which  claims  them,  as  the  pecuHar  privilege  of 
the  class  to  which  it  belongs,  a  house  of  hunters  and  shooters, 
should,  while  they  leave  these  untouched,  be  affecting  to  t^ke  the 
brute  creation  under  their  protection ;  and  be  passing  bills  for  the 
punishment  of  every  carter  or  driver,  whom  an  angry  passenger 
should  accuse  of  chastising  his  horse  with  over-severity  ? 

I  beg  not  to  be  understood,  as  condemning  the  sports,  to  which 
I  have  been  alluding,  and  much  less,  as  charging  with  cruelty  all 
those  who  take  delight  in  them,  cruel  as  the  acts  themselves  un- 
doubtedly are.  I  will  not  dispute  with  my  friend,  the  Honourable 
Mover  (Sir  Charles  Bunbury),  what  the  quantum  of  cruelty  is  in 
horse-racing ;  whether  the  whip  is  always  as  much  spared  as  he 
supposes,  or  whether,  when  it  is,  the  forbearance  proceeds  from 
humanity,  or  from  an  opinion  that  more  would  be  lost  by  the 
horse's  swerving  and  the  rider's  seat  being  rendered  unsteady 
than  would  be  gained  by  the  pain.  Though  no  sportsman  my- 
self, I  shall  lament  the  day,  should  it  ever  arrive,  when,  from  false 
refinement  and  mistaken  humanity,  what  are  called  field-sports 
(or  sports  indeed  of  almost  any  kind),  shall  be  abolished  in  this 
country,  or  fall  into  disuse.  So  far  from  arraigning  those  who 
follow  them,  my  doctrine  has  ever  been,  that  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  cruel  sports  do  not  make  cruel  people :  and  I  will  quote  for 
this  the  great  body  of  the  English  country  gentlemen,  and  of  the 
English  people,  now  and  in  all  former  times. 

2D 


226  CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL. 

But  still  while  these  practices  are  permitted,  beneficial  as  I  may 
think  them  in  their  general  consequences,  but  cruel  as  they  cer- 
tainly are  in  their  immediate  effects,  I  can  never  consent,  that  the 
house  should  go  off  into  such  a  wild  and  frantic  act  of  hypocrisy, 
as  to  hold  itself  out,  all  at  once,  for  the  champion  of  the  brute 
creation,  to  an  extent  unattempted  yet  in  the  laws  of  any  country. 
I  deny,  generally  speaking,  the  existence  of  the  abuses  complain- 
ed of.  I  deny  at  least  the  increase  of  them,  and  that  the  treatment 
of  animals  is  worse  now  than  in  former  times,  or  with  us  than  in 
other  countries.  There  is  in  general,  no  doubt,  a  very  coarse  and 
harsh  treatment  of  them,  such  as  may  be  expected  from  the  coarse- 
ness of  the  people  to  whose  care  they  are  for  the  most  part  com- 
mitted ;  but  even  this  is  often  founded  more  in  ignorance  and  un- 
skilfulness,  than  in  malice  or  ferocity.  Such  as  it  is,  however,  let 
it  be  corrected  by  all  the  means  that  can  with  propriety  be  appli- 
ed ;  by  reproof,  by  discountenance,  by  example,  by  admonition,  by 
punishments  finally  of  various  kinds  that  might  with  ease  be  re- 
sorted to,  and  be  made  abundantly  sufficient  for  their  purpose, 
were  not  men  more  ready  on  all  occasions  to  call  for  new  laws, 
than  to  tax  their  own  selfish  indolence  by  a  due  exertion  of  the 
powers  which  they  already  possess.  Many  of  these  instances  are 
moreover  falsely  estimated  by  those  who  allow  their  sensibilities 
(always  prompt  and  eager  in  their  application  to  others)  to  outrun 
their  judgment.  It  has  happened  to  me  as  often  as  to  my  neigh- 
bours, to  have  squabbles  with  carmen  and  drivers  of  different  de- 
scriptions for  ill  treating  their  horses :  but  I  have  more  than  once 
had  reason  afterwards  to  think  myself  in  the  wrong,  and  that  my 
complaints  have  been  ill-founded,  or  were,  at  least,  overcharged. 

Instances  are  however  unquestionably  to  be  met  with,  of  shock- 
ing and  atrocious  cruelty,  which  every  one  must  wish  to  have  the 
means  of  punishing.  A  case  of  this  sort,  known  or  related,  instant- 
ly inflames  men's  minds,  and  disposes  them,  without  further  con- 
sideration, to  call  for  a  law.  But  a  law  is  a  serious  thing,  and 
ought  not  to  be  adopted,  merely  upon  such  impulses.  There  has 
grown  up  in  the  country,  of  late  years,  a  habit  of  far  too  great 
facility  in  the  passing  of  laws.  The  immediate  object  only  is 
looked  to  ;  some  marked  cases  are  selected,  in  which  the  intend- 
ed operation  of  the  law  coincides  with  the  general  feeling :  but  no 
account  is  taken  of  the  numerous  instances  of  individuals  who 
would  silently  become  its  victims,  and  of  the  depredations  which 
it  would  make  on  the  general  happiness  and  security  of  persons 
in  lower  life. 

It  is  always  a  question,  whether  the  good  effects  of  a  law,  in  a 
few  rare  instances,  are  a  compensation  for  the  general  constraint 
imposed  by  it,  and  the  cases  in  which  it  will  operate  unjustly. 
Nor  is  it  true,  that  in  the  very  instances  that  will  be  adduced  on 


CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL.  227 

behalf  of  the  present  bill,  the  crime  will  go  (or  at  least  need  go) 
unpunished,  even  though  there  be  no  law  specially  provided  for 
the  purpose.  What  will  be  the  number  of  cases,  for  example,  in 
which  the  animal  ill-treated  is  not  the  property  of  some  one,  who, 
if  his  zeal  for  humanity  be  what  the  clamours  of  the  advocates  for 
this  bill  would  seem  to  indicate,  may  surely,  either  by  himself,  or 
with  the  aid  of  others,  inflict  ample  punishment  on  the  offender, 
on  the  score  of  mere  pecuniary  injury?  But  even  where  means 
for  that  purpose  cannot  be  had,  or  an  injury  of  that  description 
cannot  be  pleaded,  the  mere  publication  of  the  fact,  which  may 
be  the  work  of  any  one,  with  the  steps  that  may  be  taken  to  turn 
upon  it  the  pubUc  attention  and  indignation,  will  produce  in  the 
end  consequences  as  severe  as  any  that  the  case  requires,  or  that 
can  be  hoped  for  from  a  law.  If  there  be  not  virtue  or  humanity 
enough  in  the  country  to  make  the  commission  of  such  outrages 
ruinous  to  the  party  even  in  point  of  fortune  and  circumstances, 
to  hunt  down  such  offenders  by  a  general  exclusion  from  all  the 
benefits  of  intercourse,  and  by  marking  them  out  as  objects  of 
general  detestation,  it  may  well  be  doubted  what  the  effect  of  a 
law  would  be,  and  whether  among  those  who  call  for  such  a  law, 
there  is  not  more  of  a  fondness  for  persecution,  and  lust  of  power 
depending  for  its  exertion  on  little  else  than  their  own  will,  than 
of  real  concern  for  the  interests  of  humanity. 

It  must  at  all  events  be  more  by  manners  than  by  laws,  that 
any  good  can  be  done  upon  this  subject.  Animals  used  in  the 
service  of  man,  are  left  unavoidably  so  entirely  at  his  mercy,  are 
exposed  so  much  to  clandestine  mischief,  and  can  so  little  make 
known  their  own  injuries,  that  it  will  always  be  a  question,  whether 
an  attempt  to  protect  them  with  vindictive  justice,  will  not  subject 
them  to  more  ill-treatment  than  it  is  likely  to  guard  them  from.  If 
manners  cannot  protect  them,  miserable  indeed  must  be  their  con- 
dition, in  spite  of  all  that  law  can  do  for  them.  It  is  not  possible, 
in  the  nature  of  things,  that  law  can  with  so  much  precision  de- 
fine the  duty,  as  to  be  able  to  ensure  to  the  breach  of  it  the  in- 
tended punishment,  without  trusting  more  than  in  the  imperfect 
state  of  human  jurisdictions  it  is  fit  to  trust  to  the  discretion  of 
the  magistrate.  It  is  a  duty  evidently  of  that  sort  which  are 
called  *  imperfect  obligations ;'  of  which  the  definition  is,  that 
though  equally  binding  in  conscience  with  other  duties,  they  are 
not  capable  of  being  enforced  by  law.  They  must  in  consequence 
be  left  to  morals.  Let  them  be  inculcated  upon  that  footing  in 
every  possible  way,  from  the  pulpit,  from  the  press,  by  precept, 
by  exhortation,  by  example.  But  let  us  not  run  counter  to  the 
nature  of  things,  by  attempting,  what,  the  authors  of  the  bill  itself 
tell  us,  was  never  yet  attempted :  and  above  all  things  let  us  not 
bring  in  such  a  bill  as  the  present,  which,  without  contributing 


228  CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL. 

possibly  in  the  smallest  degree  to  the  very  object  in  view,  will  let 
loose  a  most  cruel  scourge  upon  the  lower  orders  of  the  people, 
will  commit  the  most  flagrant  injustice  in  the  manner  in  which 
the  bill  will  be  executed,  and  constitute  a  general  charge  of  injus- 
tice against  the  house,  such  as  it  has  never  before  been  exposed 
to,  and  from  which  it  will  be  impossible  to  vindicate  it. 

Sir,  the  objections  to  the  bill  are  indeed  so  numerous,  and  of 
such  a  nature,  that  I  am  satisfied  it  would  never  have  proceeded 
so  far  as  to  be  now  a  subject  of  discussion  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, if  those  who  are  really  adverse  to  it  would  fairly  have 
stood  by  their  opinion,  and  had  not  been  awed  by  the  apprehen- 
sion, that  in  opposing  a  bill,  directed  to  objects  apparently  so 
praiseworthy,  and  supported  by  topics  so  plausible  and  popular, 
however  ultimately  fallacious,  they  should  render  their  own  hu- 
manity questionable,  and  even  expose  themselves  to  be  considered 
as  the  direct  abettors  and  advocates  of  cruelty.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  such  will  be  the  charge  made  against  me.  But  to  that  I  must 
be  content  to  submit,  sooner  than  fail  in  the  duty  of  opposing  a 
measure  so  objectionable  as  I  think  this  to  be,  in  every  view  in 
which  it  can  be  contemplated. 

I  should  have  no  fear  in  trusting  my  justification  to  the  reasons 
I  have  already  given,  much  as  they  fall  short  of  what  I  might 
urge  upon  the  subject,  if  I  were  not  unwilling  to  trespass  further 
on  the  attention  of  the  house.  But  whatever  has  been  wanting 
on  my  part  will  be  amply  supplied  by  an  admirable  paper  in  a 
late  publication,*  in  which  will  be  found  much  masterly  discussion 
upon  this  subject,  considered  in  a  point  of  view  in  which,  for  the 
present,  I  have  abstained  from  speaking  of  it,  namely,  in  its  con- 
nection with  the  Society  for  the  Suppression  of  Vice.  As  well 
with  a  view  to  that  Society  as  to  the  present  subject,  and  to  the 
connection  between  the  tw^o,  I  earnestly  recommend  to  Gentlemen 
the  perusal  of  that  paper. 

Sir,  I  shall  now  propose  to  negative  the  motion  for  the  Speak- 
er's leaving  the  Chair,  for  the  purpose  of  moving  afterwards  that 
the  bill  be  committed  to  this  day  three  months. 

Mr.  Stephen,  Mr.  Jekyll,  Sir  Samuel  Romilly,  Mr.  Morris,  and  Lord  Por- 
chester,  spoke  in  favour  of  the  Bill.  Mr.  Davies  Giddy,  Mr.  Frankland,  Mr. 
Perceval,  and  the  Solicitor-General  doubted  the  necessity  of  it.  The  house  di- 
vided. 

For  going  into  the  committee 40 

Against  it 27 

Majority 13 


*Edinb.  Review,  No.  26. 


CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS  BILL.  229 

But  on  a  subsequent  day,  on  a  motion  that  the  House  should  go  into  a  Com- 
mittee on  the  Bill,  Mr.  Windham  moved  as  an  Amendment,  that  the  Bill 
should  be  committed  that  day  three  months.  Upon  a  division,  there  appeared, 

For  the  committee 27 

Against  it ,    ,    .    37 

Majority  against  the  Bill 10 

The  Bill  was  of  course  thrown  out 

In  the  next  session,  the  Bill  was  again  brought  into  the  House  of  Peers  by 
Lord  Erskine,  with  some  alterations,  and  was  read  a  first  and  second  time, 
and  committed ;  but  it  was  subsequently  withdrawn  by  the  Noble  Framer  of 
it,  who  stated  that  he  hoped  to  be  able  soon  to  prepare  some  other  measure 
on  this  subject  which  would  receive  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  House. 
20 


(     230     ) 


WALCHEREN  EXPEDITION. 

MARCH  30lh,  1810. 

After  a  long  investigation,  and  the  examination  of  many  witnesses  at  the 
Bar  of  the  House,  on  the  subject  of  the  Expedition  to  the  Scheldt,  Lord  Por- 
chester,  on  the  26th  March,  moved  the  following  Resolutions : 

**  1.  That,  on  the  28th  of  July  last,  and  subsequent  days,  an  armament, 
consisting  of  39,000  land  forces,  37  sail  of  the  line,  two  ships  of  50,  three  of 
44  guns,  24  frigates,  31  sloops,  five  bomb-vessels,  23  gun-brigs,  sailed  on  the 
late  expedition  to  the  Scheldt,  having  for  its  object  the  capture  or  destruction 
of  the  enemy's  ships,  either  building  at  Antwerp  or  Flushing,  or  afloat  on 
the  Scheldt;  the  destruction  of  the  arsenals  and  dock-yards  at  Antwerp, 
Torneux,  and  Flushing ;  the  reduction  of  the  Island  of  Walcheren ;  and  the 
rendering,  if  possible,  the  Scheldt  no  longer  navigable  for  ships  of  war. 

"  2.  That  Flushing  surrendered  on  the  15th  of  August,  whereby  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  Island  of  Walcheren  was  completed :  and  that  on  the  27th  of 
August,  all  attempts  on  the  fleets  and  arsenals  of  the  enemy  at  Antwerp 
were,  by  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  Lieutenant-Generals,  declared  to  be 
impracticable,  and  were  abandoned. 

"  3.  That  the  destruction  of  the  basin,  dock-yard,  arsenal,  magazines,  and 
naval  store-houses,  of  the  town  of  Flushing,  and  of  such  part  of  the  sea-de- 
fences as  it  was  found  proper  to  destroy,  having  been  effected  on  the  11th  irf' 
December,  the  Island  of  Walcheren  was,  on  the  23d  of  December,  evacuated 
by  his  Majesty's  forces,  and  the  expedition  ended. 

"  4.  That  it  does  not  appear  to  this  House,  that  the  fiiilure  of  this  expedi- 
tion is  imputable  to  the  conduct  of  the  army  or  the  navy  in  the  execution  of 
their  instructions,  relative  to  the  military  and  naval  operations  in  the  Scheldt. 

"5.  That,  on  the  19th  of  August,  a  malignant  disorder  showed  itself  among 
His  Majesty's  troops ;  and  that,  on  the  8th  of  September,  the  number  of  sick 
amounted  to  upwards  of  10,948  men. 

"  6.  That  it  appears,  by  the  report  of  the  physicians  appointed  to  investi- 
gate the  nature  and  causes  of  the  malady  to  which  His  Majesty's  troops  were 
thus  exposed,  that  the  disease  is  one  which  prevails  periodically  in  the  Islands 
of  Zealand,  and  is  of  peculiar  malignity  there,  and  which  constantly  follows 
a  law  of  season,  appearing  towards  the  end  of  summer,  becoming  more 
severe  in  the  autumnal  months,  declining  in  October,  and  nearly  ceasing 
in  November.  That  perfect  recoveries  are  rare,  convalescence  never  secure, 
and  that  the  recurrence  of  fever  quickly  lays  the  foundation  of  complaints 
which  render  a  large  proportion  of  the  sufferers  inefficient  for  future  military 
purposes. 


WALCHEREN  EXPEDITION.  231 

••  7.  That  of  the  army  which  embarked  for  service  in  the  Scheldt,  60  offi- 
cers and  3900  men,  exclusive  of  those  killed  by  the  enemy,  had  died  before 
the  Ist  of  February  last,  and  on  that  day,  217  officers,  and  11,269  men,  were 
reported  sick. 

"8.  That  the  expedition  to  the  Scheldt  was  undertaken  under  circum- 
stances which  affijrded  no  rational  hope  of  adequate  success,  and  at  the  pre- 
cise season  of  the  year  when  the  malignant  disease  which  has  proved  so  fatal 
to  His  Majesty's  brave  troops  was  known  to  be  most  prevalent ;  and  that  the 
advisers  of  this  ill-judged  enterprise  are,  in  the  opinion  of  this  House,  deeply 
responsible  for  the  heavy  calamities  with  which  its  failure  has  been  attended." 

There  was  also  a  second  set  of  Resolutions,  as  follows,  relatmg  to  the 
retention  of  the  Island  of  Walcheren  : — 

"  1,  That  Lieutenant-General  Sir  Eyre  Coote  having,  on  the  9th  of  Sep- 
tember, been  left  in  the  command  of  Walcheren,  with  an  army  of  about 
15,000  men,  did,  on  that  day,  make  an  official  report  on  the  state  of  the 
island,  the  extent  of  force  required  effectually  to  guard  it,  the  nature  and  con- 
dition of  its  defences,  and  the  number  of  men  then  sick  and  unfit  for  duty ; 
representing,  that  after  such  his  exposition.  His  Majesty's  ministers  would  be 
the  best  judges  of  the  propriety  or  possibility  of  keeping  the  island ;  and 
adding,  that  the  advantages  must  be  great,  indeed,  which  could  compensate 
the  loss  of  lives  and  treasure  which  the  retention  must  necessarily  occasion. 

"2.  That,  on  the  23d  of  September,  Sir  Eyre  Coote  stated  to  His  Majesty's 
ministers,  that  the  alarming  progress  of  disease  was  such,  that  if  it  should 
continue,  in  the  same  proportion,  for  three  weeks  longer  (as,  he  added,  there 
waa  every  probability  that  it  would),  our  possession  of  the  island  must  become 
very  precarious. 

"  3.  That,  on  the  6th  of  October,  Sir  Eyre  Coote,  after  stating  that  the 
number  of  sick  was  increasing,  and  that  the  effective  force  was  thereby  ren- 
dered so  trivial,  as  to  make  the  defence  of  the  island,  if  it  should  be  attacked, 
extremely  precarious,  did  express  his  anxiety  to  be  informed  of  the  intentions 
of  His  Majesty's  Government  as  to  the  future  state  of  Walcheren. 

"  4.  That,  notwithstanding  these,  and  many  other  pressing  representations, 
on  the  alarming  condition  of  the  troops,  and  the  danger  to  which  they  were 
exposed.  His  Majesty's  ministers  did  neglect  to  come  to  any  decision  until  the 
4th  of  November,  and  that  the  final  evacuation  of  Walcheren  did  not  take 
place  until  the  23d  of  December. 

"  5.  That,  on  the  10th  of  September,  the  number  of  sick  in  the  Island  of 
Walcheren  was,  exclusive  of  officers,  6,938 ;  and  that  the  total  number  of 
aick  embarked  for  England,  between  the  15th  of  September  and  the  16th  of 
November,  was  11,199,  making  in  that  period  an  increase  of  sick  of  4,268. 

"  6.  That  although  the  great  object  of  the  expedition  had  been  abandoned 
as  impracticable,  a  large  proportion  of  the  British  army  was  (without  any 
urgent  or  determined  purpose  in  view,  or  any  prospect  of  national  advantage 
to  justify  such  a  hazard,  or  to  compensate  such  a  sacrifice)  left  by  His  Ma- 
jesty's ministers  to  the  imminent  danger  of  attack  from  the  enemy,  and  ex- 


232  WALCHEREN  EXPEDITION. 

posed  during  a  period  of  more  than  three  months,  and  under  circumstances 
of  aggravated  hardships,  to  the  fatal  ravages  of  a  disease,  which  on  the  31st 
of  August  had  been  officially  announced  to  be  daily  increasing  to  a  most 
alarming  degree. 

"  7.  That  such  the  conduct  of  His  Majesty's  advisers  calls  for  the  severest 
censure  of  this  House." 

Lord  Castlereagh  defended  the  measure  of  the  expedition  at  great  length, 
and  the  House  adjourned. 

On  the  27th  March,  Mr.  Ponsonby  supported  the  Resolutions,  and  Lieu- 
tenant-General  Crauford  opposed  them.  The  latter  concluded  by  moving,  as 
an  Amendment,  two  Resolutions,  the  first  of  them  justifying  the  measure  of 
the  expedition,  on  account  of  the  great  increase  in  the  enemy's  naval  arsenals, 
and  also  as  a  diversion  in  favour  of  Austria ;  and  in  the  other  Resolution,  after 
expressing  regret  that  so  many  valuable  lives  had  been  lost,  the  retefttion  of 
Walcheren  was  declared  to  be  necessary  on  account  of  the  state  of  the  nego- 
tiations between  Austria  and  France. 

On  the  29th  March,  Mr.  Grattan  and  Mr.  Whitbread  spoke  at  length  in 
favour  of  the  Original  Resolutions,  and  Mr.  Canning  against  them. 

On  the  30th,  Sir  Thomas  Turton,  Sir  Francis  Burdett,  and  Mr.  Bathurst, 
gave  their  support  to  Lord  Porchester's  Resolutions.  General  Loftus  and  Mr 
Peel  spoke  in  favour  of  the  Amendment 

Mr.  Windham  addressed  the  Chair  in  a  speech  of  which  the 
following  is  the  substance  — 

Sir, 
I  SHALL  not  occupy  the  time  of  the  house  by  commenting  upon 
the  theories  and  sentiments  of  the  Honourable  Baronet  (Sir 
Francis  Burdett),  as  the  judicious  arguments  of  the  Honourable 
Gentleman,  who  spoke  last  but  one  (Mr.  Bragge  Bathurst),  have 
precluded  the  necessity  of  any  observations  from  me  upon  that 
subject.  I  shall  therefore  proceed  as  shortly  as  I  can  to  offer  to 
the  house  my  sentiments  upon  the  disastrous  expedition  to  Wal- 
cheren— that  monstrous  child  of  presumption  and  folly — and  in 
order  to  present  to  the  house  a  full  and  clear  view  of  the  subject, 
I  shall  feel  it  necessary  to  take  the  matter  up  at  an  earlier  period, 
and  to  discuss  it  upon  broader  grounds,  than  the  Gentlemen  who 
have  preceded  me  in  this  debate  have  thought  it  expedient  to  do. 
In  stating  this,  I  beg  the  house  not  to  be  alarmed  with  the  appre- 
hension that  I  intend  to  occupy  any  very  material  portion  of  their 
time.  The  mode  in  which  I  propose  to  discuss  the  question,  will 
probably  be  found  to  be  the  most  concise  that  could  be  adopted ; 
as  it  frequently  happens,  according  to  an  old  proverb,  that  **  the 
farthest  way  about  is  the  nearest  way  home."  I  shall  attempt  to 
show,  not  only  that  this  expedition  could  not  possibly  succeed, 
but  that  even  success  would  not  have  justified  the  employment  of 


WALCHEREN  EXPEDITION.  233 

such  a  proportion  of  the  national  force  to  the  purposes  of  such  an 
expedition.  I  am  aware,  that  in  supporting  the  latter  proposition, 
I  shall  have  the  popular  voice  against  me ;  but  it  has  frequently 
been  my  lot  to  contend  against  the  senseless  clamours  of  the 
populace,  and  I  have  not  unfrequently  had  the  satisfaction  to  find 
that  measures  which  have  been  proposed  by  me  in  direct  oppo- 
sition to  popular  opinion,  have  ultimately,  by  that  very  opinion, 
been  fully  sanctioned.  Nothing  can  be  more  derogatory  from  the 
character  of  a  statesman,  than  a  perpetual  hankering  after  popu- 
larity. To  a  desire  of  this  sort,  on  the  part  of  His  Majesty's 
ministers,  do  I  attribute  this  most  calamitous  expedition,  and  all 
the  disgrace  and  ruin  which  have  attended  it ;  and  I  must  say, 
that  if  the  persons  intrusted  with  the  direction  of  the  energies  of 
the  kingdom,  continue  to  be  actuated  by  this  sentiment,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  foresee,  that  the  destruction  of  the  country  must  be 
the  inevitable  consequence. 

To  demonstrate  the  folly  and  impracticability  of  the  plan  (if 
plan  it  may  be  called)  of  this  monstrous  expedition,  it  wall  not  be 
necessary  to  go  into  a  very  minute  detail  of  the  mass  of  evidence 
which  has  been  laid  upon  the  table.  I  shall  content  myself  with 
selecting  a  few  of  the  more  prominent  points.  In  making  this 
selection,  I  shall  have  little  difficulty ;  the  whole  conduct  of  the 
expedition  is  so  pregnant  with  ignorance  and  folly,  and  presents 
such  a  choice  of  blunders,  tliat  had  it  been  divided  amongst  ten 
administrations,  it  would  have  been  sufficient  to  condemn  them 
all.  The  Noble  Lord  (Castlereagh),  however,  in  defending  the 
conduct  of  himself  and  his  colleagues  upon  this  melancholy  occa- 
sion, has  expressed  himself  with  a  degree  of  callous  indifference, 
intermixed  with  pleasantry,  which  cannot  but  seem  ill-adapted  to 
his  situation.  For  my  own  part,  I  could  not  listen  without  indig- 
nation and  horror  to  the  arguments,  so  full  of  nothingness,  and 
delivered  with  so  much  flippancy,  by  which  that  Noble  Lord 
attempted  to  defend  himself  for  having  wantonly  consigned  thou- 
sands of  his  countrymen  to  an  inglorious  grave.  His  late  Right 
Honourable  Colleague  (Mr.  Canning)  has  certainly  conducted 
himself  with  greater  propriety.  Some  part,  at  least,  of  his  usual 
presumption  seems  to  have  forsaken  him ;  and  it  unquestionably 
does  now  become  His  Majesty's  ministers  to  be  humble — their 
wings  have  been  damped  by  the  fogs  of  Walcheren — they  are 
like  wasps  in  rainy  weather — we  may  examine  them  without  fear 
of  their  stings. 

In  discussing  the  conduct  of  this  miserable  expedition,  this  con- 
catenation of  blunders,  this  long  lane  of  mischiefs  which  has  no 
turn,  except  to  destruction,  the  first  thing  to  be  observed  is,  that, 
according  to  all  their  evidence,  the  planners  of  the  expedition 
could  have  no  hope  of  success,  unless  all  the  chances  turned  out 
20*  2E 


234  WALCHEREN  EXPEDITION. 

in  their  favour,  unless  all  their  cards  turned  to  be  trumps.  The 
wind  must  blow  from  a  certain  point,  and  it  must  blow  with  a 
certain  degree  of  force; — if  the  wind  changed,  the  expedition 
could  not  arrive  at  the  destined  point; — and  if  the  wind  blew 
fresh,  it  would  produce  a  surf,  and  prevent  the  landing.  Now, 
considering  the  proverbial  certainty  of  the  wind,  the  expectation 
that  all  these  things  would  happen  must  be  admitted  to  have  been 
extremely  rational;  but,  supposing  that  His  Majesty's  ministers 
could  have  had  sufficient  influence  to  induce  the  wind  to  blow  ex- 
actly as  they  wished  it,  still  to  insure  any  thing  Hke  a  prospect  of 
success  to  the  expedition,  this  mighty  armament  must,  in  all  its 
subsequent  operations,  have  moved  with  the  regularity  and  pre- 
cision of  a  piece  of  machinery ;  one  operation  must  be  performed 
in  three  days,  another  in  four,  the  artillery  must  move  through 
the  sand  without  friction,  and  there  must  be  "no  enemy  to  fight 
withal."  What  a  pity  it  is  that  our  sober  ministers  have  not  been 
in  the  habit  of  frequenting  the  gaming  table;  had  they  known 
how  to  calculate  odds,  they  never  would  have  sent  out  this  expe- 
dition. But,  Sir,  the  truth  is,  that  this  gallant  army,  this  last  hope 
of  England,  was  committed  to  imminent  hazards  and  ultimate 
destruction,  without  any  thing  like  a  plan  for  the  guidance  of  its 
operations.  The  Noble  Lord  seems  to  have  thought  it  quite  suffi- 
cient to  send  out  an  expedition,  and  leave  the  rest  to  chance. 
My  Lord  Chatham  was  sent  out  to  try  experiments.  I  remember 
a  story  of  a  man,  who,  being  asked  if  he  could  play  on  the  fiddle, 
said,  "  he  could  not  tell,  but  he  would  try."  Such  was  precisely 
the  situation  of  my  Lord  Holland  (a  loud  laugh).  I  must  beg 
His  Lordship's  pardon  for  having  substituted  his  name  for  that  of 
my  Lord  Chatham ;  but  His  Lordship  is  always  near  my  heart, 
and  his  name  has  involuntarily  shpped  from  my  tongue. 

What  did  the  military  opinions  amount  to?  Precisely  nothing; 
and  how  could  it  be  otherwise,  seeing  that  the  officers  had  no 
data  whereon  to  found  their  opinions  ?  Ministers,  indeed,  tell  us 
that  they  had  information  from  their  spies,  that  there  were  so 
many  men  at  Antwerp — so  many  at  Lillo — and  so  many  at  Ber- 
gen-op-Zoom ;  but  it  must  be  recollected  that  it  is  the  interest  of 
spies  to  smooth  the  difficulties  that  lie  in  the  way  of  their  employ- 
ers ;  and,  independently  of  this  consideration,  how  is  it  possible 
for  spies  to  form  an  estimate  of  the  amount  of  the  small  detach- 
ments which  are  scattered  all  over  the  country  ?  It  must  also  be 
recollected,  that  a  great  part  of  the  population  of  the  country 
consists  of  men  who  have  been  accustomed  to  the  use  of  arms ; 
ay,  Sir,  and  who  have  seen  fire  too.  The  very  sweepings  of 
such  a  country  would  have  been  suflicient  for  the  defence  of 
Antwerp.  But  were  ministers  so  very  ignorant,  as  not  to  know 
that  there  are  between  twenty  and  thirty  fortified  towns,  within  a 


WALCHEREN  EXPEDITION.  ,  235 

few  days'  march  of  Antwerp,  and  that  each  of  those  towns  has 
its  garrison  ?  Nay,  it  is  now  known,  that  troops  were  sent  even 
from  Paris  to  Antwerp,  before  our  devoted  army  reached  the 
point  where  its  difficulties  were  to  commence.  Did  ministers 
think  that  the  troops  of  the  enemy  were  immovable  ?  The  insane 
calculations  of  these  dreamers  remind  me  of  a  countryman,  who, 
in  directing  a  traveller  across  the  Downs,  told  him,  that  he  must 
travel  three  or  four  miles,  and  when  he  came  to  a  flock  of  sheep, 
he  must  turn  to  the  right.  But  how  if  the  sheep  had  changed  their 
position  before  he  got  there?  What  would  Gentlemen  say  of 
Buonaparte,  if,  on  receiving  intelligence  from  his  spies  that  there 
were  only  seven  or  eight  thousand  troops  in  or  near  Portsmouth, 
he  was  to  send  an  expedition  of  forty  thousand  men  to  take  the 
place  ?    Would  they  not  say  that  he  was  insane  ? 

The  Noble  Lord,  however,  says,  that  it  was  intended  to  take 
Antwerp  by  a  coup-de-main.  What  must  the  enemy,  Sir,  think 
of  us,  when  they  hear  this  stated  1  With  what  contempt  and  ridi- 
cule must  they  not  treat  us,  when  they  learn  that  the  projector  of 
this  mighty  expedition  is  acquainted  with  the  terms  of  military 
science,  without  having  the  slightest  idea  of  the  meaning  of  those 
terms  ?  Good  God,  Sir,  talk  of  coup-de-main  with  forty  thousand 
men,  and  thirty-three  sail  of  the  line !  Gentlemen  might  as  well 
talk,  of  a  coup-de-main  in  the  Court  of  Chancery  (loud  and  con- 
tinued laughter).  I  have  no  wish.  Sir,  to  excite  merriment  upon 
this  melancholy  occasion,  but  the  whole  of  the  conduct  of  minis- 
ters is  so  pregnant  with  blunders,  so  full  of  ridicule,  that  it  is  im- 
possible barely  to  describe  it  without  producing  a  laugh. 

But  the  Noble  Lord  has  had  the  modesty  to  assert,  that  the 
expedition  went  on  very  well ;  that  Buonaparte  did  nothing  for 
the  defence  of  Antwerp ;  that  when  our  Commanders  gave  up  the 
enterprise,  there  w^ere  only  twenty-six  thousand  troops  in  and 
near  Antwerp ;  and  of  those  troops,  the  Noble  Lord  has  thought 
proper  to  speak  in  terms  of  the  utmost  contempt.  What  was  there 
in  the  composition  of  those  troops  to  induce  the  Noble  Lord  to  ^ 
treat  them  with  ridicule  ?  Were  they  volunteers,  or  were  they 
local  militia  1  This  assertion  of  the  Noble  Lord,  if  it  amounts  to 
any  thing,  amounts  to  a  censure  of  the  officers  entrusted  with  the 
command  of  the  expedition.  The  Noble  Lord  and  his  colleagues 
evidently  wish  to  have  it  inferred  that  the  commanders  of  the  ex- 
pedition have  been  to  blame.  Why,  then,  do  they  not  plainly  tell 
us  so  1  They  point  their  fingers  at  the  commanders,  but  they  dare 
not  name  them.  It  is  fortunate  for  the  country,  however,  that 
the  commanders  were  not  mad  enough  to  attempt  to  proceed  to 
Antwerp ;  calamitous  and  disgraceful  as  the  result  of  the  expedi- 
tion has  been,  our  ruin  would,  in  that  event,  have  been  still  more 
complete.    If  it  be  asked  why  Buonaparte  did  not  send  more 


236  WALCHEREN  EXPEDITION. 

troops  to  Antwerp,  the  answer  is  evident ;  his  troops,  though  not 
under  the  walls  of  Antwerp,  were  in  situations  from  whence  they 
could  be  speedily  sent  either  there  or  to  any  other  point  likely  to 
be  attacked  by  us.  The  troops  then  in  the  garrison  were  sufficient 
for  present  defence;  and  it,  therefore,  was  not  worth  his  while 
to  send  more  troops,  until  he  ascertained  that  our  commanders 
were  desperate  enough  to  attempt  the  siege  of  the  place.  He  well 
knew  (though  our  ministers  did  not)  what  sort  of  an  enemy  our 
brave  army  had  to  contend  with,  in  the  pestilential  marshes  of 
Walcheren ;  and  much  would  he  rejoice,  when  he  found  that  min- 
isters had  been  insane  enough  to  send  their  armament  to  the 
Scheldt.  When  he  first  heard  that  such  was  the  destination  of 
our  boasted  expedition,  with  what  a  smile  of  satisfaction  would 
he  sav  to  his  ministers, 


"  there  let  them  lie, 


"  Till  famine  and  the  ague  eat  them  up." 

Upon  a  consideration.  Sir,  of  all  the  evidence  laid  upon  your 
table,  I  feel  myself  bound  solemnly  to  call  upon  this  house  for  the 
condemnation  of  those  ministers  who  have  wantonly  compromised 
the  safety  and  honour  of  the  country,  by  undertaking  an  expedi- 
tion in  which  success  was  absolutely  impossible.  I  shall  now^ 
Sir,  attempt  to  show,  that  even  success  would  not  have  justified 
His  Majesty's  ministers  in  putting  to  hazard  the  last  army  of  the 
country  upon  this  expedition.  The  administration.  Sir,  with  whom 
I  had  the  honour  to  act,  made  it  their  uniform  study  to  husband 
the  resources  of  the  country;  regardless  of  popular  clamour, 
they  determined  not  to  expend,  in  fruitless  expeditions,  that  blood 
and  that  treasure,  which,  at  no  very  distant  period,  may  be  re- 
quired in  the  defence  of  all  that  is  dear  to  us.  I  am,  how^ever, 
ready  to  admit,  that  there  may  be  occasions  which  call  for  a  de- 
parture from  the  rules  of  ordinary  prudence  ;  the  Spanish  Revo- 
lution was,  in  my  opinion,  one  of  those  occasions ;  and  had  I 
been  in  office  when  that  event  occurred,  I,  for  one,  would  have 
concurred  in  the  propriety  of  sending  to  the  Peninsula  the  largest 
disposable  force  which  the  country  could  possibly  spare.  When 
I  first  heard  that  the  expedition  which  was  afterwards  sent  to  the 
Scheldt  was  in  contemplation,  I  did  hope  that  it  was  destined  to 
reinforce  our  gallant  army  then  in  Spain.  I  was  at  that  time  in 
the  country,  but,  before  the  saihng  of  the  expedition,  I  came  to 
London,  where  I  heard,  from  persons  upon  whose  information  I 
could  rely,  such  an  account  of  the  state  of  the  public  mind,  and  of 
the  events  then  passing  in  the  north  of  Germany,  as  to  induce  me  to 
form  an  opinion,  that  to  send  our  disposable  force  there,  would  be 
preferable  even  to  sending  it  to  Spain.  Schill,  and  many  other  en- 
terprising men,  had  embarked  in  a  cause,  in  which  their  lives  were 


WALCHEREN  EXPEDITION.  237 

at  stake,  and  had  they  been  supported  by  a  powerful  British  army, 
something  might  have  been  achieved  to  avert  the  sinking  destinies 
of  Europe. 

The  hopes  of  the  continent  were  turned  towards  His  Majesty's 
ministers ;  but,  alas  !  how  cruelly  were  those  hopes  disappointed  ! 
Puffed  up  with  the  selfish  expectation  of  obtaining  a  little  moment- 
ary popularity,  by  the  capture  of  a  few  ships,  and  the  destruction 
of  an  arsenal,  the  King's  ministers  sent  this  mighty  armament 
(which  might  possibly  have  decided  the  fate  of  Europe)  upon  a 
predatory  expedition.  How  could  the  expedition  to  Antwerp  pro- 
duce a  diversion  in  favour  of  Austria  'i  If  ministers  had  realised 
the  hope  of  taking  Antwerp,  what  would  our  army  have  done 
next?  Must  they  not  instantly  have  turned  their  backs  upon  the 
enemy,  and  got  on  board  their  ships  as  fast  as  their  legs  could 
carry  them  ?  Would  they  not  otherwise  have  been  exposed  to  inevi- 
table destruction  ?  Well  might  Austria  complain,  and  bitterly  com- 
plain, of  the  selfishness  and  meanness  of  our  conduct. 

But  ministers  say,  that  they  were  prevented  from  sending  the 
expedition  to  the  north  of  Germany  by  motives  of  humanity :  their 
humane  minds  could  not  brook  the  idea  of  exciting  an  insurrec- 
tion among  the  Germans,  lest  the  insurgents  should  afterwards  be 
butchered  by  the  French ;  and  this  we  are  told  by  the  very  men 
whose  tender  mercies  were  exhibited  in  the  attack  upon  Copenha- 
gen— that  base  and  infamous  expedition,  by  which  the  reputation 
of  this  country  has  received  a  stab,  never  to  be  effaced  while  the 
records  of  our  history  shall  exist.  But  how  does  it  happen,  that 
the  tender  feelings  of  our  ministers  are  reserved  exclusively  for 
the  inhabitants  of  Germany  ?  Why  did  not  those  feelings  operate 
to  prevent  our  own  brave  soldiers  from  being  consigned  to  destruc- 
tion in  a  charnel-house  like  Walcheren  ?  Where  were  those  feel- 
ings when  ministers  ordered  to  be  exposed  to  all  the  horrors  of  a 
bombardment,  the  inhabitants  of  Flushing,  whom  we  pretended  to 
have  come  to  deliver  from  the  tyranny  of  the  French  ?  This  af- 
fectation, this  cant  of  humanity,  is  truly  ridiculous. 

The  ministers  have  brought  evidence  before  the  house,  to  prove 
that  if  the  expedition  had  been  sent  upon  a  service  which  required 
protracted  operations,  they  could  not  have  found  money  to  pay 
the  troops — the  expedition,  therefore,  could  not  be  of  any  use  as 
a  diversion  in  favour  of  Austria,  even  if  the  fate  of  Austria  had 
not  been  decided,  as  it  actually  was,  before  the  expedition  embark- 
ed. But  ministers,  it  seems,  were  determined  to  send  an  expedi- 
tion somewhere ;  the  good  folks  of  Margate  and  Ramsgate,  and 
the  rest  of  the  watering-places,  must  have  something  to  talk  about 
— the  Noble  Lord  (Castlereagh)  must  have  a  trip  to  the  coast  to 
see  the  raree-show  of  an  embarkation ;  and,  therefore,  must  the 
best  troops  ot  the  country  be  sent  to  absolute  destruction. 


238  *  WALCHEREN  EXPEDITION. 

The  Noble  Lord,  however,  says,  that  we  must  not  pass  a  cen- 
sure upon  him  and  his  colleagues,  inasmuch  as  the  expedition  he 
planned  has  not  been  tried  ;  the  ultimate  objects  of  the  expedition, 
he  says,  have  not  been  attempted.  Really,  Sir,  this  is  so  wretched 
a  quibble,  that  I  am  inclined  to  suspect  that  it  has  originated  with 
the  nisi  prius  part  of  the  administration. — The  Walcheren  Expe- 
dition not  tried!  Am  I  dreaming,  Sir?  are  we  really  now  discuss- 
ing the  merits  of  a  mighty  expedition,  which  sailed  to  the  Scheldt 
about  eight  months  ago,  and  which  returned  about  four  months 
afterwards,  defeated,  disgraced,  and  almost  annihilated  ?  I  cry  his 
Lordship  mercy,  but  I  really  did  suppose  somehow  or  other  that 
the  Expedition  to  Walcheren  had  been  tried.  Does  His  Lordship 
mean  to  deny  that  the  whole  of  the  expedition,  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end,  was  under  the  direction  of  His  Majesty's  government  ? 
And  is  that  government  not  liable  to  be  called  to  account  for  its 
total  failure  ? 

I  have  now,  Sir,  only  to  observe,  that  if  ministers  are  not  ar- 
rested in  their  career  of  folly,  by  the  censure  of  this  house,  the 
consequences  to  the  country  may  be  dreadful  in  the  extreme — the 
responsibility  of  ministers  will  be  an  empty  sound — the  aspersions 
which  have  been  thrown  upon  this  house,  by  persons  out  of  doors, 
will  receive  confirmation — and  the  confidence  of  the  people,  (I  do 
not  mean  the  people,  in  the  technical  sense  of  the  word,  but  the 
sober  and  thinking  part  of  the  nation,)  in  their  representatives, 
will  be  lost  forever ! 


The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  replied  to  Mr.  Windham,  and  Mr.  R.  Dun- 
das  also  defended  the  expedition,  which  was  censured  by  Mr.  Tieraey  and 
Mr.  Brougham ;  after  which  the  house  divided  on  the  original  Resolutions  of 
Lord  Porchester ; 

For  Ministers 275 

For  the  Resolutions 227 

Majority  for  Ministers 48 

A  second  division  then  took  place  on  the  first  Resolution  of  General  Craufiird, 
which  was  as  an  amendment  to  the  original  resolutions : 

Ayes 272 

Noes 232 

Majority  for  Ministers 40 


WALCHEREN  EXPEDITION.  239 

A  third  division  took  place  on  the  omission  of  the  word  "  nor,"  which  was 
moved  by  Mr.  Canning : 

Ayes 275 

Noes 224 

Iktajority  for  ministers 51 

The  fourth  division  was  on  the  last  Resolution  of  General  Craufurd,  decla- 
ratory of  the  approbation  of  the  house  in  the  retention  of  Walcheren,  and 
consequently  approving  the  conduct  of  Ministers  in  that  respect ; 

Ayes 255 

Noes 232 

Majority  for  Ministers 23 


SELECT  SPEECHES 


OK 


THE    RIGHT   HONOURABLE 

WILLIAM   HUSKISSON 

TO  WHICH  IS  PREFIXED, 

A   BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR. 

81  3F  241 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR 


OP 


THE   RIGHT   HONOURABLE 


WILLIAM    HUSKISSON 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR 

OF 

THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE 

WILLIAM    HUSKISSON 


William  Huskisson  was  descended  from  a  gentleman's  family, 
of  moderate  fortune,  which  had  been  long  settled  in  Staffordshire. 
His  ancestors  for  several  generations  had  resided  upon  their  own 
property,  pursuing  no  profession,  and  belonged  to  that  class  of 
small  landed  proprietors — a  country  gentleman,  then  so  numerous, 
but  which  is  now  become  nearly  extinct. 

His  father  William  was  the  second  son  of  William  Huskisson, 
Esquire,  of  Oxley,  near  Wolverhampton.  He  married  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  John  Bellows,  Esquire,  of  an  ancient  Staffordshire 
family.  On  his  marriage  with  this  lady,  Mr.  Huskisson  hired  the 
residence  called  Birch  Moreton  Court — then  belonging  to  the 
Earl  of  Belmont — with  an  extensive  farfn  attached  to  it,  in  the 
county  of  Worcester,  where  the  subject  of  this  memoir  was  born 
.on  the  11th  of  March,  1770. 

We  may  pass  briefly  and  rapidly  over  the  preliminary  part  of 
Mr.  Huskisson's  education.  It  is  sufficient  to  say,  that  on  his 
mother's  death,  being  then  about  five  years  old,  he  was  placed  at 
an  infant  school,  at  Brewood,  in  Staffordshire ;  more,  as  may  well 
be  understood,  for  the  purpose  of  being  taken  care  of  than  for 
that  of  instruction :  that  he  was  afterwards  removed  to  Albrigh- 
ton,  and  lastly,  to  Appleby  in  Leicestershire ;  where,  young  as 
he  was,  he  gave  evident  promise  of  those  talents  by  which,  in 
after-life,  he  acquired  for  himself  such  a  splendid  reputation.  It 
is  singular  that  even  then  he  evinced  the  peculiar  aptitude  for 
figures  and  calculations  which  subsequently  enabled  him  in  Par- 
liament to  give  to  the  most  intricate  numerical  details  a  clearness 

21*  245 


246  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

unequalled  in  the  financial  expositions  of  other  statesmen,  and 
which  (as  it  has  been  said)  rendered  his  statements  so  intelligible 
as  to  make  those  of  his  auditors  least  conversant  with  such  sub- 
jects believe  at  least  that  they  understood  his  plans  and  compre- 
hended his  reasoning. 

But  whatever  might  have  been  the  early  genius  exhibited  by 
Mr.  Huskisson,  or  however  promising  his  talents  and  abilities  at 
that  period,  the  successful  cultivation  and  developement  of  them 
were  probably  owing,  in  a  great  measure,  to  the  watchful  care 
which  was  afterwards  bestowed  upon  his  education  by  his  ma- 
ternal great-uncle.  Dr.  Gem. 

Dr.  Gem  was  a  physician  of  considerable  eminence  in  his  day, 
and  well  known  and  highly  esteemed ;  not  more  for  his  profes- 
sional skill  than  for  his  other  numerous  scientific  and  literary 
attainments.  When  the  Duke  of  Bedford  was  appointed  ambas- 
sador to  France,  at  the  peace  of  1763,  Dr.  Gem  accompanied  him 
as  physician  to  the  embassy. 

The  brilliant  society  of  men  of  letters  in  which  he  constantly 
mixed,  and  the  facilities  which  Paris  then  presented  for  the  pur- 
suit of  difl^erent  branches  of  science,  proved  so  congenial  to  his 
nature,  that  he  determined  to  fix  his  residence  in  that  capital  and 
its  vicinity ;  still,  however,  paying  frequent  visits  to  his  friends  in 
England,  and  to  a  small  patrimonial  estate  which  he  possessed 
in  Worcestershire.  Towards  his  niece  (Mrs.  Huskisson)  he 
always  entertained  a  particular  aflTection ;  and,  after  her  death, 
continued  to  take  great  interest  in  her  children.  Their  father 
having  contracted  a  second  marriage.  Dr.  Gem  became  anxious 
that  the  two  elder  of  his  nephews  should  be  entrusted  to  his  care. 
After  some  hesitation,  his  wishes  were  complied  with ;  and  they 
were  permitted  to  accompany  their  great-uncle  on  his  return  to 
Paris,  in  1783. 

When  this  arrangement  took  place,  Mr.  Huskrsson  was  in  the 
fourteenth  year  of  his  age,  and  of  a  disposition  calculated  to  de- 
rive the  greatest  advantages  from  the  guidance  and  ,  superin- 
tendence of  a  mind  like  that  of  Dr.  Gem,  who  presided  over  his 
education  with  unremitting  care  and  scrutinizing  attention.  Those 
who  recollect  having  seen  them  together  during  the  visit  which 
the  Doctor  annually  made  with  his  young  charges  to  England, 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  247 

describe  him  as  exacting  from  the  boys  a  strict  and  diligent  ap- 
plication to  their  studies,  and  as  indefatigable  in  his  efibrts  to 
foster  and  expand  the  indications  of  genius,  with  which  their 
minds  were  endowed  by  nature. 

The  moment  at  which  Dr.  Gem  first  undertook  the  charge  of 
Mr.  Huskisson  and  his  brother,  was  one  full  of  extraordinary 
political  interest ;  and  of  all  places  in  the  world,  Paris  was  the 
one  in  \^hich  this  interest  would  be  likely  to  act  the  most  power- 
fully upon  a  youthful  and  energetic  imagination. 

On  the  generous  nature  of  Mr.  Huskisson,  the  stirring  events 
of  the  times  undoubtedly  produced  a  powerful  impression ;  and 
every  year  naturally  added  to  his  enthusiasm  for  the  success  of  a 
cause  which  enlisted  in  its  favour  all  the  best  sympathies  of  hu- 
manity, and  which  was  as  yet  unsullied  by  the  horrible  atrocities 
which  marked  its  after-course  with  blood  and  crime :  while  the 
financial  discussions,  which  followed  in  rapid  succession  as  the 
difficulties  of  the  times  grew  more  complicated,  seized  upon  the 
peculiar  bent  of  his  understanding,  and  gave  him  a  turn  for  the 
study  of  political  knowledge,  which  may  be  said  to  have  decided 
his  future  destiny. 

Mr.  Huskisson  was  present  at  the  taking  and  destruction  of  the 
Bastile,  in  July,  1789.  At  this  time,  his  zeal  and  enthusiasm  for 
the  cause  of  liberty  had  reached  their  zenith.  In  the  course  of 
the  following  year,  he  became  a  member  of  the  Club  of  1789, 
which  had  been  then  just  established.  In  spite  of  the  objections 
which  were  pointed  out,  the  plan  of  issuing  assignats  was  ad- 
hered to;  and  Mr.  Huskisson  then  detached  himself  from  all 
further  connexion  with  the  club.  He  delivered  a  speech  against 
them,  when  the  anglo-mania  was  at  its  height  in  Paris ;  and  the 
young  Englishman  soon  found  himself  an  object  of  general  interest 
and  admiration  in  all  the  most  distinguished  liberal  circles  of 
that  metropolis.  His  discourse  was  loudly  extolled ;  his  talents 
became  the  theme  of  general  conversation ;  and  his  society  was- 
eagerly  courted  by  people  of  the  highest  consideration  and  fashion 
of  both  sexes. 

'  To  the  favourable  opinion  of  Dr.  Warner,  Mr.  Huskisson  was 
indebted  for  his  first  introduction  to  the  present  Marquis  of 
Staflbrd  ;  then  Lord  Gower,  the  British  Minister  at  Paris.    Struck 


248  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

with  the  pleasing  manners  and  promising  talents  of  his  youthful 
countryman,  Dr.  Warner  mentioned  him  to  the  ambassador — to 
whom  Dr.  Gem  was  well  known,  beth  personally  and  by  reputa- 
tion— in  terms  of  such  high  commendation,  that  an  introduction 
took  place,  at  the  particular  desire  of  Lord  Gower;  and  this 
introduction  was  shortly  followed  up  by  an  offer  of  becoming  his 
private  secretary. 

This  offer  Mr.  Huskisson  accepted,  and  jtook  up  his  abode  at  the 
ambassador's  hotel,  some  time  in  the  year  1790.  On  the  evening 
of  that  dreadful  day,  (August  10th),  when  slaughter  had  stayed  its 
weary  arm,  and  it  became  possible  for  a  foreigner  to  venture  forth 
into  the  streets  of  Paris,  Mr.  Huskisson  wandered  out  to  view  the 
field  of  conflict,  and  to  endeavour  to  obtain  some  more  accurate 
information  of  the  transactions  which  had  taken  place  in  the  last 
twenty-four  hours.  The  residence  of  the  English  ambassador 
was  then  at  the  Hotel  de  Monaco,  in  the  Fauxbourg  St.  Germain ; 
where  Mr.  Huskisson  inhabited  a  suite  of  rooms  on  one  side  of 
the  gate  similar  to  one  on  the  other  side,  which  had  been  the 
apartments  of  the  Compte  de  Valentinois  while  the  Princess  de 
Monaco  lived  there.  When  Mr.  Huskisson  returned  to  his  apart- 
ments, he  found  that  during  his  absence.  Monsieur  de  Cham.pce- 
netz,  the  then  governor  of  the  Tuileries,  had  taken  refuge  there. 
It  appeared  that  this  nobleman  had,  when  the  palace  was  assault- 
ed and  carried  by  the  infuriated  mob,  either  been  thrown,  or  had 
jumped  from  one  bf  the  windows,  and  that  he  had  fallen  amongst 
some  of  the  unfortunate  Swiss,  whose  bodies  lay  in  heaps  around 
the  palace  which  they  had  so  gallantly  attempted  to  defend. 
After  remaining  in  this  perilous  situation  for  some  hours,  and 
happily  eluding  the  murderous  search  of  the  wretches  who  were 
busily  engaged  in  giving  the  finishing  stroke  to  any  of  the  victims 
who  still  breathed,  M.  de  Champcenetz  had,  as  the  darkness  of 
the  evening  closed  upon  this  fatal  day,  contrived,  with  much  dif- 
ficulty, to  make  his  way  unperceived  to  the  hotel  of  the  British 
ambassador,  where,  by  passing  himself  for  an  Englishman,  he 
had  obtained  access  to  the  apartments  of  Mr.  Huskisson,  with 
whom  he  was  slightly  acquainted.  Here  Mr.  Huskisson  found 
him  concealed.  The  situation  was  one  of  the  utmost  delicacy 
and  of  the  greatest  embarrassment.     M.  de  Champcenetz  threw 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  249 

himself  upon  his  honour,  and  appealed  to  his  generosity  and  hu- 
manity to  protect  him  against  the  assassins.  To  drive  him  from 
his  refuge  was  virtually  to  become  his  murderer,  and  to  deliver 
him  up  to  a  fate  even  more  cruel  than  that  from  which  he  had 
escaped.  To  allow  him  to  remain  was  to  incur  the  deepest  re- 
sponsibility— to  run  the  risk  of  compromising  the  ambassador, 
and  consequently  to  hazard  the  danger  of  provoking  a  war  be- 
tween France  and  England.  It  was  as  imperative  to  keep  the 
knowledge  that  a  person  so  closely  attached  to  the  royal  family 
had  taken  shelter  in  the  Hotel  of  the  Embassy;  from  reaching 
Lord  Gower,  as  it  was  to  prevent  the  circumstance  from  being 
discovered  by  the  blood-thirsty  populace.  In  this  dilemma,  Mr. 
Huskisson  at  last  bethought  himself  of  placing  his  unfortunate 
guest  under  the  protection  of  a  laundress,  on  whose  fidelity  he 
knew  he  could  confide.  He  contrived  to  have  him  secretly  con- 
veyed to  her  dwelling,  furnished  him  with  money  and  whatever 
else  he  required,  and,  at  the  expiration  of  a  week  of  mutual  alarm 
and  anxiety,  had  the  happiness  of  ascertaining  that  he  had  quitted 
Paris  in  safety.  This  nobleman  died  a  few  years  ago,  having 
been  restored  to  the  government  of  the  Tuileries  by  Louis  XVIII. 
After  the  catastrophe  of  the  10th  of  August,  and  the  deposition 
of  Louis  XVI.  by  the  Convention,  the  British  Government  re- 
called its  Minister.  Mr.  Huskisson  accompanied  Lord  Gower 
and  his  family  to  England.  On  his  return  to  England,  he  con- 
tinued to  pass  the  greater  part  of  his  time  in  the  family  of  Lord 
Gower,  either  at  Wimbleton  or  in  London,  where  he  often  met 
Mr.  Pitt  and  Mr.  Dundas.  The  Government,  about  this  time, 
found  that  it  was  indispensable  to  make  some  arrangement  for 
the  creation  of  an  office  at  which  the  claims  and  aflfairs  of  the 
numerous  bodies  of  emigrants  who  now  thronged  to  take  refuge 
in  England,  might  be  heard  and  discussed.  The  subject  was  one 
day  mentioned  at  a  dinner  at  Lord  Gower's,  and  Mr.  Dundas 
expressed  himself  very  desirous  to  find  some  person  who,  to  good 
abilities  and  gentlemanly  manners,  should  unite  a  perfect  know- 
ledge of  the  French  language.  The  fitness  of  Mr.  Huskisson  for 
such  a  situation  was  mentioned  and  admitted :  it  was  tendered 
to  him,  and  accepted.  Dry  and  unimportant  in  their  details, 
and  oftentimes  harsh  and  unthankful  in  their  nature,  as  were 

2G 


250  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

necessarily  the  duties  which  he  had  to  perform  in  his  new  situa- 
tion, Mr.  Huskisson  never  suffered  himself  to  relax  in  his  atten- 
tion. To  remarkable  acuteness  and  unwearied  application,  he 
united  a  singular  facility  in  comprehending  the  views  of  others 
and  clearness  in  explaining  his  own.  Few  persons  were  ever 
better  qualified  to  judge  of  the  talents  and  capacity  of  those  em- 
ployed under  them  than  Mr.  Pitt  and  Mr.  Dundas ;  and  they 
were  not  slow  in  discovering  that  in  Mr.  Huskisson  were  com- 
bined, in  an  eminent  degree,  all  the  requisites  towards  forming  a 
valuable  man  of  business,  and  a  most  efficient  public  servant.  His 
conduct  in  his  present  office  justified  the  opinion  they  had  formed 
of  his  abilities,  and  shortly  won  their  entire  confidence ;  whilst  it 
laid  the  foundation  of  a  friendship  which  endured  unimpaired  to 
the  close  of  their  fives. 

About  this  period,  he  became  acquainted  with  Mr.  Canning, 
who  had  been  recently  returned  to  Parliament,  and  who  entered 
into  public  life  under  the  avowed  patronage  of  Mr.  Pitt :  and  a 
friendship  began,  which  remained  unchanged  and  un weakened 
through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  their  remaining  years. 

The  government  soon  discovered  that  the  powers  of  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson's  mind  were  of  a  character  far  beyond  the  sphere  in  which 
they  had  hitherto  been  employed,  and  that  they  demanded  a 
wdder  and  more  important  range  for  their  useful  developement 
and  appfication.  Accordingly,  when  in  the  spring  of  1795,  Mr. 
Nepeau  was  appointed  secretary  to  the  Admiralty,  an  arrange- 
ment was  made  by  which  Mr.  Huskisson  succeeded  his  friend  as 
under-secretory  of  State  in  the  department  of  War  and  Colonies, 
the  seals  of  which  were  then  held  by  Mr.  Dundas. 

From  this  period,  Mr.  Huskisson  may  be  considered  as  having 
finally  abandoned  himself  to  the  pursuit  of  politics ;  and  his  history, 
to  the  close  of  his  life,  is  more  or  less  prominently  connected  with 
that  of  almost  all  great  public  measures. 

Living  in  habits  of  the  strictest  friendship  and  most  confidential 
communication  with  Mr.  Pitt,  he  was  often  called  to  the  private 
councils  of  that  great  statesman ;  while  from  the  many  demands 
upon  the  time  and  attention  of  Mr.  Dundas,  the  executive  direc- 
tion of  the  War  and  Colonial  Department  devolved  very  much 
upon  the  under-secretary. 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  251 

The  archives  of  that  department  would  afford  multiplied  and 
important  proofs  of  the  talents  and  assiduity  by  which  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson  justified  the  high  opinion  and  flattering  preference  which 
had  placed  him  there :  but  it  may  be  sufiicient  to  mention,  as  a 
single  instance,  that  the  indefatigable  exertions  and  consummate 
skill  manifested  by  him  in  the  arrangements  and  equipment  of  the 
expedition  which,  under  the  able  conduct  of  Sir  Charles  (after- 
wards Lord)  Grey,  achieved  such  brilliant  exploits  in  the  West 
Indies,  drew  from  that  distinguished  officer  the  warmest  enco- 
miums ;  and  he  is  known  ever  after  to  have  expressed  himself 
in  strong  terms  of  admiration  of  Mr.  Huskisson's  services  on  that 
occasion. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1796,  he  was  first  brought  into 
parliament  for  the  borough  of  Morpeth,  under  the  patronage  of 
the  late  Lord  Carlisle,  who  was  much  attached  to  him,  and  who, 
at  that  time,  supported  Mr.  Pitt's  Government.  But,  devoted  to 
the  laborious  and  daily  increasing  duties  of  his  office,  he  did  not 
allow  either  his  vanity  or  his  ambition  to  entice  him  from  an  un- 
divided attention  to  them,  for  the  sake  of  a  premature  display  on 
a  stage  where  he  was  destined  to  gain,  in  after-times,  such  splen- 
did triumphs  in  the  cause  of  liberal  and  enlightened  policy.  On 
the  contrary,  he  appears,  by  a  reference  to  the  parliamentary  de- 
bates of  that  period,  to  have  spoken,  for  the  first  time,  in  Febru- 
ary, 1798,  when  he  moved, — "that  there  be  laid  before  the 
House  copies  of  the  correspondence  between  the  Transport 
Board  and  the  French  Government,  relative  to  Captain  Sir  Syd- 
ney Smyth,  and  in  general  relative  to  the  exchange  of  prisoners 
between  the  two  countries," — a  motion  which  he  introduced  by  a 
short  speech,  in  confutation  of  the  calumnies  and  misrepresenta- 
tions circulated  in  France  on  the  treatment  of  French  prisoners 
in  England. 

There  is  nothing  extant  in  the  parliamentary  history  of  Mr. 
Huskisson  which  would  bear  the  character  of  what  is  usually 
termed  a  maiden  speech. 

On  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Pitt  in  1801,  Mr.  Huskisson,  as  well 
as  Mr.  Canning,  resigned  his  situation.  At  the  request  of  Lord 
Hobart,  however,  who  succeeded  to  the  War  and  Colonial  De- 
partment, seconded  by  the  solicitations  of  Mr.  Dundas,  who  was 


262  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

particularly  anxious  that  the  following  up  of  certain  measures 
then  in  progress,  should  have  the  advantage  of  being  con- 
ducted to  a  termination  by  a  person  who  had  been  acquainted 
with  his  views  and  intentions,  he  consented  to  exercise  the  func- 
tions of  under-secretary  for  a  short  time,  until  Lord  Hobart  should 
have  made  himself  conversant  with  the  nature  and  management 
of  his  new  office.  In  this  arrangement,  he  acquiesced  very  re- 
luctantly, and  on  a  distinct  understanding  that  it  should  be  con- 
sidered as  merely  temporary.  On  intelligence  being  received  of 
the  glorious  battle  of  Alexandria,  and  of  the  unfortunate  death  of 
the  gallant  Sir  Ralph  Abercrombie,  it  became  necessary  for  the 
government  at  home  to  select  his  successor ;  and  it  has  been 
supposed  that  some  difference  of  opinion  arose  on  this  subject. 
However  that  may  have  been,  Mr.  Huskisson  then  claimed  that 
the  time  for  his  retirement  was  arrived ;  and  he.  accordingly  with- 
drew into  private  life. 

In  1799,  he  married  the  youngest  daughter  of  Admiral  Mil- 
banke,  an  union  in  every  respect  most  gratifying  to  his  friends, 
and  which  proved  to  himself  a  source  of  unchequered  and  in- 
creasing happiness,  till  it  was  torn  asunder  by  the  dreadful 
catastrophe  w^hich  has  left  her  no  other  worldly  consolation 
than  the  :(*emembrance  of  the  virtues  which  adorned  him,  and 
that  which  may  be  gathered  from  the  universal  sympathy  of  the 
world,  which  deplores  and  participates  in  her  loss. 

There  are  some  persons  who  are  recorded  never  to  have  gone 
into  action  without  being  wounded.  Mr.  Huskisson  .seems  to  have 
laboured  under  a  similar  fatality  in  regard  to  accidents,  from  his 
earliest  infancy  to  that  fatal  one  which  closed  his  career. 

As  a  child,  he  fractured  his  arm :  a  few  days  before  his  mar- 
riage, his  horse  fell  with  him,  and  he  was  severely  hurt :  soon 
after  he  was  knocked  down  by  the  pole  of  a  carriage,  just  at  the 
entrance  to  the  Horse  Guards :  in  the  autumn  of  1801,  being  then 
in  Scotland,  at  the  Duke  of  Athol's,  he  missed  his  distance  in 
attempting  to  leap  the  moat,  and  gave  himself  a  most  violent 
sprain  of  the  ankle,  accompanied  with  a  considerable  laceration 
of  some  of  the  tendons  and  ligaments  of  his  foot ;  and  it  was  many 
weeks  .before  he  recovered  sufficiently  to  leave  Scotland.  Indeed, 
the  effects  of  this  accident  were  visible  in  his  gait  during  the 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  253 

remainder  of  his  life.  He  afterwards  fractured  his  arm  by  a  fall 
from  his  horse  at  Petvvorth;  and  again  in  1817,  by  bis  carriage 
being  overturned.  On  this  occasion,  none  of  his  surgeons  could 
discover  the  precise  nature  of  the  mischief;  but  Sir  Astley  Cooper 
was  of  opinion  that  the  bone  was  split  from  the  fracture  up  to 
the  joint.  The  recovery  was  slow,  and  his  sufferings  very  se- 
vere; as  all  kinds  of  experiments  were  employed  to  prevent  the 
joint  from  stiffening.  In  spite  of  every  exertion,  he  never  re- 
covered the  full  use  of  his  arm ;  and  a  visible  alteration  in  the 
spirit  and  elasticity  of  his  carriage  resulted  from  the  injury.  He 
was  constantly  encountering  accidents  of  minor  importance  ;*and 
the  frequency  of  them,  joined  to  a  frame  enfeebled  from  the  se- 
vere illnesses  under  which  he  suffered  during  his  latter  years, 
had  given  rise  to  a  certain  hesitation  in  his  movements  whenever 
any  crowd  or  obstacle  impeded  him,  which  may,  perhaps,  in 
some  degree,  have  led  to  that  last  misfortune  which,  to  his  friends 
and  to  the  country,  may  be  deemed  irreparable. 

At  the  general  election  in  1802,  he  offered  himself  as  a  candi- 
date for  Dover ;  but,  though  supported  by  the  good  wishes  and 
influence  of  his  Lord  Warden,  he  was  defeated  by  Mr.  Spencer 
Smyth,  the  government  candidate,  whose  brother.  Sir  Sydney, 
got  possession  of  the  church  (in  which  the  election  was  then  held) 
with  his  boat's  crew,  and  effectually  blockaded  all  approach  to 
the  voters  in  the  opposite  interest.  After  this  defeat,  he  did  not 
come  into  parliament  till  1804.  In  the  month  of  February,  in 
that  year,  a  vacancy  occurred  in  the  representation  of  Liskeard, 
Mr.  Elliot,  the  sitting  member,  having  succeeded  to  the  peerage, 
on  the  death  of  his  elder  brother.  Lord  Elliot.  Mr.  Huskisson 
was  induced  to  offer  himself,  and  was  opposed  by  Mr.  Thomas 
Sheridan.  Owing  to  some  mismanagement  in  forwarding  the 
writ,  the  contest  proved  more  severe  than  had  been  anticipated, 
and  a  double  return  was  made.  A  petition  was  presented  by  Mr. 
Huskisson,  which  had  to  pass  through  three  committees  before  a 
final  decision  was  obtained  in  his  favour.  During  the  interval, 
Mr.  Addington  had  been  driven  from  the  helm  by  the  united  at- 
tacks of  Mr.  Pitt  and  Mr.  Fox,  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  give 
to  the  country  a  powerful  and  efficient  ministry,  which  should 
embrace  the  friends  of  both  those  great  statesmen.     But  difficul- 

22 


254  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

ties  arising  which  were  deemed  insurmountable,  Mr.  Pitt  under- 
took to  form  an  administration,  excluding  as  w^ell  Mr.  Fox  and 
the  Whigs  as  Lord  Grenville  and  his  adherents.  Under  this 
arrangement,  Mr.  Huskisson  was  appointed  one  of  the  secretaries 
of  the  Treasury. 

The  second  administration  of  Mr.  Pitt  was  clouded  abroad  by 
the  disastrous  overthrow  of  the  third  coalition,  whilst  at  home 
the  impeachment  of  Lord  Melville,  and  his  own  declining  strength, 
cast  a  shade  of  weakness  and  discomfiture  over  his  government, 
in  strong  and  mortifying  contrast  with  the  days  of  his  former 
pov^r.  The  glories  of  Trafalgar  indeed  outshone  the  disgrace 
of  Ulm,  and  cast  a  bright,  but  expiring  halo  round  the  last  days 
of  the  statesman:  but  on  his  death,  in  January,  1806,  the  feeble 
remains  of  the  cabinet  gave  way  before  the  mere  anticipation  of 
the  formidable  phalanx  opposed  to  them,  and  "all  the  talents" 
assumed  the  reins  of  government. 

Mr.  Huskisson  now  became  an  active  member  of  the  opposi- 
tion, and  showed  himself  a  shrewd  and  vigilant  observer  of  the 
proceedings  of  Ministers.  His  attention  was  particularly  directed 
to  their  financial  measures ;  and  in  the  month  of  July,  he  moved 
a  string  of  resolutions  relating  to  public  accounts,  which  were 
approved  of  and  agreed  to  by  the  then  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, Lord  Henry  Petty. 

Parliament  having  been  dissolved  in  the  autumn  of  this  year, 
Mr.  Huskisson  w^as  again  returned  from  Liskeard. 

On  the  formation  of  the  Duke  of  Portland's  Government  in  the 
April  following,  he  resumed  his  situation  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury ;  and  the  new  administration  having  deemed  it  advi- 
sable to  appeal  to  the  sense  of  the  country,  and  to  call  a  fresh 
parliament,  he  became  member  for  Harwich,  which  place  he 
continued  to  represent  till  the  general  election  iq.  1812.  In  the 
long  debates  which  took  place  respecting  the  charges  brought 
against  the  Duke  of  York  as  Commander-in-Chief,  he  bore  httle 
or  no  share ;  but  when  Colonel  Wardle,  a  day  or  two  before  the 
close  of  the  session  of  1809,  came  forward  with  a  sweeping 
motion  relative  to  public  economy,  Mr.  Huskisson  appears,  for 
the  first  time,  as  a  principal  in  an  important  general  debate,  and 
on  a  subject  embracing  the  widest  field  for  discussion.     The  deep 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  255 

attention  with  which  his  reply  to  Colonel  Wardle  was  heard, 
demonstrated  at  once  the  intrinsic  merits  of  the  speech,  and  the 
high  rank  to  which  the  speaker  had  won  his  way  in  the  estima- 
tion of  the  House.  On  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Canning,  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson  steadily  resisted  the  earnest  entreaties  of  Mr.  Percival  to 
continue  in  the  government ;  and  rejecting,  without  a  moment's 
hesitation,  all  the  flattering  offers  which  were  made  to  him,  fol- 
lowed the  fortunes  of  his  friend.  In  the  session  of  1810,  Mr. 
Huskisson's  parliamentary  exertions  were  principally  limited  to 
some  strong  observations  on  the  army  estimates,  in  which  he 
strenuously  argued  the  necessity  of  economy,  and  of  any  practi- 
cable reduction;  points  which  he  again  pressed  on  the  consideration 
of  government  in  the  discussions  which  ensued  on  the  budget. 
This  conduct  drew  down  some  sharp  comments  from  Mr.  Whit- 
bread,  who,  after  complimenting  his  abilities,  and  regretting  the 
loss  which  the  public  had  sustained  by  the  manner  in  which  "  his 
place  was  then  occupied  rather  than  supplied,"  reproached  him 
for  the  inconsistency  of  his  present  language  with  that  which  he 
had  held  while  in  oflice  the  preceding  year — a  reproach  which 
Mr.  Huskisson  ably  repelled,  and  which  he  would  probably  have 
altogether  escaped,  at  least  from  that  quarter,  had  he  not,  with 
Mr.  Canning,  declined  to  join  in  a  general  opposition  to  the 
measures  of  a  government  of  which  they  had  so  recently  formed 
a  part. 

But  the  most  important  event,  as  relating  to  the  fame  and  cha- 
racter of  Mr.  Huskisson,  which  occurred  in  the  course  of  this 
year,  was  the  appearance  of  his  pamphlet  on  the  Currency  Sys- 
tem ;  in  which  he  displayed  the  most  consummate  knowledge  of 
this  complicated  and  much  dissected  subject,  in  all  its  various 
bearings — the  soundest  and  most  enlightened  views,  and  the  most 
prophetic  insight  into  the  dangers  and  difliculties  which  must 
ensue  from  a  long  and  obstinate  perseverance  in  the  existing 
method  of  managing  the  financial  resources  of  the  country.  This 
publication  was  eminently  successful,  and  confirmed  to  him  the 
reputation  of  being  the  first  financier  of  the  age.  The  apparent 
ease  and  rapidity  with  which  this  elaborate  performance  was 
composed,  still  live  in  the  memory  of  some  of  those  who  hap- 
pened to  be  at  Eartham  when  it  was  written,  as  well  as  the 


256  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

unaffected  manner  with  which  he  would  join  the  party  in  the 
morning,  and  submit  to  their  remarks  the  successive  sheets  which 
he  had  prepared  since  they  had  separated  on  the  preceding  night 
In  the  debates  on  Mr.  PercivaPs  Regency  Bill,  Mr.  Huskisson 
adopted  the  same  policy  and  the  same  line  of  conduct  as  that 
pursued  by  Mr.  Canning,  and  contented  himself  with  stating  his 
opinions  once  in  the  course  of  the  discussions. 

It  was  in  the  progress  of  this  session,  also,  that  the  celebrated 
debate  took  place  upon  Mr.  Horner's  Resolutions  on  the  Report 
of  the  Bullion  Committee.  Mr.  Huskisson  rose  to  reply  to  Mr, 
Vansittart,  who  had  called  upon  him  to  answer  "  in  what  sense 
the  term  depreciation,  as  used  by  the  Committee  was  to  be  un- 
derstood ;"  an  answer  to  which  was  returned,  as  Mr.  Canning 
afterwards  remarked,  "  in  one  sense,  at  least,  to  the  complete 
satisfaction  of  him  who  had  asked  for  it."  Mr.  Huskisson's  speech 
was  distinguished  by  the  force  and  perspicuity  of  its'  arguments, 
and  by  the  soundness  of  its  principles ;  and  it  was  evident  that 
he  was  dealing  with  a  subject  of  which  he  was  completely  master. 
Upon  the  dissolution  of  parliament  in  the  autumn  of  this  year,  he 
received  an  invitation  from  many  of  the  most  respectable  inhab- 
itants of  Chichester  to  succeed  Mr.  Thomas  (who  had  signified 
his  intention  of  retiring)  as  representative  for  that  city,  on  what 
is  there  called  the  Blue  or  Independent  interest.  Nothing  could 
be  morti  gratifying  than  this  invitation — nothing  more  flattering 
than  the  reception  which  he  met  with,  both  on  his  canvas  and 
at  the  bastings,  where  he  w^as  returned  without  opposition.  Par- 
liament assembled  in  November,  when  Mr.  Huskisson  once  more 
exposed  and  controverted  the  notorious  resolution  of  Mr.  Van- 
sittart, declaring  that  a  pound-note  and  a  shilling  were  equivalent 
to  a  guinea ;  which  the  latter  pertinaciously  maintained  in  the  face 
of  the  flagrant  proofs  to  the  contrary  which  daily  occurred.  In 
the  month  of  March  following,  he  took  a  luminous  and  scruti- 
nizing view  of  the  finances  of  the  country,  and  of  the  resolutions 
proposed  by  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  stated  the  na- 
ture of  the  alterations  which  he  wished  to  see  introduced.  Foi 
this  speech,  he  received  the  highest  compliments  from  Mr. 
Baring,  Mr.  Henry  Thornton,  Mr.  Tierney,  and  other  members  of 
the  House,  most  conversant  with  the  subject.     It  is  full  of  those 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  257 

peculiar  excellencies  which  mark  all  what  (in  order  to  avoid  peri- 
phrasis) may  be  familiarly  termed  the  professional  speeches  of 
Mr.  Huskisson. 

When  the  question  of  the  existing  Corn  Laws  was  brought 
under  the  notice  of  the  House,  in  this  session,  he  distinguished 
himself  in  the  debate  which  arose  upon  certain  resolutions  moved 
by  Sir  Henry  Parnell ;  and  it  was  on  this  occasion,  that  he  first 
proposed  a  scale  of  graduated  prohibitory  duties,  which,  in  after- 
years,  gave  rise  to  so  much  discussion,  when  they  had  been  ma- 
tured by  the  wisdom  and  experience  of  Lord  Liverpool. 

It  is  worthy,  too,  of  remark  that,  even  at  this  period,  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson objected  to  the  propositions  of  Sir  Henry  Parnell,  "  as  pro- 
ceeding too  much  on  the  principle  of  giving  the  monopoly  of  the 
English  market  to  the  English  corn-grower." 

In  August,  Mr.  Huskisson  succeeded  Lord  Glenbervie  as  Chief 
Commissioner  of  Woods  and  Forests,  and  was  sworn  of  the  Privy 
Council. 

Notwithstanding  a  partial  clamour  which  was  raised  about  the 
Corn  Laws,  his  re-election  at  Chichester  met  with  no  opposition; 
for  a  more  intimate  intercourse  with  his  constituents  had  only 
increased  the  attachment  and  confidence  which  they  felt  towards 
him.  The  new  office  in  which  he  wa^  placed  afforded  him  an 
opportunity  of  showing  to  the  world  the  versatility  of  his  talents, 
and  the  facility  with  which  his  comprehensive  genius  could  apply 
itself,  and  descend  to  any  subject.  The  improvement  of  the 
Crown  Forests  became  the  great  object  of  his  care.  He  ob- 
tained an  accurate  insight  into  the  best  methods  of  planting  and 
managing  them,  and  made  himself  conversant  with  the  nature 
of  the  different  soils — the  particular  description  of  trees  to  which 
they  were  best  adapted — the  various  treatment  which  the  plants 
demanded  in  different  situations,  and  at  different  periods;  and 
with  the  growth  and  quality  of  the  timber.  All  this  he  did  with 
a  readiness  and  a  discrimination  which  astonished,  as  much  as 
it  gratified  the  old  and  experienced  officers  of  the  diflferent  forests; 
whose  duty  it  was  to  accompany  him  on  his  rounds  during  his 
annual  visits  of  inspection  to  their  respective  stations.  It  is  no 
exaggeration  to  say,  that  they  may  still  be  heard  to  dwell  with 
admiration  on  the  interest  which  he  took,  and  the  unusual  know- 
22*  2H  > 


258  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

ledge  which  he  evinced,  in  the  direction  of  this  department ;  and 
that  they  will  even  now  speak  with  regret  of  the  natural  kindness 
and  unaffected  simplicity  of  his  habits. 

In  the  course  of  1815,  the  subject  of  the  Corn  Laws,  which  had 
been  partially  discussed,  and  then  postponed  in  the  preceding 
year,  was  brought  forward  by  the  government ;  and  long  debates 
arose  on  the  policy  of  making  such  alterations  as  might  be  ne- 
cessary to  adapt  them  to  the  demands  and  exigencies  of  the  pre- 
sent times. 

Although  the  question  was  one  beset  with  difficulties,  and 
which  had  the  double  disadvantage  of  exposing  those  who  came 
to  the  arrangement  of  it  with  fair  and  moderate  views,  at  once 
to  the  blind  fury  of  the  populace,  and  to  the  unforgiving  jealousy 
of  the  landed  interest,  whose  mutual  disappointment  in  their 
equally  unreasonable  expectations  found  a  single  point  of  agree- 
ment in  a  cordial  hatred  of  the  supporters  of  a  middle  course ; 
and  although  he  was  not  called  upon,  from  his  official  situation, 
to  draw  down  on  himself  this  mass  of  unpopularity,  Mr.  Huskis- 
son  nevertheless  took  a  prominent  part  in  these  discussions.  He 
seems,  indeed,  to  ha-ve  taken  extraordinary  pleasure  in  grappling 
with  subjects  of  this  arduous  and  complicated  kind,  and  to  have 
found  in  them  something  congenial  to  his  nature.  Diffident  of 
his  own  powers,  and  free  from  anything  like  a  feeling  of  rivalry 
or  jealousy,  he  should  seem  to  have  systematically  relinquished 
all  topics,  whether  foreign  or  domestic,  which  demanded  or 
allowed  the  use  or  display  of  the  more  dazzling  graces  of  public 
speaking,  to  the  splendid  eloquence  of  Mr.  Canning.  It  is  certain, 
at  least,  that  during  the  life  of  that  great  man,  he  seldom  if  ever 
mixed  in  the  discussions  on  foreign  policy,  however  tempting  the 
occasion ;  and  that,  although  invariably  favourable  to  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  slave  trade,  and  to  the  claims  of  the  Roman  Catholics, 
he  generally  limited  his  support  of  them,  with  the  exception  of 
a  speech  in  favour  of  the  latter,  in  1825,  to  a  silent  vote.  The 
Corn  Laws  were  not  the  only  difficult  question  of  domestic 
policy  which  occupied  the  attention  of  government  in  1815 
and  1816.  The  Bank  Restriction,  which  had  been  continued 
until  July  in  the  latter  year,  was  brought  under  the  consideration 
of  parliament  in  the  month  of  May,  when  Mr.  Horner  moved 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  259 

"  that  a  Select  Committee  should  be  appointed  for  inquiring  into 
the  expediency  of  restoring  the  Cash  Payments  of  the  Bank  of 
England,  and  the  safest  and  most  advantageous  means  of  effect- 
ing such  restoration."  In  the  debate  which  ensued,  Mr.  Huskisson 
declared,  that  he  still  retained  the  opinions  which  he  had  formerly 
expressed  when  the  Bullion  Committee  had  terminated  its  labours. 
No  inquiry,  he  said,  was  necessary  on  the  first  point  embraced 
by  the  motion.  All  agreed  that  there  was  no  security  for  pro- 
perty, no  stability  in  public  credit,  no  confidence  in  trade,  no 
mode  of  adjusting  the  rights,  and  consulting  the  interests  of  all 
classes  of  society,  without  a  circulation  rendered  steady  by  pos- 
sessing a  permanent  and  universal  value ;  but  he  thought  that  the 
task  of  restoring  the  precious  metals  should  be  left  to  the  discre- 
tion of  the  Bank,  with  a  declaration  that  parliament  expected  the 
resumption  of  Cash  Payments  should  not  be  delayed  beyond  tvvo 
years :  and  a  clause  declaratory  of  such  an  expectation  was  ac- 
cordingly adopted.  The  truth  appears  to  have  been,  that  in  the 
interval  since  the  former  discussions  on  this  subject,  the  Bank 
had  not  only  neglected  preparations  for  resuming  their  payments 
in  cash,  but  had  actually  extended  their  issues ;  so  that  the  go- 
vernment found  itself  compelled  to  prolong  the  restriction  till 
July,  1818.  Mr.  Huskisson  took  every  opportunity  of  expressing 
the  satisfaction  with  which  he  looked  forward  to  the  arrival  of 
the  period  fixed  for  the  resumption  of  cash  payments,  and  his 
sanguine  hope  that  it  w^ould  not  be  delayed  beyond  the  time  con- 
templated by  parliament.  His  penetration,  however,  was  at  no 
loss  to  discover,  and  his  candour  did  not  allow  him  to  disguise, 
that  the  interval  which  must  elapse  between  the  withdrawing  or 
absorbing  of  a  large  portion  of  the  excessive  circulation  of  the 
country,  and  the  return  to  another  state  of  currency,  must  be  a 
time  of  severe  pressure,  not  only  in  Great  Britain,  but  all  over 
Europe. 

To  this  period,  when  the  state  of  the  currency  and  the  coun- 
try banks  was  to  be  placed  on  a  more  secure  footing,  he  again 
alluded,  when  arguing  in  favour  of  the  set  of  Finance  Resolutions 
moved  by  Mr.  Charles  Grant,  and  carried  in  opposition  to  those 
of  Mr.  Tierney,  at  the  close  of  the  session  of  1817;  and  he  ex- 
pressed his  earnest  hope  that  every  thing  would  be  done  to  pre- 


260  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

pare  the  country  for  the  reception  of  more  liberal  commercial 
arrangements,  in  order  to  afford  some  counterpoise  to  the  pres- 
sure which  he  foresaw  impending,  and  to  disarm  the  jealousy  of 
foreign  countries. 

In  the  debate  which  followed  Lord  Althorp's  attempt  in  1818, 
for  a  repeal  of  the  Leather  Tax,  which  was  defeated  by  a  very 
small  majority,  we  find  Mr.  Huskisson  opposing  the  bill,  and 
enforcing  his  opposition  on  the  ground,  that  no  tax  could  be  re- 
pealed with  full  benefit  to  the  public  except  direct  taxes,  and  that 
if  any  reduction  could  possibly  be  made,  these  ought  to  be  the 
first  to  attract  consideration. 

When,  in  this  year,  Mr.  Tierney  moved  a  resolution  involving 
the  much  agitated  question  of  an  immediate  resumption  of  cash 
payments,  Mr.  Huskisson  successfully  advocated  a  further  de- 
lay. He  showed  that  such  a  measure  was  then  incompatible  with 
the  existing  state  of  affairs,  and  that  the  House  could  do  nothing 
more  than  declare  the  time  for  resuming  such  payments,  leaving 
the  care  of  providing  the  necessary  means  to  the  Bank  itself. 

But  while  he  maintained  that  the  present  was  not  the  season 
for  removing  the  restriction,  he  avowed  that  a  difference  existed 
between  him  and  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  on  certain 
points.  This  led  him  to  defend  and  eulogize  the  Report  made 
by  the  Bullion  Committee,  which  he  characterized  as  containing 
a  perspicuous  statement  of  facts  and  well-connected  inferences 
still  unanswered;  and  he  expressed  his  regret  that  the  distin- 
guished individual  who  had  prepared  it  (Mr.  Horner)  was  not 
living,  to  assist  the  present  deliberations  with  the  force  of  his 
reasoning,  and  the  accuracy  of  his  judgment.  In  the  autumn  of 
this  year,  parliament  was  dissolved,  and  Mr.  Huskisson  re-elected 
for  Chichester  without  any  opposition. 

On  the  appointment  of  the  Finance  Committee,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  session  of  1819,  Mr.  Huskisson's  abilities,  and 
his  knowledge  of  all  the  intricacies  of  the  subject,  were  too  con- 
spicuous not  to  ensure  his  name  being  included  in  the  list ;  and 
it  has  been  supposed,  that  the  influence  which  his  great  talents 
and  intimate  acquaintance  with  finance  secured  to  him,  proved 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  Ministers  in  surmounting  the  diflicul- 
ties  which  opposed  them. 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  261 

The  masterly  exposition  which  he  made  when  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  (the  present  Lord  Bexley)  brought  forward  his 
string  of  resolutions  relating  to  public  income  and  expenditure,  as 
founded  upon  the  report  of  that  committee,  probably  saved  the 
government  upon  that  occasion :  or,  should  this  be  thought  too 
bold  an  assertion,  certainly  contributed  very  essentially  to  miti- 
gate the  opposition  which  they  encountered.  It  has  been  said, 
that  Mr.  Huskisson  gave  a  financial  view  of  each  European 
exchequer,  and  detailed  the  various  measures  then  in  progress 
among  the  different  continental  states,  with  an  ease  and  fidelity 
which  excited  general  surprise  and  admiration. 

Without  disguising  the  difficulties  of  the  case,  or  attempting 
to  mystify  or  delude  the  country  with  vague  calculations,  he  drew 
from  those  very  embarrassments  fresh  arguments  for  that  econo- 
my and  exertion  which  alone  could  ultimately  enable  the  nation  to 
weather  them.  The  death  of  George  the  Third  having  rendered 
it  necessary  to  summon  a  new  parliament,  Mr.  Huskisson  was 
again  returned  for  Chichester,  with  the  same  marks  of  attach- 
ment and  approbation  which  had  been  bestowed  upon  him  on 
the  three  preceding  occasions.  In  the  course  of  this  year,  agri- 
cultural distress  again  occupied  much  of  the  attention  of  the 
House ;  and  a  committee  was  appointed,  on  the  motion  of  Mr. 
Holme  Summer,  to  consider  the  various  petitions  connected  with 
this  subject :  but  an  instruction  was  afterwards  moved  and  car- 
ried by  Mr.  Robinson,  confining  the  inquiry  to  the  mode  of  ascer- 
taining, returning,  and  calculating  the  average  prices  of  corn  in 
the  twelve  maritime  districts,  under  the  provisions  of  the  existing 
Com  Laws,  and  to  any  frauds  which  might  be  committed  in 
violation  of  any  of  the  provisions  of  the  said  laws;  which  re- 
striction, of  course,  rendered  the  labours  of  this  committee  of 
comparatively  little  importance.  In  the  following  year.  Minis- 
ters having  withdrawn  their  opposition  to  such  a  measure,  a 
committee  was  appointed,  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Gooch,  for  a 
more  extended  inquiry. 

Of  this  committee,  Mr.  Huskisson  was  the  most  active  minis- 
terial member ;  and  the  long  and  elaborate  report  which  was  the 
result  of  their  labours,  has  been  understood  to  have  emanated 
principally  from  him.    It  has  been  often  supposed,  too,  that  in 


262  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

the  prominent  part  which  he  took  in  this  committee,  and  in  the 
steadiness  with  which  he  urged  or  defended  a  more  liberal  sys- 
tem in  respect  to  the  Corn  Laws,  may  be  discovered  the  explana- 
tion of  that  mingled  feeling  of  suspicion  and  fear  with  which  that 
party  which  denominates  itself  the  Landed  Interest,  subsequently 
appears  to  have  watched  all  his  measures.  When  towards  the 
end  of  this  year,  Mr.  Canning,  from  circumstances  and  con- 
siderations wholly  distinct  from  general  policy,  and  indeed,  purely 
personal,  retired  from  the  administration,  Mr.  Huskisson  did  not 
follow  his  example ;  not  from  any  attachment  to  his  own  office, 
but  because  he  saw  that  to  resign  at  that  moment,  would  have 
been  to  act  most  unfairly  by  Mr.  Canning,  in  giving  to  his  retire- 
ment a  character  which  did  not  belong  to  it,  and  might  prove 
embarrassing  to  the  government.  Although  not  a  member  of 
the  Cabinet,  and  consequently,  not  involved  in  whatever  responsi- 
bility attached  to  the  proceedings  of  the  Ministers  against  the 
Queen,  Mr.  Huskisson  did  not  fear  to  incur  his  share  of  the  un- 
popularity which  those  proceedings  had  entailed  upon  them,  nor 
did  he  shrink  from  their  defence  when,  early  in  the  session  of 
1821,  Lord  Tavistock  moved  a  resolution  strongly  condemnatory 
of  their  conduct :  he  however  declared,  that  he  had  deprecated 
the  inquiry  from  the  outset;  feeling  that  the  result  of  it  must 
be  to  lower  the  tone  of  moral  and  religious  feeling  in  the  coun- 
try; but  that  to  assent  now  to  the  motion  of  the  noble  Lord, 
would  be  to  declare  that,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Commoners  of 
England,  her  Majesty  had  been,  if  not  praise-worthy,  at  least 
blameless. 

Upon  this  occasion,  he  prefaced  his  speech  by  stating  his 
reasons  for  breaking  through  the  practice  which  he  had  observed 
during  a  long  parliamentary  life,  of  declining  questions  of  this 
general  nature,  and  commented  largely  upon  this  difficult  and 
delicate  subject.  In  the  progress  of  the  session,  the  govern- 
ment encountered  much  opposition,  and  was  exposed  to  several 
severe  shocks  from  the  united  attacks  of  the  old  Whig  party, 
strengthened  by  the  Country  interest.  Several  proposals  were 
made  to  repeal  various  taxes  which  pressed  heavily  upon  the 
country  and  the  House ;  and  Window  Duties  were  the  first  se- 
lected.    Their  repeal  was  resisted  by  the  government :  but  Mr. 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  263 

Huskisson,  while  he  argued  against  it,  admitted,  in  pointed 
terms,  the  propriety  of  further  economy  in  preparing  the  esti- 
mates, if  it  could  be  shown  where  further  economy  was  practi- 
cable. Notwithstanding  this  conciliatory  admission,  and  in  spite 
of  all  the  efforts  of  government,  the  resolution  was  lost,  only  by 
a  majority  of  26.  Another  and  more  successful  attack  was  then 
made,  and  Ministers  were  outvoted  in  an  endeavour  to  continue 
the  additional  duties  upon  malt — a  defeat  which  they  retaliated  a 
few  nights  after,  when  they  succeeded  in  throwing  out  the  bill 
for  their  repeal  by  a  large  majority.  But  in  June,  they  were 
once  more  in  a  minority  respecting  the  duties  on  horses  employed 
in  husbandry ;  which  was  repealed  by  a  bill  brought  in  by  Mr. 
Curwen.  On  all  these  occasions,  Mr.  Huskisson  spoke  forcibly 
against  these  proposals;  and,  as  they  were  considered  to  be 
more  especially  calculated  for  the  relief  of  the  Agricultural  in- 
terest, and  were  introduced  and  advocated  by  those  who  regard- 
ed themselves  as  more  peculiarly  the  representatives  of  that  body, 
this  active  opposition,  perhaps,  may  be  thought  to  have  con- 
tributed to  indispose  that  powerful  party  still  further  towards  the 
principles  and  policy  of  Mr.  Huskisson.  The  debates  on  the 
distress  which  pressed  heavily  upon  the  Agricultural  interest,  and 
which,  in  its  consequences,  affected  the  whole  country,  were  re- 
newed shortly  after  the  re-assembling  of  parliament,  in  February, 
1822,  when  Lord  Londonderry  moved  the  revival  of  the  com- 
mittee of  the  preceding  year,  and  gave  notice  that  the  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  would,  without  loss  of  time^  bring  forward 
a  proposal  for  enabling  the  Bank  to  issue  five  millions  of  Ex- 
chequer Bills,  in  loans  to  different  parishes,  and  also  a  reduction 
of  the  Malt  Tax. 

In  the  debate  which  followed  upon  the  notice  of  the  noble 
Marquis,  Mr.  Huskisson's  speech  must  be  deemed  one  of  the  most 
important ;  embracing,  as  it  does,  a  variety  of  those  topics  with 
which  he  was,  perhaps,  more  conversant  than  any  other  states- 
man of  his  time.  In  consequence  of  what  passed  on  this  occa- 
sion, and  subsequently  on  the  motion  for  the  appointment  of  the 
committee,  it  became  necessary  for  him  to  explain  the  part  which 
he  had  taken  in  preparing  the  Agricultural  Report  of  the  pre- 
ceding year.     Having  done  so,  and  vindicated  himself  from  the 


264  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

charge  of  having  mystified  the  members  of  that  committee,  he 
signified  his  intention  to  abstain  from  all  attendance  at  the  present 
one ;  in  which  determination  Lord  Londonderry  declared  that  he 
regarded  him  as  perfectly  justified.  On  the  1st  of  April,  the  new 
committee  made  their  report ;  and  on  the  29th,  Lord  London- 
derry proposed  a  string  of  resolutions  declaratory  of  the  views 
which  he,  as  the  leading  minister  of  the  Crown  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  entertained  for  the  purposes  of  relief 

These  having  been  read,  Mr.  Ricardo  brought  forward  another 
set ;  and,  late  in  the  debate,  Mr.  Huskisson  laid  before  the  House 
those  which  he  had  prepared  on  the  same  subject;  giving  notice, 
at  the  same  time,  that  it  was  his  intention,  on  the  next  discussion, 
to  state  the  cause  of  the  difference  which  would  appear  between 
his  resolutions  and  those  of  the  noble  Marquis.  On  the  6th  of 
May,  Lord  Londonderry  moved  his  first  and  most  important 
resolution:  it  was  combated  by  Mr.  Huskisson;  and,  after  a 
short  debate,  withdrawn.  He  now  felt  that,  having  as  an  official 
servant  of  the  Crown  opposed,  and  successfully  opposed,  a  propo- 
sition brought  forward  by  the  leading  member  of  government  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  it  was  due  to  the  chief  of  that  govern- 
ment to  place  his  office  at  his  disposal. 

Accordingly,  he  waited  upon  Lord  Liverpool ;  and,  after  ex- 
plaining to  him  what  had  passed,  did  that  which  he  afterwards, 
in  1828,  repeated  in  respect  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington — namely, 
placed  in  his  hands  the  decision  whether  the  penalty  of  such  an 
act  of  insubordination  was  to  be  enforced  against  him. 

The  result,  as  all  the  world  knows,  was  as  diflferent  as  the 
other  circumstances  of  the  case  were  similar;  except,  indeed, 
that  Mr.  Huskisson*s  conduct,  in  1822,  was  marked  with  a  cha- 
racter of  official  independence,  or  rather  mutiny,  infinitely  strong- 
er than  anything  which  arose  on  the  case  of  the  East  Retford 
Disfranchisement  Bill.  Connected  with  this  topic  of  agricultural 
distress,  was  the  motion  brought  forward  by  Mr.  Western  in  the 
month  of  June,  for  a  committee  to  consider  of  the  eflfects  which 
had  been  produced  by  the  act  for  the  resumption  of  cash  pay- 
ments. 

Mr.  Huskisson  undertook  to  reply  to  Mr.  Western ;  and,  after 
a  speech  of  singular  power  and  effect — a  speech  which  may  be 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  2G5 

ranked  among  those  of  the  first  class  for  soundness  of  political 
principle  and  conclusive  reasoning — moved,  as  an  amendment, 
the  substitution  of  the  famous  resolution  of  1696: — *'thatthis 
House  will  not  alter  the  standard  of  gold  or  silver  in  fineness, 
weight,  or  denomination ;" — an  amendment  which  Was  carried 
by  an  overwhelming  majority.  The  death  of  Lord  Londonderry, 
in  the  summer  of  1822,  and  Mr.  Canning's  succession  to  his 
office,  though  they  caused  no  immediate  alteration  in  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson's  official  appointments,  could  not  but  give  a  great  addi- 
tional weight  to  the  influence  which  he  before  possessed.  Nego- 
tiations, indeed,  were  shortly  after  set  on  foot  for  a  partial 
change  in  the  administration;  and,  at  the  end  of  January,  1823, 
Mr.  Vansittart  was  raised  to  the  peerage,  and  became  Chancellor 
of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster.  Mr.  Robinson  succeeded  him  at  the 
Exchequer ;  and  Mr.  Huskisson  was  appointed  President  of  the 
Board  of  Trade  and  Treasurer  of  the  Navy.  As  the  oflfer  had 
been  at  first  unaccompanied  with  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet  (which 
had  been  attached  to  these  offices  while  held  by  Mr.  Robinson) 
some  demur  arose  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Huskisson,  which  was  only 
overcome  by  an  assurance  that  the  sole  obstacle  to  his  immediate 
admission  was  not  any  objection  to  him  individually,  but  the  ex- 
treme inconvenience  to  public  business,  resulting  from  too  great 
an  extension  of  the  Cabinet ;  and  by  a  positive  promise  that  the 
earliest  possible  opportunity  should  be  seized  to  make  an  opening 
for  him.  On  this  assurance,  he  agreed  to  waive,  or  rather  to 
suspend,  his  objection ;  and  early  in  the  following  autumn,  a 
vacancy  was  made  in  the  Cabinet,  to  which  he  was  immediately 
called.  This  difficulty  having  been  surmounted,  another  arose,  of 
a  nature  particularly  delicate  and  distressing  to  Mr.  Huskisson — 
the  representation  of  Liverpool.  Mr.  Canning  found  that  the  la- 
borious duties  which  devolved  upon  him  as  one  of  the  members 
for  that  important  place,  superadded  to  the  direction  of  the 
Foreign  Office  and  to  the  lead  of  the  House  of  Commons,  were 
more  than  he  could  adequately  discharge ;  and  it  was  his  earnest 
wish  to  retire  from  the  representation. 

The  government  felt  a  strong  and  natural  anxiety  that  the 
second  great  commercial  port  of  the  empire  should  continue  to 
be  represented  by  one  of  their  friends ;  and  Mr.  Huskisson  was 
23  21 


266  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

supposed  to  be  the  only  person  likely  to  unite  the  suffrages  of  all 
parties.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  therefore,  that  Lord  Liver- 
pool and  Mr.  Canning  should  have  made  a  point  of  his  acquiescing 
in  the  only  arrangement  which  seemed  likely  to  give  general 
satisfaction.  As  soon  as  it  was  understood  that  Mr.  Huskisson 
had  resolved  to  retire  from  Chichester,  a  requisition  was  forward- 
ed to  him  from  Liverpool,  bearing  upwards  of  a  thousand  signa- 
tures. The  election  commenced  on  the  14th  of  February,  and 
finished  on  the  following  day,  after  a  mock  contest,  in  which 
Lord  Molyneux,  who  declined  appearing,  polled  twenty-three 
votes,  and  Dr.  Crompton  not  one.  Some  preliminary  steps  had 
been  already  taken  by  Mr.  Robinson  and  Mr.  Wallace  for  relax- 
ing the  restrictions  which  had  formerly  embarrassed  trade,  and 
several  new  laws  affecting  it  had  been  proposed  by  the  govern- 
ment in  the  session  of  1822.  On  Mr.  Huskisson's  appointment, 
he  immediately  proceeded  firmly,  but  cautiously,  to  take  steps 
towards  further  and  more  important  alterations.  In  these,  he 
found  himself  opposed  and  thwarted  by  the  prejudices  of  an 
active  and  powerful  party,  who  viewed  all  innovations  with  a 
jealous  and  unfriendly  eye ;  and  the  fate  of  the  first  bill  for  regu- 
lating the  Silk  Manufacture,  was  an  evident  proof  of  the  obsta- 
cles which  he  would  have  to  encounter  before  his  measures  could 
be  crowned  with  success.  This  bill,  after  it  had  passed  the 
lower  House,  w^as  returned  from  the  Lords,  so  changed  and  mu- 
tilated, that  Mr.  Huskisson  preferred  abandoning  it  for  the  session, 
rather  than  to  adopt  the  amendments.  In  the  following  year, 
he  was  more  successful ;  and  the  bill  passed  into  a  law  without 
encountering  any  very  formidable  opposition.  In  the  course  of 
this  session,  Mr.  Huskisson  introduced  other  measures  connected 
with  the  trade  and  manufactures  of  the  country : — the  Merchant 
Vessels'  Apprenticeship  Bill,  and  that  for  removing  the  various 
vexatious  regulations  with  which  the  manufacture  of  Scotch 
Linen  had  hitherto  been  shackled,  and  its  prosperity  impeded. 
He  also  brought  forward  the  Registry  Bill,  which  had  been  pre- 
pared in  the  preceding  year,  but  which  he  had  found  still  lying 
at  the  Board  of  Trade,  when  he  succeeded  to  that  office. 

This  bill  was  a  consolidation  of  all  the  existing  laws  on  the 
subject,  with  many  improvements ;  and  had  been  much  called  for 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  267 

by  every  one  connected  with  the  Shipping  interests  of  the  coun- 
try. It  was  a  subject  very  compHcated  in  its  details,  and  difficult 
to  understand :  but  Mr.  Huskisson  felt  its  importance,  and  lost  no 
time  in  making  himself  master  of,  and  bringing  it  before  parlia- 
ment ;  and,  after  some  protracted  delays  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
which  drew  from  him  a  firm,  but  temperate  remonstrance,  these 
bills  ultimately  passed  before  the  close  of  the  session. 

In  1825,  another  most  important  undertaking  was  completed, 
— the  general  revision  of  the  Revenue  Laws.  This  was  a  task 
of  great  magnitude  and  extraordinary  labour;  and  one  which,  as 
Mr.  Huskisson  frequently  declared,  could  never  have  been  achiev- 
ed but  for  the  able  assistance  and  unwearied  diligence  of  Mr. 
James  Dearon  Hume,  then  of  the  Customs,  and  now  of  the  Board 
of  Trade. 

In  this  year,  Mr.  Huskisson  spoke,  for  the  first  time,  at  any 
length,  in  favour  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Relief  Bill.  Could  he 
then  have  anticipated  the  fate  of  that  question  a  few  years  later, 
how  well  and  pointedly  might  he  have  remarked,  as  he  had  done 
in  reference  to  the  Commercial  concessions  which  had  been,  at 
different  intervals,  granted  to  Ireland,  that  if  parliament  rejected 
the  bill  before  them,  the  time  would  come  when  state  necessity, 
acting  under  a  sense  of  political  danger,  must  yield,  without 
grace,  that  which  good  sense  and  good  feeling  had  before  re- 
commended in  vain.  It  is  surely  impossible  for  language  to 
pourtray  more  faithfully  the  ultimate  settlement  of  the  Catholic 

question. 

It  was  in  June,  in  this  year,  that  on  the  third  reading  of  the 
Bill  of  Principal  and  Factor,  (a  measure  for  defending  and 
amending  which  had  been  carried  by  him  through  the  House  of 
Commons,  in  the  preceding  year,  but  had  failed  in  the  Lords), 
Mr.  Huskisson  particularly  distinguished  himself  in  a  speech  of 
which,  unfortunately,  not  an  outline  exists.  The  House  had 
been  occupied  all  night  with  the  case  of  Mr.  Kenrick  and  Confer, 
the  butcher;  and  the  debate  on  the  Law  of  Merchant  and 
Factor  did  not  come  on  till  very  late.  Mr.  Scarlett  made  a 
long  and  learned  speech  against  the  measure.  His  arguments 
were  combated  by  Mr.  Huskisson,  who,  in  a  speech  of  an  hour 
and  a  half,  gave  his  entire  view  of  the  commercial  polity  of  Great 


268  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

Britain,  as  the  natural  depot  of  the  merchandise  passing  between 
the  new  and  the  old  world,  and  urged  the  necessity  of  affording 
all  possible  security  to  advances  on  goods  ware-housed,  in  order 
to  make  it  so. 

There  are  many  and  great  authorities  now  living,  who  pro- 
nounced that  he  did  this  in  a  way  in  which  nobody  else  could 
have  done  it.  Owing,  however,  to  the  lateness  of  the  hour  at 
which  he  rose,  this  elaborate  'speech  was  dispatched  by  the  re- 
porters in  a  few  lines;  while  an  admirable  one,  delivered  by 
Mr.  Baring,  on  the  same  subject,  was  left  wholly  unreported. 

Besides  the  other  weighty  and  laborious  questions  which  occu- 
pied Mr.  Huskisson,  both  in  his  official  and  parliamentary 
character,  in  1825  and  1826,  must  be  enumerated  the  compli- 
cated and  delicate  discussions  with  Mr.  Rush, — afterwards  con- 
tinued with  Mr.  Gallatin,  on  the  various  points  in  dispute  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  of  America: — comprising 
the  adjustment  of  the  North- Western  Boundary  and  that  of  the 
Province  of  New  Brunswick— the  navigation  of  the  river  St. 
Lawrence — the  more  effectual  suppression  of  the  African  Slave 
Trade,  and  the  intercourse  with  the  West  India  Colonies.  In 
the  negotiations  with  the  American  Ministers,  Mr.  Huskisson  was 
at  first  assisted  by  Mr.  Stratford  Canning,  and  subsequently,  by 
Mr.  Addington.  The  protocols  of  those  conferences  were  by 
them  drawn  up,  and  then  submitted  to  Mr.  Canning  for  his  final 
revision  and  sanction. 

Superior  to  the  pressure  of  the  times,  and  disdaining  to  attri- 
bute it  to  false  causes,  the  Merchants  of  Liverpool,  with  that 
spirit  of  liberality,  which  so  nobly  characterizes  them,  came 
forward  to  testify  their  sense  of  the  advantages  which  had  been 
derived  from  the  alterations  already  carried  into  effect,  and  to 
mark  their  approbation  of  those  yet  in  progress :  and,  early  in 
1826,  Mr.  Huskisson  received  the  following  letter,  which  is  too 
honourable  to  him,  in  his  public  capacity,  and  to  those  from  whom 
it  proceeded,  not  to  demand  an  insertion  here.  It  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  add,  that  the  Service  of  Plate  to  which  it  alludes, 
was  worthy  of  the  greatness  of  Liverpool,  both  in  taste  and  mag- 
nificence ;— 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  269 

Liverpool,  4th  February,  1826. 
My  dear  Sir, 
As  chairman  of  the  Committee,  I  have  now  the  honour  to  request  your 
aceptance  of  the  Service  of  Plate  presented  to  you  by  this  great  commer- 
cial town.  The  motives  which  led  to  this  proof  of  public  feeling,  are  set 
forth  in  the  following  inscription,  and  are  also  engraved  on  the  centre  orna- 
ment of  the  service,  viz : — 

THE  SERVICE  OF  PLATE, 

OF  WHICH  THIS  CANDELABRA  IS  A  PART, 
WAS  PRESENTED  TO 

THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON, 

BY  A  NUMEROUS  BODY  OF  THE 

MERCHANTS,  FREEMEN,  AND  INHABITANTS 
OF  LIVERPOOL ; 

AS  A  TESTIMONY 
OP  THEIR  SENSE  OF  THE  BENEFITS 

DERIVED  TO  THE  NATION  AT  LARGE 

FROM 

THE    ENLIGHTENED    SYSTEM    OF    COMMERCIAL    POLICY, 

BROUGHT  FORWARD  BY  HIM, 

AS  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  TRADE : 

AND  OF  THEIR  GRATITUDE 

FOR  THE  ZEAL  AND  ABILITY,  WITH  WHICH, 
AS  MEMBER  FOR  LIVERPOOL, 

HE  HAS  WATCHED  OVER  THE  INTERESTS  OP 

HIS  CONSTITUENTS. 
1825. 

Notwithstanding  the  embarrassment  and  distress  which  generally  prevail 
in  trade  and  manufacture,  I  am  desired  by  the  Committee  to  assure  you,  that 
their  conviction  of  the  wisdom  of  the  measures  introduced  by  you  for  the 
removal  of  Commercial  Restrictions  remains  undiminished ;  and  that  they 
confidently  anticipate,  from  their  matured  operation,  the  most  beneficial 
eifects  to  the  country  at  large.  It  is  very  gratifying  to  me  to  have  been  se- 
lected, by  my  liberal  fellow-townsmen,  as  their  organ  on  this  occasion ;  and 
I  have  only  to  add,  that  I  have  the  honour  to  be,  &.c.  &c. 

John  Bolton. 

To  this,  Mr.  Huskisson  made  a  suitable  reply. 

Parliament  met  on  the  2d  of  February,  1826,  and  the  recent  em- 
barrassments and  distress  became  the  subject  of  immediate  debate. 

In  the  various  discussions  which  ensued  upon  the  Bank  Charter 
and  Promissory  Notes  Acts,  Mr.  Huskisson,  as  might  be  expect- 
ed, took  a  prominent  part ;  and,  in  answer  to  the  abuse  which 
23* 


270  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

was  now  scattered  with  no  unsparing  hand  against  the  measures 
of  which  he  was  considered  the  great  champion  and  adviser,  re- 
ferred, for  the  solution  of  the  calamitous  state  of  domestic  affairs, 
to  the  ineffectual  warnings  which  he  had  given  in  the  preceding 
year,  while  he  challenged  the  most  searching  inquiry  into  the 
share  which  it  was  asserted  the  changes  in  the  restrictive  sys- 
tem had  had  in  producing  the  convulsion  which  terminated  in  the 
ruin  of  so  many.  It  was  not  long  before  he  had  an  opportunity 
of  defending  himself  upon  one  of  his  own  measures.  On  the  24th 
of  February,  the  Silk  Question  was  selected  as  the  object  of 
attack,  and  Mr.  Ellice  moved  for  a  committee  to  consider  of  the 
petition,  from  persons  connected  with  that  trade.  The  speech 
he  delivered  on  that  occasion,  drew  forth  the  following  note  from 
Mr.  Canning : 

F.  O.  24th  February,  1826.  2,  A.  M. 
My  dear  Mrs.  Huskisson, 
Having  written  to  the  king,  I  cannot  reconcile  it  to  my  sense  of  duty  to 
go  to  bed  without  writing  to  you,  to  congratulate  you  on  Huskisson's  exhibi- 
tion of  to-night.  I  do  assure  you,  without  the  smallest  compliment  or  exag- 
geration, that  he  has  made  one  of  the  very  best  speeches  that  I  ever  heard 
in  the  House  of  Commons — a  speech  decisive,  forever,  of  his  character  and 
reputation  as  a  statesman  and  an  orator.  It  was  of  the  very  first  rate  ;  and 
as  such,  I  wish  you  joy  of  it  with  all  my  heart. 

Most  sincerely  yours, 

George  Canning. 

The  advocates  of  the  new  system  never  enjoyed  a  more  glo- 
rious triumph  than  on  this  night.  Never  was  there  a  more 
powerful  or  more  unanswerable  defence  of  that  system  than  may 
be  found  in  the  reply  made  by  Mr.  Huskisson  to  the  speeches  of 
Mr.  Ellice  and  Mr.  Williams.  Never  was  a  more  generous  or 
more  statesman-like  support  afforded  to  a  colleague  than  the 
magnificent  display  of  eloquence  with  which  Mr.  Canning  eulo- 
gized his  friend,  and  overwhelmed  his  persecutors.  The  disad- 
vantages of  the  existing  Corn  Laws  had  become  so  apparent,  and 
a  fresh  revision  of  them  had  been  so  strongly  pressed  upon 
government,  in  the  last  session  of  parliament,  that  Mr.  Huskisson 
had  been  induced  to  give  an  implied  promise  to  bring  the  whole 
subject  under  the  consideration  of  the  House,  in  the  course  of  the 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  271 

session  of  1826.  At  the  time  when  this  engagement  was  supposed 
to  have  been  incurred,  it  was  understood  that  a  dissolution  would 
take  place  in  the  course  of  the  following  autumn.  Contrary  to 
expectation,  this  dissolution  did  not  take  place ;  and  Mr.  Huskisson 
naturally  relinquished  his  intention.  Indeed,  Ministers  announced, 
on  the  very  first  day  of  the  session,  their  determination  not  to  pro- 
pose any  change  in  the  existing  laws,  during  the  present  year,  as 
they  were  unwilling  to  bring  forward  so  important  a  subject  in  the 
then  agitated  condition  of  the  country ;  and  were  still  more  in- 
disposed to  submit  a  question  of  such  extreme  intricacy  and  deli- 
cacy to  be  discussed  by  an  expiring  parliament,  where  it  was 
impossible  to  hope  it  could  be  examined  with  that  calm  and  un- 
prejudiced consideration  which  it  so  peculiarly  claimed.  The 
subject  being  thus  declined  by  government,  was  introduced  by 
Mr.  Whitmore,  in  a  formal  motion,  "  for  a  Committee,  to  inquire 
into  the  state  of  the  Corn  Laws ;"  and  several  times  afterwards 
became  matter  of  discussion.  On  all  these  occasions,  though  ad- 
vocating the  necessity  of  delay,  Mr.  Huskisson  did  not  disguise 
his  opinion,  that  the  system  hitherto  pursued  was  an  erroneous 
one — that  the  change  which,  during  two  years  of  peace,  had  been 
operating  both  internally  and  externally,  required  a  corresponding 
change  in  legislation  on  this  subject,  or  his  hopes  that  he  might 
see  a  free  trade  in  corn  established  under  proper  and  due  protec- 
tion. The  business  was  ultimately  postponed  to  the  following 
year,  with  a  full  understanding  that  Ministers  should  be  then  pre- 
pared to  bring  forward  a  new-modelling  of  these  laws  on  their 
own  responsibility. 

Parliamentary  history  presents  scarce  a  parallel  to  the  effect 
which  Mr.  Huskisson  was  accustomed  to  produce,  when  he 
brought  forward  or  vindicated  those  great  plans  of  Commercial 
Reform,  which  mainly  depended  upon  him.  He  may  be  said, 
indeed,  to  have  formed  a  new  era  in  parliamentary  speaking,  and 
to  have  raised  his  department  to  a  consequence  before  unknown. 
Subjects  which,  from  whatever  cause,  had  hitherto  failed  in  at^ 
tracting  that  general  attention  which  their  importance  might  have 
justly  demanded,  w,ere  now  listened  to  with  the  deepest  interest ; 
and  his  speeches,  minute  and  unadorned  as  they  were,  on  the 


272  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

unpromising  topics  of  Silk  and  Shipping,  raised  an  admiration  and 
interest  equal  to  those  which  attended  the  most  eloquent  exposi- 
tions of  his  colleagues  on  Foreign  Policy,  or  the  Financial  State- 
ments which,  year  after  year,  announced  to  the  public  successive 
reductions  of  taxation. 

Nor  was  the  effect  produced  by  these  speeches  confined  to  this 
country  alone.  They  were  translated  into  French,  at  Paris ;  and 
he  received  from  France,  Germany,  and  the  United  States  of 
America,  frequent  congratulations  on  his  convincing  justification 
of  the  new  system,  and  warm  encouragement  to  pursue  a  course 
which,  in  its  consequences,  tended  to  the  general  advantage,  not 
only  of  his  countrymen,  but  of  the  whole  civilized  world. 

The  parliament  was  dissolved  in  June,  1826 ;  and  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson  was  re-elected  for  Liverpool,  after  a  miserable  eflfort  to 
raise  an  opposition,  under  the  pretext  that  the  liberal  policy  of 
the  government  in  respect  to  the  relaxation  of  the  Commercial 
System,  had  injured  the  native  manufactures  and  trade  of  the 
country.  No  candidate  could  however  be  found,  and  the  attempt 
fell  to  the  ground. 

The  close  attention  with  which  Mr.  Huskisson  had  applied  himself 
to  public  business  during  the  last  two  years,  and  the  deep  anxiety 
which  he  naturally  felt  for  the  accomplishment  and  success  of  his 
new  measures,  had  visibly  shaken  a  constitution  already  im- 
paired by  the  excitement  he  had  undergone  in  the  winter  of  1822. 
His  spirits^  too,  had  certainly  suffered ;  for,  however  philosophi- 
cally he  outwardly  bore  himself  against  the  calumnies  with 
which  he  was  assailed,  those  who  saw  and  watched  him,  in  his 
hours  of  retirement,  could  perceive  that  the  shaft  had  been  shot 
not  altogether  in  vain,  and  that  his  generous  nature  sometimes 
sank  under  the  reiterated  attacks  of  his  persecutors ;  who  pur- 
sued him,  as  Mr.  Canning  expressed  it,  "  in  the  same  doctrine  and 
spirit  which  embittered  the  life  of  Turgot,  and  consigned  Galileo 
to  the  dungeons  of  the  Inquisition." 

The  year  1827,  so  fruitful  in  melancholy  occurrences,  was 
ushered  in  by  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  York.  Mr.  Huskisson, 
who  had  before  been  slightly  indisposed,  suflTered  much  from  the 
severity  of  the  cold  during  his  attendance  at  the  funeral.  He 
there  laid  the  foundation  of  that  complaint  in  the  throat,  from  the 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  273 

effects  of  which  he  never  wholly  recovered.  He  returned  to 
Eartham  on  the  21st  of  January  ;  and  on  the  24th,  Mr.  Canning 
arrived  there  from  Bath,  where  he  had  been  to  visit  Lord  Liver- 
pool, and  to  make  arrangements  for  the  approaching  session.  His 
appearance  bore  evident  signs  of  lurking  malady;  and,  the  day 
after  his  arrival,  he  had  a  sharp  access  of  cold  and  fever :  but, 
finding  himself  better  on  the  following  morning,  he  proceeded  to 
join  his  family  at  Brighton ;  and  a  few  days  afterwards,  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson  removed  to  London. 

On  the  day  when  Lord  Liverpool  was  struck  with  apoplexy, 
Mr.  Huskisson  had  been  ordered  not  to  leave  the  house  ;  and  the 
intelligence,  therefore,  did  not  reach  him  till  about  four  in  the 
afternoon.  His  anxiety  to  ascertain  the  particulars  induced  him 
to  go  immediately  to  Fife  House;  and  this  imprudence,  and  the 
excitement  which  ensued  from  the  interruption  of  public  business, 
produced,  in  a  few  days,  a  decided  attack  of  inflammation  of  the 
trachea. 

By  the  beginning  of  April,  Mr.  Huskisson's  health  was  suffi- 
ciently re-established  to  allow  him  to  go  to  Lord  Stafford's,  at 
Wimbleton,  for  change  of  air ;  but  he  did  not  resume  his  place 
in  the  House  of  Commons  till  after  the  Easter  recess. 

On  the  7th  of  May,  after  several  postponements,  and  a  long  and 
threatening  note  of  preparation.  General  Gascoyne  brought  for- 
ward his  motion  "  for  a  Committee  to  inquire  into  the  distressed 
state  of  the  Shipping  interest :"  when  Mr.  Huskisson,  for  the  last 
time,  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  undertook  the  vindica- 
tion of  the  recent  changes  in  the  Commercial  Policy  of  the  coun- 
try ;  and,  in  a  speech  characterized  by  the  most  statesman-like 
views  and  sentiments,  and  abounding  in  the  most  valuable  com- 
mercial information,  overthrew  the  allegations  of  his  opponents, 
not  only  by  the  most  convincing  reasoning,  but  by  the  clearest 
arithmetical  proofs. 

In  May,  Mr.  Whitmore  brought  forward  a  motion  "  for  a  se- 
lect Committee  to  inquire  into  the  East  India  Trade."  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson maintained  the  propriety  of  postponing  the  inquiry;  and 
the  statement  which  he  made  of  his  views  upon  this  important 
question,  proved  so  satisfactory  to  the  House,  that  all  parties  joined 
in  supporting  his  suggestion,  and  Mr.  Whitmore  not  only  coi^ 

2K 


274  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

sented  to  withdraw  the  motion,  but  expressed  his  readiness  to  leave 
the  subject  entirely  in  his  hands. 

In  the  course  of  the  same  month,  Mr.  Huskisson  took  occasion, 
on  the  presentation  of  a  petition  of  the  wool-growers  of  Dorset- 
shire, to  explain  the  policy  which  had  guided  the  alterations  made 
in  the  duties  and  regulations  affecting  the  Wool  Trade,  and  to 
exhibit  the  causes  which  had  produced  the  immense  increase  in 
the  growth  of  wool  abroad,  especially  in  Germany.  He  did  not, 
unfortunately,  live  to  hear  how  completely  the  soundness  of 
his  arguments,  and  his  views  respecting  this  valuable  branch  of 
the  manufactures,  has  been  proved. 

The  session  was  closed  on  the  2d  of  July;  and,  about  the  mid- 
dle of  the  month,  Mr.  Huskisson,  who  had  been  earnestly  recom- 
mended by  his  physicians  to  try  whether  the  air  of  the  continent, 
and  a  total  abstraction  from  business,  might  not  have  a  beneficial 
effect  upon  his  debilitated  frame,  left  England  for  Calais.  On 
the  day  before  his  departure,  he  saw  Mr.  Canning,  who  received 
him  in  bed.  Struck  with  the  alteration  in  his  looks,  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson remarked  to  him,  that  he  seemed  to  be  the  person  who 
stood  most  in  need  of  change  of  air  and  of  relaxation.  Mr. 
Canning  answered  in  a  cheerful  tone, — "  Oh,  it  is  only  the  reflec- 
tion of  the  yellow  hangings  of  the  curtains."  This  was  on  the 
18th  of  July.  On  the  19th  Mr.  Huskisson  embarked  at  the  Tower, 
accompanied  by  Mrs.  Huskisson  and  his  private  secretary.  On 
landing  at  Calais,  with  the  ill  luck  which  constantly  pursued  him, 
he  entangled  his  foot  in  a  cable,  and  lacerated  it  so  severely  that 
he  was  unable  to  walk  for  some  days.  The  party  rapidly  crossed 
France  to  Strasburg ;  and  after  a  short  visit  to  Baden,  proceeded, 
by  the  route  of  Stutgardt  and  Augsburg,  to  Munich.  Here  Mr. 
Huskisson  was  induced  to  remain  a  few  days  in  the  society  of 
Sir  Brooke  Taylor,  the  English  Minister,  and  then  proceeded  on 
to  Salzburg,  intending  to  go  to  Bad  Gastein,  the  mountainous  and 
bracing  air  of  which  had  been  strongly  recommended  to  him.  At 
Salzburg,  he  learned  that  there  would  probably  be  much  difficulty 
in  procuring  accommodations ;  and,  though  provided  with  letters 
of  introduction  from  the  different  ambassadors  in  England,  and 
more  particularly  from  Prince  Esterhazy,  yet,  such  was  his  dis- 
like to  anything  that  savoured  of  parade  or  ostentation,  that, 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  275 

instead  of  sending  forward  a  courier  to  Gastein,  or  presenting 
his  letters  to  the  Governor  of  Salzburg,  he  quietly  relinquished  his 
plan,  and  turned  back  to  Innsbruck. 

On  the  14th  of  August,  he  reached  Innsbruck;  and  the  12th 
was  the  first  day  in  which  he  appeared  really  to  have  derived 
benefit  from  his  tour.  He  had  recovered  from  his  lameness,  and 
was  much  pleased  with  a  long  walk  to  the  Chateau  d'Amras  and 
its  environs.  Here,  too,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  receiving 
letters  from  London,  mentioning  Mr.  Canning's  convalescence ; 
and  on  the  13th,  the  party  set  off  for  the  pass  of  the  Monte 
Spluga,  in  better  spirits,  and  with  brighter  hopes  than  they  had 
yet  felt 

On  that  night,  they  slept  atLandeek;  and,  on  the  following 
afternoon,  reached  Teldkirch,  in  the  Vararlbeg.  Mr.  Huskisson's 
health  was  now  decidedly  improving.  He  had  been  much  in- 
terested in  the  beautiful  scenery  of  the  Tyrol ;  and  his  mind  was 
recovering  its  wonted  elasticity  and  playfulness,  too  soon  to  be 
again  painfully  unstrung.  Early  on  the  morning  of  the  15th 
instant,  just  as  they  were  setting  off  for  Caire,  an  estafette  from 
Sir  Brooke  Taylor  came  in,  bearing  a  letter  from  Lord  Gran- 
ville, at  Paris,  to  announce  the  alarming  turn  which  Mr.  Canning's 
illness  had  taken.  The  route  was  instantly  changed ;  and  on  the 
20th,  the  party  reached  the  Hotel  of  the  English  Embassy  at 
Paris,  having  travelled  as  fast  as  his  own  strength  and  that  of 
Mrs.  Huskisson  would  permit. 

The  fatal  termination  of  Mr.  Canning's  illness  had  become 
known  to  him  on  the  road,  but  without  any  of  the  particulars,  or 
any  of  the  ministerial  arrangements  subsequently  proposed :  and 
Mr.  Huskisson's  impression,  more  than  once  expressed  to  his 
companions  on  the  road,  was,  that  his  own  political  career  had 
closed  for  ever.  The  meeting  with  Lord  Granville — the  painful 
details  which  he  had  to  learn,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  he 
had  travelled,  completely  exhausted  both  his  physical  and  .moral 
strength,  and  rendered  some  repose  absolutely  necessary.  Nor 
did  the  melancholy  incitement  to  tax  either  beyond  their  power 
in  the  hope  of  paying  the  last  mark  of  public  and  private  regard 
to  his  departed  friend,  then  exist;  for  the  funeral  of  Mr.  Canning 
had  taken  place  on  the  16th,  the  day  after  the  estafette  reached 
Feldkirch. 


276  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

But,  beyond  the  considerations  arising  from  the  state  of  his  own 
health,  Mr.  Huskisson  was  decided  to  remain  a  few  days  in 
Paris,  in  order  to  receive  some  official  and  definite  information 
respecting  the  proposed  arrangements  for  supplying  the  loss  of 
Mr.  Canning,  and  continuing  the  existing  administration.  The 
expresses  which  had  been  despatched  from  England  had  taken  a 
different  route  from  that  by  which  Mr.  Huskisson  had  returned  ; 
and  it  was  very  desirable  that  either  the  letters  of  which  they 
were  the  bearers,  or  fresh  ones,  should  explain  to  him,  before  he 
pursued  his  journey  to  England,  what  were  the  intentions  of  the 
remaining  members  of  the  Administration,  in  regard  to  the  re- 
modelling of  the  government :  as,  should  he  decide  on  declining 
any  proposals  made  to  him,  his  plan  was  to  have  tried  the  effect 
of  a  winter  in  the  south  of  Europe ;  and  it  has  already  been  stated, 
that  the  inclination  of  his  mind,  from  the  first  moment  in  which 
he  heard  of  the  death  of  his  friend  and  colleague,  was  to  listen  to 
the  warning  voice  of  his  medical  friends,  and  to  withdraw  entirely 
from  public  life. 

On  the  23d,  one  of  the  expresses  arrived.  The  letters  of  Lord 
Goderich  communicated  that  he  had  accepted  the  office  of  First 
Lord  of  the  Treasury,  and  conveyed  an  offer,  couched  in  the 
most  friendly  and  handsome  terms,  of  the  Colonial  Department, 
which  he  had  vacated,  to  Mr.  Huskisson.  Further  letters  from 
England  announced  that  Mr.  Grant  was,  in  the  event  of  these 
proposals  being  accepted,  to  succeed  to  the  Presidency  of  the 
Board  of  Trade;  and  that  Lord  Lansdowne,  and  the  remaining 
members  of  Mr.  Canning's  government,  had  declared  their  acqui- 
escence in  these  arrangements.  All  the  letters  pressed  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson to  return  without  loss  of  time,  and  mentioned  that  the  King 
had  expressed  his  earnest  wishes  that  no  delay  might  take  place 
in  his  assuming  his  new  office.  It  was  not  without  considerable 
hesitation  that  Mr.  Huskisson  was  persuaded  to  decide  upon  con- 
tinuing in  office.  His  secret  inclinations  leaned  the  other  way  ; 
and  he  only  yielded  at  last  to  the  arguments  and  expostulations  of 
his  friends,  who  represented  the  dissolution  of  the  government, 
and  the  consequent  annihilation  of  Mr.  Canning's  system  of 
policy,  as  the  too  probable  result  of  his  refusal — arguments  and 
expostulations  which  were  enforced  by  the  special  commands  of 
his  sovereign. 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  277 

He  left  Paris  on  the  25th,  and  reached  London  on  the  28th. 
On  the  following  morning,  he  waited  on  the  King,  at  Windsor. 
A  long  negotiation  commenced ;  and,  after  some  explanations 
and  much  difficulty.  Lord  Lansdowne,  at  his  Majesty's  special 
request,  consented  to  withdraw  the  resignation  he  had  tendered. 
Mr.  Huskisson,  at  the  same  time,  accepted  the  seals  of  the  Colo- 
nial Department ;  and  Mr.  Herries  was  sworn  in  as  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer. 

He  had  now  an  opportunity  of  following  up  those  important 
commercial  regulations,  with  respect  to  the  Colonial  Policy  of 
England,  which  had  occupied  so  much  of  his  attention  at  the 
Board  of  Trade,  and  of  giving  to  the  improvement  and  careful 
revision  of  the  Colonial  System  all  the  resources  of  his  powerful 
mind.  He  did  not  long  remain  idle.  Within  less  than  a  month 
after  his  appointment,  an  official  despatch  was  addressed  by  him 
to  Sir  John  Keane,  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Jamaica,  which 
was  dated  the  22d  of  September,  and  filled  seven  columns  of  the 
Jamaica  Gazette.  This  despatch  may  safely  be  pronounced  to 
be  a  document,  not  less  remarkable  for  the  circumstances  under 
which  it  was  composed,  than  intrinsically  valuable  and  important 
for  the  ability  with  which  it  was  executed.  The  interval  between 
Mr.  Huskisson's  return  and  his  entrance  upon  the  duties  of  the 
Colonial  Department,  had  been  filled  with  anxious  and  unremit- 
ting exertions  to  consolidate  the  new  Ministry ;  yet,  with  all  the 
distractions  of  an  unpractised  Cabinet,  in  which  he  bore  his  full 
share,  and  under  the  pressure  of  severe  afl!liction,  and  of  impaired 
and  precarious  health,  his  indefatigable  mind  found  time,  in  this 
short  period,  to  master  the  almost  endless  details  of  those  thorny 
and  repulsive  subjects,  which  had  cost  a  year's  labour  to  the 
House  of  Assembly,  and  produced  a  despatch,  marked  throughout 
with  temper,  discrimination,  comprehensive  sagacity,  statesman- 
like power,  and  a  disregard  of  all  selfish  clamour. 

Mr.  Huskisson's  purpose  was,  to  state  the  objections  of  the 
government  at  home  to  the  very  inefficacious  manner  in  which 
the  House  of  Assembly  of  Jamaica  attempted  or  professed  to 
carry  into  execution  the  principles  laid  down  by  the  British  Par- 
liament, and  to  fulfil  the  instructions  transmitted  by  Lord  Bath- 
24 


278  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

urst  The  task  was  a  most  ungracious  one ;  but  it  was  performed 
by  a  master-hand. 

But  the  labours  of  Mr.  Huskisson,  in  the  Colonial  Department 
of  his  office,  soon  received  a  serious  interruption.  The  intelligence 
which  reached  England,  in  November,  of  the  battle  of  Navarino, 
and  the  difficulties  which  shortly  after  arose  in  other  quarters, 
paralyzed  the  proceedings  of  government,  and  threw  every  thing 
into  a  state  of  doubt  and  confusion. 

At  length,  towards  the  close  of  the  year,  it  became  generally 
understood  that  Lord  Goderich's  administration  had  melted  away 
like  a  snow-wreath,  and  that  measures  were  in  progress  for  form- 
ing a  new  one.  An  ineffectual  attempt  had  been  previously 
made,  to  prevent  the  entire  dissolution  of  the  existing  govern- 
ment. By  command  of  his  Majesty,  Mr.  Huskisson  opened  a 
communication  with  Lord  Harrowby.  His  Lordship  waited  upon 
the  King,  at  Windsor,  but  no  inducements  could  prevail  upon  him 
to  accept  the  post  of  Prime  Minister ;  to  which  he  pleaded  his 
want  of  health  as  an  insurmountable  obstacle :  and  this  proposed 
arrangement  fell  to  the  ground.  A  yet  further  delay  then  ensued ; 
and  there  are  strong  grounds  for  believing  that,  had  Mr.  Huskis- 
son listened  to  the  voice  of  ambition,  the  situation  of  Minister  was 
within  his  grasp ;  but  the  recent  fate  of  Mr.  Canning  was  a  warn- 
ing which  might  have  deterred  a  mind  more  full  of  aspiring 
ambition  than  Mr.  Huskisson's  from  accepting,  under  parallel 
circumstances,  that  post  which  the  fiat  of  the  aristocracy  had 
declared,  should  be  held  only  by  one  of  their  own  order.  After 
another  short  interval  of  doubt,  the  commission  to  form  an  ad- 
ministration was  given  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington ;  and  before 
January  expired,  the  new  arrangements  were  made  public. 

Mr.  Huskisson  was  re-elected  for  Liverpool  without  opposition, 
and  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  11th  of  Feb- 
ruary. In  the  interval,  much  notice  had  been  attracted  to  the 
report  ,of  something  which  was  said  to  have  fallen  from  him 
during  the  election,  when  explaining  the  motives  of  his  continu- 
ance in  office,  respecting  certain  guarantees  received  from  the 
Duke  of  Wellington ;  and  some  unpleasant  and  angry  feelings 
were  manifested,  which  augured  ill  for  the  cordiality  of  future 
proceedings.     Several  allusions  were  made  to  this  expression  in 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  279 

both  Houses ;  and  the  Duke  of  Wellington  rather  warmly  repu- 
diated the  idea  that  he  could  have  been  guilty  of  giving  any 
guarantee  for  his  future  conduct.  The  business  was,  however, 
satisfactorily  explained  by  Mr.  Huskisson,  on  the  18th  of  Febru- 
ary, when  Lord  Normanby  brought  on  a  discussion  respecting 
the  dissolution  of  the  last,  and  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Huskisson 
in  joining  the  present,  government ;  and  the  letter  which  was  read 
from  Mr,  Shepherd,  on  that  occasion,  set  the  question  of  the  guar- 
antee finally  at  rest. 

The  high  estimation  in  which  Mr.  Huskisson  w^as  held,  was 
strikingly  manifested  when  the  appointment  of  the  Committee  of 
Finance  was  moved.  He  had  declined  being  placed  on  it,  from 
a  feeling  that  neither  his  official  duties,  nor  the  state  of  his  health, 
would  allow  of  his  regular  attendance  on  this  arduous  investiga- 
tion. The  list  of  names  having  been  read,  Mr.  Baring  arose,  and 
observed,  "without  any  disrespect  to  the  members  composing 
the  committee,  I  may  be  permitted  to  say,  that  the  whole  aggre- 
gate amount  of  their  financial  knowledge,  bears  no  proportion  to 
that  possessed  by  the  right  honourable  gentleman.  His  informa- 
tiofi  and  research  have  penetrated  into  every  corner  of  Our 
financial  and  commercial  systems :  and  to  except  him  from  the 
committee,  is  to  shut  out  the  greatest  light  that  can  be  thrown 
upon  the  subjects  therein  discussed."  To  this  high  eulogium,  Mr. 
Brougham  added,  that  the  knowledge  of  all  the  other  members 
combined  was  as  nothing — as  dust  in  the  balance,  compared  with 
the  resources  of  his  mind.  Mr.  Huskisson  was  consequently  in- 
duced to  forego  his  objections,  and  his  name  was  added  to  the 
committee.  He  now  again,  to  use  his  own  words,  applied  him- 
self earnestly  and  indefatigably  to  the  amelioration  of  the  Colo- 
nial System — to  strengthen  the  bonds  which  attached  her  distant 
possessions  to  the  mother-country,  and  to  bring  forward,  expound, 
improve,  and  perfect,  measures  connected  with  the  foreign  com- 
merce and  the  internal  industry  of  that  country, — objects  to  which 
his  attention  had  been  long  sedulously  applied.  But,  besides  his 
correspondence  with  Sir  John  Keane,  to  which  we  have  already 
alluded,  the  few  months  of  Mr.  Huskisson's  Colonial  Administra- 
tion were  marked  by  other  important  measures : — by  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  committee  to  examine  into  the  state  of  the  Canadas, 


280  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

where  strong  dissatisfaction  and  growing  discontent  had  long 
prevailed — by  a  bill  to  provide  for  the  administration  of  justice 
in  New  South  Wales  and  Van  Diemen's  Land,  and  by  the  first 
step  towards  the  acconnplishment  of  an  object,  which,  in  connmon 
with  every  friend  of  humanity,  he  had  earnestly  at  heart — the 
gradual  reduction  of  the  British  establishments  on  the  Slave  Coast 
of  Africa,  and  the  withdrawing  of  the  garrisons  from  the  forts  on 
the  Gold  Coast.  His  correspondence  with  the  governors  of  the 
West  India  Colonies,  sufficiently  proves  how  earnestly  he  endea- 
voured to  impress  upon  the  Colonial  Legislature,  the  necessity,  as 
well  as  wisdom,  of  giving  effect,  without  delay,  to  the  resolutions 
of  the  British  Parliament:  and  how  carefully  and  steadily  he 
applied  himself  to  devise  nneans  materially  to  improve  the  civil 
and  moral  condition  of  the  slave  population. 

The  speeches  which  he  delivered  on  moving  the  appointment 
of  a  committee  to  enquire  into  the  state  of  the  Canadas,  and  on  the 
discussions  of  the  bill  to  regulate  the  government  of  New  South 
Wales,  are  not  only  full  of  the  most  liberal  sentiments,  respecting 
the  treatment,  by  the  mother  country,  of  those  important  colo- 
nies, but  exhibit  such  an  intimate  knowledge  of  their  present 
state,  and  comprehensive  views  for  their  future  prosperity,  as 
could  only  have  been  acquired  by  the  most  patient  research,  and 
impartial  communication  with  every  source  of  information  which 
was  open  to  him. 

Mr.  Huskisson,  with  the  other  members  of  government  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  opposed  Lord  John  Russell's  Bill  for  the  re- 
peal of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts ;  but  his  opposition,  on 
this  occasion,  did  not  impugn  the  sincerity  of  his  principles  in 
favour  of  religious  toleration ;  and  he  thus  explained  and  defend- 
ed the  grounds  of  it :— "  I  am  not,  abstractedly,  unfriendly  to  the 
proposition ;  but  I  cannot  assent  to  it,  because  I  am  sure,  that 
with  reference  to  the  Catholic  claims,  it  will  make  a  bad  impres- 
sion. I  am  convinced,  that  the  present  measure,  so  far  from 
being  a  step  in  favour  of  the  Catholic  claims,  would,  if  successful, 
be  the  means  of  arraying  an  additional  power  against  them." 

The  months  of  March  and  April  were  principally  consumed  in 
debates  upon  the  Corn  Bill ;  and,  from  the  tone  of  the  discussions, 
the  public  thought  they  could  gather  a  confirmation  of  the  reports 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  281 

which  had  very  generally  prevailed,  of  considerable  dissensions 
among  the  Ministers,  respecting  the  provisions  of  the  bill.  Neither 
Mr.  Grant  nor  Mr.  Huskisson  professed  to  consider  the  scale  of 
duties  without  objection ;  and  contented  themselves  w^ith  recom- 
mending the  arrangement,  as  the  best  which,  under  all  circum- 
stances, could  then  be  realized.  But  while  Mr.  Huskisson  was 
taunted,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  with  having  consented  to 
compromise  his  former  opinions  on  the  Corn  Laws,  it  was 
strongly  suspected,  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington  had  met  with  a 
firmer  resistance  among  his  liberal  colleagues  than  he  had  antici- 
pated ;  and  that  he,  on  his  part,  found  the  task  of  introducing  the 
new  bill  rather  an  unpalatable  comment  upon  his  opposition  of 
the  former  year. 

However  strong  the  suspicions  of  disunion  in  the  Cabinet,  no 
open  proof  appeared  to  confirm  them ;  and,  with  the  passing  of 
the  Corn  Bill,  whatever  differences  of  opinion  might  have  oc- 
curred, were  supposed  to  have  subsided  with  the  cause  which 
had  provoked  them. 

Mr.  Huskisson  knew  that  he  was  regarded  with  a  suspicious 
and  jealous  eye  by  what  is  termed  the  Agricultural  Interest ;  and, 
in  the  course  of  the  debates  on  the  propriety  of  disfranchising 
East  Retford,  and  transferring  the  right  of  election  to  one  of  the 
great  manufacturing  towns,  he  thus  plainly  alluded  to  the  cir- 
cumstance : — "  It  has  sometimes  been  said,  I  know  not  on  what 
grounds,  that  I  am  not  a  friend  to  the  Agricultural  Interest ;  but 
I  feel  the  less  uneasy  under  an  imputation  of  that  nature,  as  I  am 
persuaded,  that  an  enlarged  view  of  the  policy  which  I  have 
always  recommended,  cannot  fail  to  lead  to  the  conclusion,  that 
I  have  uniformly  supported  those  principles  which  are  best  cal- 
culated to  promote  the  general  interests  of  each  class ;  and,  as  a 
consequence,  the  good  of  the  whole  community." 

On  the  12th  of  May,  Mr.  Huskisson,  contrary  to  the  practice 
which  he  had  usually  followed  during  the  life  of  Mr.  Canning, 
made  an  able  and  argumentative  speech  in  favour  of  the  Catho- 
lics. On  the  13th,  he  spoke  feelingly  and  eloquently,  for  granting 
to  the  son  of  Mr.  Canning,  under  the  Officer's  Pensions  Act,  an  an- 
nuity of  3000/.  a  year.  It  is  rather  a  singular  circumstance,  that 
almost  the  last  exertion  of  his  influence,  as  a  Minister,  was  to 
24*  2  L 


282  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

obtain  the  concurrence  of  the  government  to  this  pension  being 
granted  for  the  joint  lives  of  the  tvs^o  sons  of  Mr.  Canning,  with 
benefit  of  survivorship.  Every  one  is  aware,  that  but  for  this 
extension  of  the  grant,  the  intention  of  parliament  would  have 
been  rendered  nugatory  by  the  untimely  death  of  the  eldest  son 
in  the  course  of  the  following  summer.  On  the  19th,  the  discus- 
sion on  East  Retford  terminated  Mr.  Huskisson's  career  as  a 
Minister — he  having  taken  ground  in  opposition  to  the  Cabinet. 

Mr.  Huskisson's  removal  was  followed  by  the  resignation  of 
Lords  Dudley  and  Palmerston, — of  Mr.  Grant,  Mr.  Lamb,  Mr. 
Frankland  Lewis,  and  Lord  Howard  de  Walden.  Lord  Gran- 
ville left  Paris ;  and  other  changes  subsequently  occurred  in  the 
diplomatic  arrangements.  Mr.  Huskisson  did  not  take  much 
part  in  the  business  of  the  House  during  the  remainder  of  the 
session,  which  offered  little  of  interest;  but  previous  to  the  close 
of  it,  in  calling  for  copies  of  the  American  Tariff,  he  prefaced  his 
motion  with  one  of  those  able  speeches,  with  which  he  was  wont 
to  rivet  the  attention  of  his  hearers,  whenever  he  addressed  them 
on  points  of  financial  or  commercial  interest ;  and  laid  down  and 
commented  on  the  policy  which  ought  to  regulate  the  intercourse 
of  England  with  the  United  States,  in  his  usual  luminous  and 
forcible  manner. 

His  health,  which  had  never  perfectly  recovered  from  the  se- 
vere attack  of  the  preceding  year,  had  been  still  farther  shaken 
by  the  almost  constant  anxiety  of  mind,  to  which  he  had  been 
exposed  from  the  moment  he  heard  of  Mr.  Canning's  alarming 
illness,  and  by  the  laborious  duties  of  his  office.  His  physicians 
were,  therefore,  urgent  in  their  recommendations,  that  he  should 
again  try  the  influence  of  the  air  of  the  continent ;  which  he  could 
now  enjoy  for  a  longer  period ;  and  the  recollection  of  the  bene- 
fit which  he  had  begun  to  derive,  when  his  journey  was  so  fatally 
terminated  in  the  preceding  summer,  determined  him  to  comply 
with  their  advice.  Towards  the  end  of  July,  he  and  Mrs.  Hus- 
kisson proceeded  to  Switzerland.  The  season  proved  very  un- 
favourable for  the  enjoyment  of  the  scenery  of  that  country,  and 
they  therefore  crossed  the  Alps ;  and,  after  spending  a  week  at 
Venice,  were  induced  to  continue  their  journey  to  Rome.  Mr. 
Huskisson  had  wished  to  travel  as  privately  as  possible;  and 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  283 

had,  in  consequence,  again  declined  to  make  use  of  any  ot  the 
letters  of  introduction  with  which  he  had  been  furnished :  but  at 
Rome,  it  being  intimated  to  him  that  the  Pope  had  a  strong  desire 
to  receive  so  firm  an  advocate  of  the  cause  of  the  English  and 
Irish  Catholics,  he  was  presented  to  his  Holiness,  and  met  with  a 
nniost  flattering  reception.  Private  business,  which  demanded  his 
presence  in  England,  determined  him  to  relinquish  Naples,  and  he 
returned  to  England  early  in  November. 

The  following  session  was  principally  occupied  with  the  all- 
engrossing  subject  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Relief  Bill.  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson  took  an  early  opportunity  of  expressing  his  satisfaction  at 
the  course  which  the  government  had  resolved  on  pursuing; 
while,  at  the  same  time,  he  could  not  refrain  from  expressing  his 
regret  that  the  conversion  of  some  of  its  members  had  not  taken 
place  at  an  earlier  period,  when  that  lamented  friend,  whose  un- 
ceasing exertions,  whose  splendid  eloquence,  and  whose  brilliant 
talents,  had  so  greatly  contributed  to  forward  and  mature  this 
interesting  question,  both  in  parliament  and  in  the  mind  of  the 
public,  might  have  witnessed  the  triumph  of  his  labours. 

Throughout  the  long  discussions  to  which  this  bill  gave  rise, 
he  offered  to  the  government  an  active  and  powerful  support ; 
and  his  name  occurs  in  almost  all  the  debates  on  this  subject. 

When  the  state  of  the  Silk  Trade  was  once  more  brought 
under  the  consideration  of  parliament,  by  Mr.  Tyler,  the  member 
for  Coventry,  Mr.  Huskisson  came  forward  to  maintain  and  de- 
fend those  principles  of  trade  which  he  had  so  long  advocated ; 
and  declared  that  experience  only  confirmed  him  in  the  convic- 
tion, that  a  gradual  relaxation  of  the  restrictive  system  was 
invariably  followed  by  a  gradual  improvement  in  manufactures, 
commerce,  and  revenue.  The  effect  of  this  speech  was  conclu- 
sive ;  and  the  Silk  Question,  that  fertile  source  of  debate  for  the 
last  four  sessions,  now  received  its  quietus. 

In  all  the  discussions  which  arose  with  respect  to  the  future 
arrangements  to  be  made  on  the  renewal  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany's charter,  Mr.  Huskisson  took  a  warm  interest,  both  as 
member  for  Liverpool,  and  in  reference  to  the  great  commercial 
interests  involved  in  it.  But  he  did  not  confine  his  views  to  the 
narrow  limits  of  commercial  considerations.      His  enlightened 


284  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

mind  embraced  topics  of  infinitely  higher  importance — topics 
which  involved  the  tranquillity  and  happiness  of  millions  of  sub- 
jects, who  looked  to  England  for  protection — the  improvement 
in  civilization,  the  increase  of  comforts,  and  the  exaltation  of  the 
moral  character  of  the  natives  of  India.  It  is'probable  that  Mr. 
Huskisson  felt  an  additional  interest  in  the  settlement  of  the  India 
question,  and  that  he  had  turned  his  mind  more  closely  to  the 
consideration  of  it,  from  the  circumstance  that  it  had  more  than 
once  been  proposed  to  him  to  proceed  thither.  The  government 
of  Madras  had  been  offered  to  him,  previously  to  the  appointment 
of  Sir  Thomas  Monro ;  and  it  was  principally  from  the  opinions 
of  his  medical  advisers,  as  well  as  from  his  own  indifference  to 
wealth,  that  he  determined  to  decline  it.  At  a  later  period,  there 
is  little  reason  to  doubt,  it  is  affirmed,  that  the  supreme  govern- 
ment of  India  might  have  been  his.  It  is  true  that  no  positive 
offer  was  made  to  him ;  but  it  certainly  was  hinted  at,  and  the 
hint  rejected  without  a  moment's  hesitation :  his  constitution  being 
then  too  far  debilitated  to  allow  him  to  entertain  the  idea  of  a  resi- 
dence in  a  hot  climate. 

So  often  as  the  opportunity  presented  itself,  did  Mr.  Huskisson 
endeavour  to  impress  upon  the  government  the  wisdom  of  re- 
ducing the  amount  of  unfunded  debt,  in  the  hands  of  the  Bank. 
Of  the  necessity  of  this,  he  appears  to  have  been  long  sensible ; 
but  in  the  latter  years  of  his  life,  he  became  even  more  alive  to 
the  importance  of  some  arrangement  by  which  the  evil  might  be 
alleviated.  One  of  the  great  and  favourite  objects  of  his  com- 
mercial policy,  and  one  which  he  never  lost  sight  of,  was,  the 
promotion  of  every  measure  which  might  be  calculated  to  make 
England  the  entrepot  of  the  world.  It  w^as  with  this  view  that  he 
had  shown  himself  so  desirous  that  foreign  copper  ores  might  be 
allowed  to  be  smelted  in  England,  for  the  purposes  of  exporta- 
tion— a  permission  which  was  vehemently  opposed  by  the  pro- 
prietors of  mines  in  England. 

In  the  month  of  August,  Mr.  Huskisson  paid  a  visit  to  his  con- 
stituents, at  Liverpool.  It  was  the  first  time  he  had  met  them  as 
a  private  individual ;  and  his  reception  was  as  honourable  to  the 
good  taste  and  feeling  of  the  commercial  community  of  that  great 
port;  as  it  was  gratifying  to  himself. 


^ 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  285 
Parliament  was  now  about  to  nneet  under  circumstances  of  pecu- 
liar difficulty.  During  the  three  last  sessions,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Relief  Bill,  small  progress  had  been  made  in 
any  measures  for  the  relief  or  improvement  of  the  country.  In 
that  of  1827,  first  the  illness  of  Lord  Liverpool,  and  then  the 
delays  attendant  on  the  formation  of  a  new  government,  had  oc- 
cupied the  greater  portion  of  the  session :  the  following  year  had 
been  consumed,  in  a  great  measure,  with  like  difficulties  and 
delays :  and  in  the  last,  every  thing  had  given  way  to,  and  been 
overlooked  in  the  settlement  of  the  Roman  Catholic  question.  The 
public  began  to  demand  greater  proofs  of  an  efficient  Adminis- 
tration, and  to  manifest  strong  symptoms  of  disquietude  and  dis- 
satisfaction. 

Both  Houses  assembled  on  the  4th  of  February ;  and  the  lan- 
guage held  by  the  partizans  of  Ministers  was  still  that  of  confident 
security.  They  evidently  calculated  their  strength  on  the  im- 
probability of  a  cordial  union  between  the  different  parties  into 
which  the  opposition  was  split;  and  on  the  divisions  of  their 
opponents,  they  built  their  best  hopes  of  riding  out  the  storm  which 
was  gathering  around  them.  This  security  received  a  stagger- 
ing blow  on  the  first  night's  debate  on  the  Address,  when  the 
government  reeled  to  its  centre,  and  might  have  been  overthrown, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  unexpected  assistance  of  that  party 
^Vhich,  to  borrow  a  phrase  from  the  French,  may  be  termed 
the  extreme  left  This  party  went  over  in  a  body  to  their  sup- 
port; and,  by  this  manoeuvre,  the  amendment  was  negatived, 
and  the  original  address  carried  by  a  small  majority.  On  this 
occasion,  Mr.  Huskisson  both  voted  and  spoke  in  favour  of  the 
amendment;  but,  faithful  to  his  recorded  opinions,  and  keenly 
alive  to  the  danger  of  misconception  or  misrepresentation  on 
points  on  which  many  of  the  principal  supporters  of  the  amend- 
ment were  known  to  entertain  views  and  tenets  totally  irrecon- 
cileable  with  his  own,  he  distinctly  stated  the  grounds  upon  which 
his  support  was  given,  "  in  order  to  guard  against  the  possibility 
of  its  being  supposed,  that  he  was  not  most  anxious  to  protect  the 
country  from  the  evils  which  must  ensue  from  any  fresh  attempt 
to  alter  the  currency." 
When  the  Disfranchisement  Bill  was  once  more  brought  for* 


286  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

ward,  Mr.  Huskisson  again  raised  his  warning  voice,  and  em- 
phatically urged  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  transferring  the  elective 
franchise  to  Birmingham.  Again  he  pointed  out  the  immense 
importance  of  this  measure  in  reference  to  the  general  question 
of  reform,  and  avowed  his  conviction,  that  it  was  of  the  utmost 
consequence  to  deal  with  the  present  case  so  as  best  to  guard 
against  the  growing  danger  of  sweeping  reform,  on  principles  too 
abstract  and  general. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  exertions  of  government,  the  amend- 
ment for  transferring  the  right  of  election  to  Birmingham,  was 
only  defeated  by  a  very  trifling  majority.  This  effort  to  commence 
a  moderate  and  reasonable  reform  having  failed,  Mr.  Huskisson, 
who  was  deeply  sensible  of  the  danger  resulting  from  this  con- 
tinued resistance  to  the  wishes  of  the  public,  next  supported  a 
motion  of  Lord  John  Russell's,  for  giving  representations  to  Man- 
chester, Leeds,  and  Birmingham — a  measure  which  he  enforced 
by  the  most  powerful  arguments ;  and  stated  that  the  time  was 
fast  approaching  when,  if  it  were  now  rejected.  Ministers  would 
be  obliged  themselves  to  propose  such  a  step,  as  necessary  for  the 
safety  and  salvation  of  the  country. 

Though  devoting  himself,  with  infinite  labour,  to  his  attendance 
on  the  East  India  Committee,  and  though  evidently  suffering 
under  symptoms  of  indisposition,  Mr.  Huskisson  took  an  active 
part  in  most  of  the  important  debates  of  this  session.  His  speeches 
relating  to  Mexico,  in  particular,  will  be  found  full  of  valuable 
observations  on  the  situation  and  prospects  of  that  country,  and 
on  the  probable  views  and  policy  of  the  United  States  towards 
her ;  and  are  doubly  interesting,  as  marking  the  vigilant  eye  with 
which  he  regarded  the  conduct  of  England,  in  her  relations  with 
that  portion  of  the  world ;  the  importance  of  which  has  been  too 
generally  undervalued  by  the  statesmen  of  Europe. 

One  of  the  most  finished  and  successful  speeches  he  ever  made, 
was  that  delivered  on  Mr.  Davenport's  motion  for  "  an  inquiry 
into  the  causes  of  the  distress  of  the  nation ;"  which,  at  the  re- 
quest of  his  friends,  he  afterwards  revised  for  publication — a  task 
he  could  seldom  be  persuaded  to  undertake.  The  views  stated 
in  this  speech  he  enlarged  upon,  in  subsequent  debate  on  the 
subject  of  injudicious  taxation ;  when  he  declared  his  unalterable 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  287 

conviction,  that  the  upholding  of  the  present  Corn  Laws,  and  of 
the  present  system  of  taxation,  was  incompatible  with  an  increase 
of  national  prosperity,  or  with  the  preservation  of  national  con- 
tentment: and  expressed  his  opinion,  that  those  laws  might  be 
repealed  without  affecting  the  Landed  Interest,  and  at  the  same 
time,  the  distress  of  the  people  be  relieved. 

In  pursuance  of  those  opinions  which  he  had  so  often  advo- 
cated, and  in  conformity  with  the  whole  tenor  of  his  public  life, 
Mr.  Huskisson  gave  a  powerful  and  cordial  support  to  the  bill 
brought  forward  by  Mr.  Robert  Grant,  for  the  removal  of  the 
various  disabilities  affecting  persons  of  the  Jewish  persuasion. 
Mr.  Huskisson's  name  will  also  be  found  in  the  list  of  the  minority 
who  voted  for  repealing  the  punishment  of  death  in  cases  of 
forgery.  On  this  subject,  he  was  known  to  entertain  considera- 
ble hesitation ;  but  where  so  much  doubt  prevailed,  even  among 
those  who  had  considered  the  question  with  the  profoundest 
attention,  he  felt,  conscientiously,  that  it  became  the  duty  of  a 
legislator,  to  give  the  benefit  of  that  doubt  to  the  side  of  mercy 
and  humanity;  and  that  the  experiment  of  substituting  a  milder 
penalty  deserved  at  least  to  be  tried.  He  therefore  supported  the 
amendment  moved  by  Sir  James  Mackintosh. 

When,  in  the  month  of  June,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
introduced  his  resolutions  respecting  the  Sugar  Duties,  a  most 
animated  debate  ensued.  Mr.  Huskisson  had,  on  a  former  occa- 
sion, expressed  his  conviction,  that  great  as  might  be  the  pres- 
sure and  the  difficulties  upon  other  interests  in  the  country,  there 
was  none  labouring  under  more  difficulties,  or  requiring  more 
urgently  that  relief  should  be  given  to  it,  than  the  West  India 
Interest.  He  now  dissected  and  criticised  the  proposals  of  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  with  a  force  and  effect  which  car- 
ried confusion  into  the  ranks  of  the  Treasury ;  and  he  denounced 
the  undecided  and  vacillating  conduct  which  marked  all  the 
measures  of  government.  The  unpremeditated  readiness  with 
which  Mr.  Huskisson  overthrew  the  propositions  of  the  Chancel- 
lor of  the  Exchequer — the  clearness  and  acuteness  with  which  he 
exposed  their  fallacy — the  force  of  his  arguments,  and  the  severity 
of  his  sarcasm,  made  an  impression  upon  the  House,  almost  un- 
precedented in  matters  of  such  dry  detail.     The  government  had 


288  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

a  majority  in  their  favour ;  but  this  made  but  small  amends  for 
the  mortification  they  sustained  from  the  caustic  denunciations 
of  Mr.  Huskisson,  and  the  bitter  taunts  of  Mr.  Brougham ;  and 
they  subsequently  abandoned  their  original  proposition. 

Little  more  remains  of  the  parliamentary  history  of  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson. As  a  small,  but  immediate  measure  of  relief  to  the  crying 
distresses  of  the  West  India  proprietors,  he  proposed  a  reduction 
of  the  duties  levied  on  rum  in  Scotland  and  Ireland ;  but,  on  an 
assurance  that  the  government  would  be  ready,  at  another  time, 
to  enter  upon  the  question,  and  in  consideration  of  the  advanced 
state  of  the  session,  and  the  absence  of  many  of  the  Irish  mem- 
bers, he  consented  not  to  press  his  resolution  to  a  division.  His 
speech  on  the  West  India  Question  was  the  last  he  ever  made 
within  the  walls  of  that  House,  of  which  he  was,  for  so  many  years, 
one  of  the  greatest  ornaments. 

He  only  said  a  few  words,  on  the  13th  of  July,  in  answer  to  a 
complaint  of  Mr.  Wilmot  Horton's,  that  he  had  omitted,  in  his 
speech  on  the  state  of  the  country,  to  advert  to  emigration,  as  one 
essential  mode  of  relief:  to  which  observation,  Mr.  Huskisson 
merely  replied,  that  he  had  only  addressed  himself  to  measures 
of  immediate  relief;  and  that,  though  no  enemy  to  emigration,  it 
appeared  to  him  to  be  a  subject  demanding  great  and  serious  con- 
sideration. 

Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  Mr.  Huskisson's  parliamentary  his- 
tory ;  and  an  outline  is,  unfortunately,  all  that  can  be  offered  of 
many  even  of  his  most  important  speeches.  Indifferent  to  dis- 
play— speaking  frequently  without  the  slightest  preparation — 
rising  late  in  the  debate,  and  addressing  himself  to  subjects  the 
least  attractive  to  all  but  those  whose  interests  were  involved,  it 
is  not  surprising,  that  many  of  his  speeches  should  be  imperfectly 
reported.  The  speeches  which  he  was  prevailed  upon  to  publish, 
were  subjected  to  a  careful  revision  ;  but  it  was  a  task  which  he 
undertook  with  considerable  reluctance.  In  composition,  he  was 
difficult  in  the  selection  of  his  words,  and  in  the  arrangement  of  his 
sentences:  and  without,  perhaps,  carrying  fastidiousness  to  the 
extent  which  Mr.  Canning  is  reported  to  have  done,  it  may  still 
be  fairly  said,  that  he  never  spared  the  file.  This,  however,  is 
only  true  as  applied  to  official  papers.     In  his  common  corre- 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.         289 

spondence,  his  style  was  strongly  indicative  of  his  character — 
simple,  easy,  and  natural. 

For  some  time  past,  his  physical  system  had  evidently  been 
suffering  under  a  degree  of  languor  and  debility  which  required 
care  and  rest ;  and  showed  itself  by  no  means  equal  to  the  heavy 
demands  made  upon  it,  by  the  incessant  activity  of  his  mental 
powers.  Influenced  by  the  recollection  of  past  favours,  and  by 
the  feelings  of  gratitude  which  he  always  cherished  towards 
George  IV.,  for  the  kindness  and  confidence  with  which  he  had 
treated  him  whilst  a  servant  of  the  Crown,  and  unmindful  of  the 
inadequacy  of  his  strength  to  any  considerable  fatigue  and  ex- 
citement, Mr.  Huskisson  determined  to  pay  the  last  mark  of 
respectful  duty,  by  attending  the  funeral  ceremony  of  the  monarch. 
For  this  purpose,  he  left  town  on  the  i4th  of  July,  for  Sir  George 
Warrender's  at  Clifden,  and,  on  the  following  evening,  proceeded 
to  Windsor, 

The  procession  had  scarcely  begun  to  move  from  St  George's 
Hall,  when  he  felt  himself  ill ;  and,  as  it  was  then  impossible  to 
withdraw,  he  continued,  during  the  whole  of  the  long  ceremony, 
in  great  suffering.  As  soon  as  he  could  leave  the  Chapel,  he  re- 
turned to  Clifden,  where  he  remained  seriously  ill  the  whole  of 
the  following  day.  On  Saturday,  he  was  sufficiently  relieved  to  be 
removed  to  London,  where  he  underwent  an  operation,  which 
was  most  skilfully  performed  by  Dr.  Copeland,  but  which  con- 
fined him  to  his  room  for  a  fortnight,  and  greatly  reduced  him. 

On  the  12th  of  July,  he  had  received  the  following  requisition 
from  Liverpool : — 

Sir, 
His  Majesty  having,  by  his  royal  Message,  intimated  his  intention  of 
speedily  dissolving  the  present  parliament,  and  calling  a  new  one,  we,  the 
undersigned,  freemen  and  other  inhabitants  of  Liverpool,  again  seek  tht 
assurance  of  your  willingness  to  be  put  in  nomination  to  represent  this 
borough.  We  gratefully  acknowledge  the  particular  and  effective  care 
which  our  local  interests  have  ever  received  from  you;  and,  on  having 
your  permission,  we  pledge  ourselves  to  use  our  utmost  exertions  to  main- 
tain a  connexion,  which  hitherto  has  been  to  us  so  acceptable  and  gratifying. 

Never  within  the  annals  of  that  borough,  had  a  requisition  so 
numerously  and  respectably  signed,  been  sent  to  a  can4idate; 
25  2M 


290  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

combining,  as  it  did,  the  names  bf  individuals  of  every  political 
sentiment,  and  whose  commercial  interests  were  equally  various 
and  conflicting.  Notwithstanding  the  laborious  duties  attending 
a  popular  election,  Mr.  Huskisson  could  not  but  look  forward 
with  pride  and  exultation  to  the  period  when  he  was  again  to 
present  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  second  commercial  port  in 
the  kingdom;  not  invested  with  the  dignity  of  a  Minister,  or 
backed  by  the  influence  of  the  government,  but  relying  on  the 
recollection  of  the  faithful  zeal  and  attention  with  which  he  had 
discharged  his  duties  towards  his  constituents.  This  high  gratifi- 
cation was  denied  him ;  as  his  medical  attendants  pronounced  him 
to  be  utterly  incapable  of  undertaking  so  long  a  journey,  or  of 
encountering  the  fatigues  of  an  election ;  and  peremptorily  for- 
bade the  attempt.  Mr.  Huskisson  was,  therefore,  constrained  ta 
yield,  however  reluctantly,  to  their  commands.  To  all  the  former 
proofs  of  regard  and  admiration  which  the  inhabitants  of  Liver- 
pool had  already,  at  different  times,  conferred  upon  him,  they 
now  added  that  of  re-electing  him,  without  his  appearing  at  the 
hustings. 

Although  the  operation  which  he  had  undergone  had  been 
pronounced  completely  successful,  Mr.  Huskisson's  convalescence 
was  so  exceedingly  slow,  that  his  medical  advisers  became  anxious 
that  he  should  try  the  effect  of  sea  air  towards  the  recovery  of 
his  strength;  and  an  opportunity  of  doing  so  presented  itself 
which  overcame  the  habitual  dislike  entertained  by  him  towards 
a  residence  at  a  watering  place.  Lord  Anglesey  had  pressed 
him  warmly  to  visit  him  at  Cowes — an  invitation  which  Mr. 
Huskisson  accepted  with  pleasure,  not  only  as  affording  him  the 
means  of  enjoying  the  sea  air,  without  fatigue,  by  frequent  ex- 
cursions on  the  water,  but  because  he  entertained  towards  Lord 
Anglesey  strong  feelings  of  private  and  public  attachment,  for  the 
many  proofs  of  considerate  regard  and  manly  support  received 
from  him  from  the  first  period  of  their  political  connexion. 

After  a  week's  stay  with  the  noble  Marquis,  Mr.  Huskisson  pro- 
ceeded to  Eartham,  where  he  remained  till  the  beginning  of  Sep- 
tember, when  he  sat  out  on- his  ill-fated  journey  to  Liverpool,  in 
order  to  be  present  at  the  opening  of  the  new  railway  to  Man- 
chester, which  was  to  be  celebrated  with  great  magnificence 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  291 

and  rejoicing,  and  which  ceremony  he  had  long  promised  to 
attend. 

On  the  10th,  he  and  Mrs,  Huskisson  arrived  at  Sir  John  To- 
bin's,  near  Liverpool,  where  a  large  party  of  his  friends  was 
assembled  to  meet  them.  As  the  period  of  his  intended  stay  was 
limited  by  other  arrangements,  every  day  was  fully  occupied 
either  by  public  business,  or  in  inspecting  the  various  improve- 
ments which  had  been  made  in  the  docks,  and  other  great  estab- 
lishments, since  his  last  visit 

To  Mrs.  Huskisson,  who  had  never  been  at  Liverpool  before, 
every  thing  was  new ;  and  he  was  anxious  that  she  should  avail 
herself  of  this  occasion  to  see  as  much  as  possible  of  this  great 
emporium  of  British  enterprise.  In  pursuance  of  this  object,  the 
morning  of  Monday  was  partly  occupied  in  viewing  the  mag- 
nificent docks  and  quays  upon  the  Mersey.  On  landing  from  tl^ 
steam-boat,  Mr.  Huskisson  was  called  away  to  attend  some  en- 
gagements in  the  town,  and  could  not,  by  this  means,  accompany 
Mrs.  Huskisson  to  the  public  cemetery.  It  is  remarkable  that 
he  should  have  been  known,  on  several  occasions,  to  express 
himself,  in  terms  of  the  strongest  admiration,  of  the  taste  and 
liberality  which  had  planned  and  completed  this  spot,  and  that 
he  should  have  pressed  Mrs.  Huskisson  (who  was  already  fatigued 
with  the  previous  excursion  of  the  morning)  to  visit  it,  with  unu- 
sual earnestness. 

On  the  morning  of  the  14th,  he  went  to  the  Exchange,  accom- 
panied by  Mr.  Bolton,  Sir  John  Tobin,  and  many  of  his  friends, 
where  a  vast  multitude,  in  addition  to  the  gentlemen  who  usually 
attend  about  that  time,  had  assembled  to  hail  his  arrival  once 
more  after  the  disappointment  they  had  experienced  by  his  non- 
attendance  during  the  election.  The  large  room  was  crowded 
to  excess.  If  there  were  any  who  supposed  that  Mr.  Huskisson 
had,  in  consequence  of  his  secession  from  the  toils  of  public  life, 
lost  any  of  his  popularity  amongst  his  constituents,  they  would, 
could  they  have  been  there  to  witness  the  enthusiasm  with  which 
he  was  received,  have  seen  abundant  proofs  of  the  fallacy  of  such 
an  opinion.  He  never  was  more  warmly  greeted ;  and  there 
never  was  a  period  when  his  observations  were  listened  to  with 
a  deeper  interest. 


292  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

Early  the  next  morning  the  party  proceeded  to  Wavertree,  to 
the  point  where  they  were  to  join  the  grand  procession.  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  repeat  here,  that  nothing  could  exceed  the 
success  of  the  undertaking,  up  to  the  moment  of  the  arrival  of 
the  procession  at  Parkside,  where  the  engine  was  stopped  to 
take  in  a  fresh  supply  of  water.  It  has  been  said  that  it  was  not 
intended  for  any  one  to  leave  the  carriages,  and  that  a  placard 
to  this  effect  was  issued  by  the  Directors.  If  such  was  the  case, 
the  advice  was  little  understood,  or,  at  any  rate,  wholly  neglect- 
ed ;  for  many,  indeed  most  of  the  gentlemen  in  the  Northumbrian, 
in  which  the  Directors  and  the  most  distinguished  of  the  visitors 
were  placed,  took  advantage  of  the  interval  during  which  the 
procession  stopped,  to  leave  it,  and  to  disperse  in  various  groups 
upon  the  railway.  According  to  some  of  the  accounts  in  the 
daily  journals,  two  of  the  steam-engines,  the  Phoenix  and  the 
North  Star,  passed  without  causing  any  accident ;  and  the  par- 
ties were  returning  into  the  grand  car,  when  an  alarm  was  given, 
that  the  Rocket  was  rapidly  approaching.  This  report  caused 
considerable  confusion,  and  every  one  hurried  to  resume  his 
place.  In  the  ordinary  cars,  there  were  steps  on  each  side,  by 
which  they  could  be  easily  entered ;  but  these  had  been  removed 
from  the  Northumbrian,  it  having  been  considered,  that  a  flight 
of  steps,  in  the  form  of  a  ladder,  suspended  at  the  back,  and 
which  could  be  brought  at  will  to  any  part  of  it,  would  afford 
greater  convenience  to  the  ladies.  Owing  to  this  arrangement,  a 
main  chance  of  escape  was  cut  off  from  those  who  were  on  the 
rail-road :  and  this  explains  the  difficulty  and  danger  experienced 
by  Prince  Esterhazy,  and  several  others,  when  they  hastily  en- 
deavoured to  regain  their  seats. 

Among  those  who  had  descended,  was  Mr.  Huskisson.  When 
about  to  return,  he  observed  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  the  front 
of  the  car,  and  not  having  seen  him  before,  he  went  round  to 
welcome  him  on  his  visit  to  Liverpool,  and  to  congratulate  him 
on  the  satisfactory  results  of  the  morning's  experiment.  To  the 
short  delay  arising  from  this  act  of  courtesy,  may  be  attributed 
the  dreadful  calamity  which  ensued.  The  cry  arose  that  the 
Rocket  was  rapidly  approaching.  Mr.  Huskisson  hurried  round 
to  the  side  of  the  Northumbrian,  and,  grasping  at  the  door,  at- 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  293 

tempted  to  get  in :  the  door  swung  back,  and  this  sudden  re-action 
threw  him  on  the  ground,  at  the  moment  when  the  fatal  engine 
was  coming  on  with  the  utmost  velocity ;  and,  before  its  course 
could  be  arrested,  he  had  received  his  mortal  injury. 

Such,  at  least,  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  case ;  but  other 
explanations,  as  to  the  cause  of  the  fearful  accident,  have  been 
given ;  and  every  one  can  perfectly  understand  the  impossibility 
of  determining  with  certainty,  the  precise  particulars  of  such  a 
scene  of  horror  and  confusion.  But  whatever  may  have  been 
the  immediate  occasion  of  his  fall,  he  was  himself  convinced  at 
once  that  the  injury  w^as  fatal.  Lord  Wilton  and  several  others 
"were  instantly  at  his  side.  They  raised  him  a  little,  and  a  tour- 
niquet, formed  with  a  stick  and  a  handkerchief,  was  applied  with- 
out loss  of  time.  He  asked  earnestly  for  Mrs.  Huskisson, 
kissed  her,  and  then  said,  "  God  bless  you  all ;  now  let  me  die 
at  once." 

From  the  hasty  judgment  which  could  be  formed,  it  appeared 
to  the  professional  gentlemen  present,  that  there  was  a  hope  of 
saving  his  life,  by  an  amputation  of  the  shattered  limb.  It  was 
therefore  agreed,  that  the  most  expeditious  and  most  practicable 
method  of  proceeding  would  be  to  go  on  to  Manchester,  where 
the  best  surgical  assistance  could  be  speedily  procured.  A  car 
which  had  been  occupied  by  the  band  was  emptied,  and  he  was 
placed  in  it,  attended  by  Mrs.  Huskisson,  Lords  Wilton  and  Col- 
ville.  Dr.  Brandeth,  of  Liverpool,  Dr.  Hunter,  of  Edinburgh,  and 
Mr.  Wainewright.  The  engine  was  then  detached  from  the 
larger  carriage,  and  the  utmost  despatch  used  for  providing  for 
the  conveyance  of  the  sufferer.  Notwithstanding  the  agonies 
which  he  endured,  no  complaint  or  groan  escaped  him.  He 
asked  for  a  little  water,  with  which  Mrs.  Huskisson  moistened 
his  lips ;  and  he  himself  suggested  the  seeking  the  quiet  of  some 
private  house,  if  any  could  be  found  on  the  way,  in  preference  to 
the  crowd  an4  confusion  which  must  have  been  encountered  at 
Manchester.  Lord  Wilton  named  the  vicarage  at  Eccles,  the  resi- 
dence of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Blackbourne,  through  which  the  procession 
passed.  Mr.  Huskisson  caught  eagerly  at  the  proposal,  and  said, 
"Oh,  take  me  there,  I  know  they  will  be  good  to  me!" 
After  depositing  him  at  Eccles,  Lord  Wilton,  whose  kindness 
26* 


294  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

and  exertions  never  flagged  throughout  all  the  melancholy  oc- 
currences of  the  day,  proceeded  with  the  engine  to  Manchester, 
and  returned  with  incredible  expedition,  bringing  with  him  Mr. 
Ransome,  Mr.  Whatton,  and  some  other  professional  gentlemen. 

Mr.  Huskisson  himself  had  never  doubted  from  the  first  that 
his  injuries  were  mortal :  but  when  the  surgeons  arrived,  he  ex- 
pressed himself  willing  to  undergo  whatever  might  be  judged 
satisfactory  to  the  feelings  or  wishes  of  those  who  surrounded 
him.  He  only  entreated  that  Mrs.  Huskisson,  who  had  never 
quitted  him,  would  absent  herself  whilst  Mr.  Ransome  and  his 
colleagues  examined  what  it  might  be  possible  to  attempt.  After 
a  careful  consultation,  they  decided  unanimously  that,  in  the  ex- 
treme state  of  exhaustion  to  which  the  sufferer  was  reduced, 
amputation,  though  indispensable  in  order  to  effect  a  recovery, 
could  not  be  undertaken  without  the  most  imminent  danger ;  and 
Mr.  Ransome  candidly  declared  his  conviction,  that  should  he 
commence  the  operation,  under  existing  circumstances,  the  patient 
must  inevitably  expire  under  it.  Mrs.  Huskisson  was  now  per- 
mitted to  return ;  and  attempts  were  made  to  create  a  re-action, 
by  administering  powerful  restoratives,  but  in  vain.  Violent 
spasmodic  convulsions  rendered  him  gradually  weaker,  and  occa- 
sionally wrung  from  him  an  expression  of  hope  that  his  sufferings 
might  not  be  prolonged.  But  although  his  agonies  were  almost 
past  endurance,  there  were  no  unnecessary  ejaculations,  no  mur- 
murings  against  the  dispensation  of  Providence :  on  the  contrary, 
he  evinced  throughout  the  most  patient  fortitude  and  resignation. 
The  clearness  of  his  mind  continued  perfect  and  unclouded.  He 
made  a  codicil  to  his  will,  and  gave  directions  on  minute  points, 
respecting  the  disposal  of  several  of  his  private  papers.  It  is  also 
true,  that  having  signed  his  name,  he  desired  to  have  the  paper 
brought  back  to  him,  in  order  to  rectify  an  omission  which  he 
had  made  in  the  usual  mode  of  his  signature. 

Soon  after  six  o'clock,  he  desired  to  see  Mr.  Blackbourne,  in 
order  to  perform  the  last  duties  of  religion.  Before  the  sacrament 
was  administered,  he  used  these  w^ords, — "  I  can  safely  say  that 
I  bear  no  ill-will  to  any  human  being."  It  was  at  first  feared, 
that  this  ceremony  would  be  attended  with  some  difliculty,  as  he 
had  been  for  some  time  unable  to  raise  his  head,  or  to  swallow. 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.         205 

and  only  had  his  lips  moistened  occasionally  with  a  feather.  He, 
however,  summoned  up  all  his  expiring  strength,  and,  with  great 
exertion,  partook  of  the  elements.  This  done,  he  again  expressed 
his  anxiety  for  a  speedy  release ;  and  even  those  about  him,  when 
they  beheld  his  hopeless  sufferings,  no  longer  dared  to  wish  them 
prolonged.  Still  the  kindness  of  his  nature  rose  superior  to  his 
own  agonies.  Observing  that  her  wretchedness  had  deprived 
Mrs.  Huskisson  of  the  power  of  utterance,  and  that  she  was  in- 
capable of  replying  even  to  the  expression  of  some  of  his  injunc- 
tions, he  endeavoured  to  console  her;  and  the  last  words  he 
addressed  to  her  were,  an  assurance  that  he  felt  they  should  meet 
again. 

He  then  recommended  her  to  the  care  of  Lord  Wilton.  Speak- 
ing of  himself,  he  used  the  expression  which  has  been  reported : 
— "  The  public  have  had  the  best  of  me,  and  I  trust  they  will  do 
me  justice."  This  was  the  only  allusion  which  he  made  to  his 
public  character.  He  appeared  to  receive  much  gratification 
from  the  presence  of  Lord  Granville,  to  whom  he  spoke  several 
times  in  terms  of  the  greatest  affection :  he  continued,  indeed,  to 
be  sensible  of  all  that  had  been  done  for  him,  and  grateful  to  all 
those  around  him,  especially  to  Lord  Wilton,  upon  whom  he  said 
he  had  no  claim,  as  little  previous  acquaintance  had  subsisted 
between  them.  Soon  after  eight,  it  became  evident  that  he  was 
sinking  rapidly,  and  at  five  minutes  after  nine,  nature  was  com- 
pletely exhausted,  and  he  breathed  his  last,  after  nine  hours  of  the 
most  excruciating  torture. 

Mrs.  Huskisson  having  been  removed  from  the  room  by  the 
care  of  her  friends,  the  surgeons  proceeded  to  a  nearer  investiga- 
tion of  the  injuries  which  Mr.  Huskisson  had  sustained.  It  was 
then  discovered  that  he  must  have  fallen  obliquely,  as  regarded 
the  line  of  the  railway,  and  that  the  thigh  and  leg  must  have  been 
in  such  a  position  as  to  have  formed  with  it  a  triangle,  of  which 
the  angle  at  the  apex  would  be  presented  by  the  bend  of  the 
knee.  The  wheel  of  the  engine  thus  passed  over  the  calf  of  the 
leg,  and  the  middle  of  the  thigh,  leaving  the  knee  itself  uninjured. 
There  was  a  compound  fracture  in  the  upper  part  of  the  left  leg, 
just  above  the  calf  The  wheel  must  have  gone  slantingly  over 
the  thigh  up  to  the  middle  of  it,  as  the  muscles  were  all  laid  bare, 


296  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

in  that  direction,  in  one  immense  flap ;  and  the  bone  was  severely 
fractured,  and  comminuted  almost  to  powder.  No  great  effusion 
of  blood  took  place,  nor  did  any  of  the  great  arteries  appear 
to  have  been  wounded,  but  the  laceration  is  described  to  have 
been  terrible.  Such,  at  least,  are  the  statements  of  the  journals 
of  that  fearful  day. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Huskisson  was  made  known  in  Liverpool  at 
an  early  hour  on  Thursday  morning ;  and  though  it  had  been  an- 
ticipated as  certain  by  all  who  knew  the  nature  of  the  accident, 
yet  it  took  the  bulk  of  the  people  by  surprise.  All  the  shops  and 
dwelling-houses  were  partially  closed  from  one  end  of  the  town 
to  the  other.  The  flags  on  the  public  buildings,  and  on  the  ship- 
ping in  the  ports,  were  hoisted  half-mast,  and  the  inhabitants, 
without  distinction  of  party,  were  plunged  into  the  deepest  sorrow. 
A  very  general  wish  ^  was  expressed  that  the  remains  of  their 
lamented  representative  should  be  interred  in  the  new  cemetery, 
and  that  a  monument  should  be  erected  over  them,  recording  the 
melancholy  event,  and  rendering  a  well-deserved  tribute  to  his 
memory.  A  meeting  of  gentlemen  accordingly  took  place  at  the 
Town  Hall,  on  Thursday,  to  consider  of  the  subject ;  and  the 
following  requisition  to  the  Mayor  was  unanimously  agreed 
upon : — 

We,  the  undersigned,  respectfully  request  that  you,  as  the  official  organ 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Liverpool,  will  make  an  immediate  application  to  the 
friends  of  our  late  lamented  Representative,  requesting  that  his  remains 
may  be  interred  within  the  precincts  of  this  town,  in  which  his  distinguished 
public  worth  and  private  virtue  secured  for  him  the  respect  and  esteem  of 
the  whole  community. 

To  this  requisition,  the  names  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-four 
most  respectable  and  influential  gentlemen  were  immediately 
attached.  The  request  was  promptly  acceded  to ;  and  the  Rev. 
J.  Brooks,  the  Rector,  was  desired  to  proceed  to  Eccles,  to  see 
Mrs.  Huskisson  or  her  friends  upon  the  subject. 

The  idea  of  Mr.  Huskisson's  interment  at  Liverpool  had  been 
already  broken  to  Mrs.  Huskisson ;  but  she  had  expressed  the 
strongest  repugnance  to  such  an  arrangement  All  her  own 
wishes  naturally  pointed  to  Eartham ;  and  it  was  only  through 
the  powerful   arguments,   and   strong   representations  of  Lord 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  297 

Granville,  that  she  was  at  last  prevailed  upon  to  sacrifice  her 
own  feelings,  and  to  yield  to  the  request  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Liverpool.  Never  wsls  a  sacrifice  of  private  feelings  more  hon- 
ourably and  solemnly  requited.  It  was  forcibly  remarked,  at  the 
time,  that  if  any  thing  could  supersede  the  necessity  of  drawing  a 
character  of  Mr.  Huskisson,  it  was  to  be  found  in  the  circum- 
stance of  his  funeral.  It  spoke  volumes.  A  community  attended 
it  composed  entirely  of  active,  intelligent  individuals,  who,  of  all 
others,  are  best  able  to  appreciate  the  merits  of  a  man  ruling  and ' 
regulating  the  destinies  of  a  commercial  people,  and  that  commu- 
nity, consisting  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  individuals,  de- 
ploring his  loss  with  a  grief  as  intense  and  real  as  is  occasioned 
by  the  severing  of  kindred  ties. 

The  following  characters  of  Mr.  Huskisson  are  taken  from  the 
Annual  Obituary,  and  an  anonymous  work,  called  "  Babylon  the 
Great"  It  should  be  observed,  that  the  latter  work  was  pub- 
lished early  in  1825,  consequently,  prior  to  the  delivery  of  most 
of  those  speeches  on  which  Mr.  Huskisson's  fame,  as  a  practical 
debater,  principally  rests. 

"  Of  eloquence,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term,  Mr.  Huskisson 
had  but  little.  He  could  neither  gripe,  nor  hold  fast  the  heart,  like  Mr. 
Brougham,  by  the  irresistible  energy  of  his  appeals,  nor  could  he 
please  the  ear  and  the  fancy,  with  the  nicely  modulated  language,  and 
the  effervescing  wit  of  Mr.  Canning.  Yet  not  even  the  former,  in  his 
most  solemn  adjuration,  nor  the  latter,  in  his  happiest  flight,  ever  com- 
manded the  attention  of  his  hearers  more  completely  than  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson. He  was  never  unprepared,  whatever  might  be  the  subject  of 
discussion ;  and  it  was  not  in  set  harangues  only  that  he  excelled — he 
was  a  clear  and  able  debater.  When  he  first  entered  upon  his  sub- 
ject, his  manner  was  cold,  almost  heavy;  his  intonation  equable, 
almost  monotonous :  he  had  no  peculiar  grace  of  action.  The  secret 
of  his  oratory  lay  in  the  facility  with  which  he  could  bring  a  number 
of  facts  to  bear  upon  his  argument,  and  in  the  soundness  and  compre- 
hensiveness of  his  views.  He  was  not  an  opponent  with  whom  it  was 
difficult  to  grapple ;  for  he  disdained  all  slippery  arts  of  avoiding  an 
antagonist :  but  he  was  one  whom  the  stoutest  champion  found  it  im- 
possible to  throw.  To  the  matter-of-fact  arguer,  Mr  Huskisson  could 
present  an  accumulation  of  details,  sufficient  to  stagger  the  most  prac- 
tical ;  while  to  him  who  looked  to  rules  rather  than  cases,  he  could 
offer  general  principles,  conceived  in  so  large  a  spirit,  that  even  in  his 
dry  and  unadorned  enunciation  of  them,  they  rose  to  solemnity, 

2N 


298  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

Nothing  could  be  finer  than  the  splendid  perorations  of  his  more  ela- 
borate speeches.  It  was  by  the  combination  of  an  attention  so  accu- 
rate, that  the  most  minute  objection  did  not  escape  his  vigilance,  and  a 
judgment  so  comprehensive,  that  the  greatest  could  not  elude  its 
grasp,  coupled  with  habits  of  unremitting  industry,  and  perfect  integ- 
rity of  purpose,  that  Mr.  Huskisson,  on  every  question  of  complication 
and  importance,  reigned  almost  undisputed  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
Irresistible  as  it  generally  proved,  no  one,  however,  dreaded  its  power. 
He  convinced  or  he  silenced;  but  he  never  irritated.  His  peculiar 
calmness  of  temper  kept  him  from  indulging  in  sarcasm.  He  seldom 
uttered  an  ill-natured  word,  because  he  was  seldom  influenced  by  an 
ill-natured  feeling." 

In  the  Parliamentary  Portraits,  contained  in  the  second-named 
work,  after  describing  Mr.  Canning,  the  author  thus  introduces 
Mr.  Huskisson : — 

"  You  may  observe  the  glorious  Gothic  head  of  his  most  profound 
coadjutor.  It  is  a  plain  head ;  and  small  labour  of  the  barber  has  been 
bestowed  on  the  outside.  I  know  not  whether  he  may  be  a  phrenolo- 
gist, though  I  should  rather  imagine  that  he  knows  the  whim,  and 
laughs  at  it ;  certainly  he  seems  to  stand  less  in  awe  of  phrenological 
criticism  than  any  member  of  the  House :  who  could,  if  he  chose, 
command  sufficient  pilosity  for  a  screen  for  his  hair,  is  cropped  as  close 
as  that  of  a  ploughman.  This  circumstance  increases  the  size  of  his 
face,  especially  his  forehead ;  and  gives  him  when  the  light  does  not 
fall,  so  as  to  bring  out  the  acute  lines  and  wonderful  indications  of 
depth  upon  it,  an  air  which  you  would  be  apt  to  call  common-place,  if 
not  heavy. 

Mr.  Huskisson  is  altogether  the  most  difficult  character  in  the  whole 
House  to  manage.  There  is  nothing  in  his  appearance,  his  manner, 
or  his  speaking,  upon  which  you  can  hitch  even  the  slightest  de- 
scriptive figure ;  and  if  it  were  possible  to  disembody  sheer  politi- 
cal intellect,  and  leave  it  without  any  of  the  trappings  of  ornament, 
that  would  be  the  nearest  approach  to  a  likeness  of  this  most  plain, 
but  profound  member  of  St.  Stephen's.  Mr.  Huskisson's  bearing  is 
remarkably  shrewd  and  firm;  and,  though  he  deals  not  much  either 
in  irony  or  declamation — and  the  less  he  deals  in  them  the  better — he 
occasionally  sends  forth  a  look,  while  some  pretender  is  uttering  a 
truism  with  oracular  gravity,  which  is  more  cutting  and  corrective 
than  any  commentary  in  words.  He  is  very  unassuming,  but  withal 
so  self-possessed  and  so  decided,  that  you  do  not  need  to  be  told,  that 
he  has  examined,  with  the  eye  of  a  true  philosopher,  all  the  bearings 
of  the  subject  that  comes  before  the  House.  His  voice  is  against  him, 
for  it  is  feeble  without  softness ;  and  he  gains  nothing  either  by  show 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.         299 

or  fluency  of  language :  but  still  the  impression  which  he  leaves  upon 
your  mind  is,  that  he  has  more  expansion  and  depth  of  intellect,  and 
more  range  and  inflexibility  of  purpose,  than  any  man  within  the 
same  walls." 

To  these  we  are  tempted  to  add  one  more  extract  It  is  from  the 
Liverpool  Journal,  of  the  18th  of  September. 

"  Politics,  this  week,  must  give  place  to  an  expression  of  sorrow  for 
the  melancholy  event  which  has  deprived  commerce  of  her  best  friend, 
Liverpool  of  an  honest  representative,  and  the  empire  of  a  statesman, 
who  has  left  behind  him  no  equal. 

"  The  disastrous  details  of  Mr.  Huskisson's  death  will  be  found  in 
another  part  of  our  paper ;  and  the  heart  saddens  into  inexpressible 
grief  to  find  one  of  "  earth's  great  spirits"  cut  off*  in  the  moment  of 
exultation ;  and  though  there  was  "  reckoning  made,"  the  event  was, 
alas,  sudden  enough  to  be  pronounced  awful.  The  survivors,  how- 
ever, are  more  deserving  of  sympathy  than  the  departed.  He  could 
aflford  to  die  much  better  than  we  could  afford  to  lose  him ;  and  it 
must  have  soothed  his  manly  spirit,  in  the  last  agonies  of  existence, 
to  know  that  he  encountered  death  in  endeavouring  to  forward  the 
interest  of  that  commerce  which  he  had  lived  to  promote.  A  nation, 
he  knew,  would  mourn  his  loss,  and  his  constituents  do  honour  to 
his  memory.  We  trust  his  remains,  as  has  been  suggested,  will  be 
deposited  in  the  St.  James's  Cemetery.  The  public,  we  know,  will  re- 
joice in  the  opportunity  of  testifying  their  veneration,  by  erecting  a 
suitable  monument. 

"  Mr.  Huskisson  was  truly  one  of  the  nobles  of  nature.  He  achieved 
greatness  by  mental  exertions ;  and  his  name  is  endearing,  because 
it  was  attained  by  those  patriot  services  which  are  identified  with 
revolutions  in  political  science.  He  taught  nations  the  way  to  be 
wisely  great ;  and,  in  bursting  the  shackles  which  restrained  tl^e  ener- 
gies of  Trade,  gave  a  mighty  impulse  at  once  both  to  industry  and 
mind.  Mr.  Huskisson  was  not  one  of  those  fortunate  politicians  who 
are  prematurely  thrust  into  power.  Though  early  dignified  by  the 
friendship  of  Mr.  Dundas,  he  seems  to  have  wanted  those  qualities 
that  conciliate  the  great.  The  praise  of  usefulness  could  not  be  de- 
nied to  him ;  but  his  colleagues  were  slow  to  recognize  in  him  the 
attributes  which,  at  a  later  period,  rendered  him  so  formidable  to  his 
opponents  in  the  House  of  Commons.  With  an  unostentatious  pa- 
triotism, he  was  content  to  suggest  measures,  and  allow  others  the 
applause;  and  that  political  humility  must  have  been  great  which 
could  endure  in  silence  to  hear  awarded  to  less  talented  co-operators 
the  praise  which  of  right  did  not  belong  to  them.  The  capacity  of  his 
mind  was  large,  and,  in  its  comprehension,  looked  abroad  with  phi- 


300  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF 

losophic  liberality,  neglectful  of  self,  and  solicitous  only  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  truth.  There  was  nothing  narrow  in  his  views.  His 
policy  was  marked  by  a  generous  philanthropy,  that  contemplated 
man  everywhere  as  a  fellow-being ;  and,  knowing  that  we  were  in- 
tended for  other  purposes  than  those  which  arise  out  of  warfare  and 
enmity,  he  sought  to  establish  a  brotherhood  of  nations  that  could  not 
fail  to  promote  universal  happiness,  and  increase  still  farther  the 
greatness  of  his  own  country. 

"  For  what  he  has  accomplished,  the  benedictions  of  the  intelligent 
portion  of  the  world  will  follow  him  to  the  grave ;  and  while  men  will 
bless  his  memory,  the  commercial  world  will  lament  that  his  life  was 
not  longer  spared  to  consummate  the  great  work  he  had  so  nobly 
begun." 

Qn  his  retirement  from  office,  in  1801,  Mr.  Huskisson  received 
a  nominal  pension  of  1200/.,  but  netting  only  900/.  a  year,  (contin- 
gent upon  his  not  holding  any  office  of  that  value)  with  a  remainder 
of  615/.  to  Mrs.  Huskisson,  to  commence  from  his  death.  He 
was  subsequently  appointed  Colonial  Agent  for  the  island  of  Cey- 
lon, the  salary  of  which  was  at  first  800/.  a  year,  but  was  after- 
wards raised,  by  the  voluntary  actK)f  the  island,  to  1200/.  a  year, 
as  a  special  remuneration  for  his  valuable  services.  When  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  he  considered  an  agency  as 
incompatible  with  that  high  appointment,  and  resigned.  Before 
Lord  Liverpool's  political  demise,  he  had,  unsolicited,  given 
instructions  that  Mr.  Huskisson  should  be  designated  for  one  of 
the  six  pensions  of  3000/.  which,  by  Act  of  Parliament,  the  Crown 
is  empowered  to  bestow  on  persons  who  have  served  particular 
offices  for  a  certain  period :  and,  on  his  final  removal  from  go- 
vernment, in  1828,  he  entered  upon  the  receipt  of  this  pension,  in 
which  his  former  one,  of  course,  merged. 

"  In  private,"  says  the  writer  from  whom  we  have  abridged  this 
sketch,  "Mr.  Huskisson's  character  will  challenge  the  closest 
scrutiny.  There,  even  calumny  is  silent.  Those  who  profess 
not  to  number  themselves  among  his  political  admirers,  admit 
the  kindness  of  his  nature,  the  integrity  of  his  conduct,  and  the 
purity  of  his  mind ;  while  they  bear  undisputed  testimony  to  the 
charm  of  his  manners  in  social  intercourse.  There  was,  never- 
theless, in  ordinary  sbciety,  if  nothing  arose  to  call  him  forth,  a 
degree  of  restraint,  almost  of  coldness,  in  his  demeanour,  which 
did  not  at  first  prepossess  in  his  favour,  and  which  caused  many 


?f 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  WILLIAM  HUSKISSON.  301 

to  feel  a  difficulty  in  making  his  acquaintance,  and  led  them  to 
a  wrong  estimate  of  his  character  and  his  disposition.  But  this 
difficulty  once  mastered — the  ice  once  broken — no  one  was  more 
delightful,  no  one  possessed  greater  attraction;  and  all  impres- 
sions of  reserve  or  of  indifference  vanished  before  the  rapid 
transitions  of  intellectual  expression  which  lit  up  his  countenance 
as  he  conversed,  the  tone  of  his  voice,  and  the  peculiar  sweet- 
ness of  his  smile.  Constitutionally  averse  from  all  display, 
his  manner  was  chiefly  captivating  from  the  indulgent  kindness, 
the  easy  gaiety,  and  the  unaffected  simplicity  with  which  he  laid 
aside  all  traces  of  the  statesman,  and  identified  himself  with  the 
pursuits,  the  interests,  and  the  feelings  of  others.  Fond  of  society, 
he  was  courted  and  esteemed  by  all  who  knew  him ;  and  he 
lived  in  habits  of  intimacy  and  friendship  with  the  most  eminent 
persons  of  all  parties,  uninterrupted  by  any  difference  of  political 
opinion.  But  it  was  in  the  narrowest  and  inmost  circle  of  do- 
mestic life — in  the  company  of  his  most  intimate  friends,  and 
around  his  own  fireside,  that  all  the  beauties  of  his  mind,  and  all 
the  charms  of  his  nature  could  alone  be  appreciated.  It  was 
there  that  the  feelings  of  affection  towards  him  were  sublimed, 
(if  the  expression  may  be  pardoned),  by  the  admiration  of  his 
superior  endowments;  it  was  there  that  the  sweetness  of  his 
temper,  and  the  benevolence  which  beamed  in  his  eye,  and 
marked  every  sentiment  which  fell  from  his  lips,  were  irresistibly 
felt  and  acknowledged.  Whether  estimated  as  a  husband,  rela- 
tion, or  friend — as  a  magistrate,  a  landlord,  or  a  master,  he  de- 
served and  secured  unbounded  love,  respect,  and  confidence. 
Charitable  without  ostentation,  his  purse  was  ever  open  to  the 
calls  of  distress.  No  misery  was  suflTered  to  exist  in  the  village 
where  he  resided :  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  or  the 
Secretary  of  State  never  refused  his  assistance  or  advice  towards 
adjusting  the  disputes,  or  arranging  the  difficulties,  of  his  humble 
neighbours.  None  ever  left  his  door  unrelieved,  and  none  ever 
received  from  him  a  harsh  word.  Such  was  he  whom  it  has 
been  attempted  to  paint  in  the  most  repulsive  colours — to  repre- 
sent as  indifferent  to  the  wants  and  sufl^erings  of  his  fellow-crea- 
tures— as  ready  to  view  the  misery  of  thousands  unmoved,  for 
the  sake  of  an  experiment  in  political  economy." 
26 


.■J 


SELECT    SPEECHES 


OP 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE 


WILLIAM    HUSKISSON 

903 


LIST  OF  SELECT  SPEECHES 
FROM  HUSKISSON. 


Agricultural  Distress, Page  307 

"N  Mr.  Western's  Motion  respecting  Cash  Payments, 331 

Usury  Laws  Repeal  Bill, 356 

Alteration  in  the  Laws  relating  to  the  Silk  Trade, 359 

Exposition  of  the  Foreign  Commercial  Policy  of  the  Country,  -    -  376 

Combination  Laws, 400 

Roman  Catholic  Relief  Bill, 414 

"^  Bank  Charter  and  Promissory  Notes  Acts, 423 

\£ffects  of  the  Free  Trade  System, 437 

Navigation  of  the  United  Kingdom, 477 

Joint  Stock  Companies  of  1824,  1825,  and  1826, 515 

Battle  of  Navarin, - 519 

Civil  Government  of  Canada, 531 

American  Tariffs, 553 

East  Retford  Disfranchisement  Bill, 559 

British  Political  and  Commercial  Relations  with  Mexico,    -    -    -  570 

Exposition  of  the  State  of  the  Country, 583 

Jews  Relief  Bill, 609 

Monument  to  Mr.  Watt, 613 

26*  20  305 


SPEECHES 

ov 

THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE 

WILLIAM  HUSKISSON. 


AGRICULTURAL    DISTRESS, 

AND   THE  FINANCIAL  MEASURES  FOR   ITS   RELIEF. 

FEBRUARY  15,  1822. 

This  day  the  Marquis  of  Londonderry  called  the  attention  of  the  House  to 
the  subject  of  the  existing  Agricultural  Distress,  and  entered  into  a  detail  of 
the  Financial  Measures  which  it  was  the  intention  of  his  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment to  submit  to  Parliament  for  its  Relief.  The  noble  Marquis  concluded  by 
moving,  "  that  returns  be  laid  upon  the  table,  of  the  revenue  and  expenditure, 
exclusive  of  the  funded  and  unfunded  debt,  for  the  year  ending  the  5th  of 
January  1821,  together  with  similar  accounts  for  the  year  ending  the  5th  of 
January  1822 ;"  and  he  gave  notice  that  he  would  in  a  few  days  move  for  the 
revival  of  the  Agricultural  Committee,  and  that  the  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer would  bring  forward  a  measure  for  enabling  the  Bank  to  issue  four 
millions  on  Exchequer  Bills,  in  loans  to  different  parishes,  and  would  also 
submit  a  proposition  for  reducing  the  present  amount  of  the  duty  on  Malt 
After  M.  Brougham  had  entered  into  an  examination  of  the  proposed  measure, 

Mr.  HusKissoN  rose.  He  began  by  remarking,  that  the  motion 
then  before  the  House  was  simply  for  an  account,  to  the  produc- 
tion of  which  there  could  be  no  possible  objection.  But  inasmuch 
as  the  comprehensive  speech  of  his  noble  friend,  who  had  intro- 
duced that  motion,  necessarily  embraced  topics  similar  to  those 
which  had  been  brought  under  the  view  of  the  House  by  an 
honourable  and  learned  gentleman*  on  a  preceding  day,  and  again 
that  evening,  the  present  discussion  might  be  considered  in  the 
light  of  an  adjourned  debate  upon  the  nature  and  causes  of  the 
present  distress.  He  was  the  more  at  liberty  to  look  at  it  in  that 
point  of  view,  without  violating  either  the  forms  or  the  rules  of 
the  House,  as  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman's  motion,  on 

*  Mr.  Brougham.  ^ 


308  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS— 

Monday  last,  had  been  met,  and  most  properly  disposed  of,  not 
upon  its  merits,  but  by  the  previous  question.  That  motion,  how- 
ever, had  answered  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman's  pur- 
pose. It  enabled  him  to  range  over  the  whole  manor  of  political 
economy,  to  fire  his  shots  at  random,  and  then  to-day,  when  the 
minister  of  the  Crown  was  obliged  to  go  over  the  same  beat,  the 
honourable  and  learned  gentleqaan  came  forward,  in  no  very 
sportsman-like  manner,  to  claim  as  his  own  the  fruits  of  the  noble 
lord's  more  steady  pursuit.  That  the  honourable  and  learned 
gentleman,  however,  was  mistaken  in  supposing  that  the  noble 
lord's  plans  had  been  changed,  in  consequence  of  his  speech,  he 
could  assure  him,  from  his  own  personal  knowledge ;  but,  inde- 
pendently of  his  assertion,  he  would  leave  to  the  House  to  deter- 
mine, considering  the  circumstances  under  which  the  honourable 
and  learned  gentleman  had  made  his  motion,  whether  it  was  not 
more  probable  that  the  object  of  his  speech  had  been  to  anticipate 
the  measures  of  government,  than,  that  those  measures,  adopted 
after  long  and  matufe  deliberation,  had  been  altered  to  accommo- 
date themselves  to  the  impression  made  by  the  speech  of  the 
honourable  and  learned  member. 

Leaving  him,  however,  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  fancied  triumph, 
he  should  think  himself  at  liberty,  in  rising  to  state  his  own  view 
of  our  present  difficulties,  to  refer  also  to  the  honourable  and 
learned  member's  speech  of  the  former  night,  as  far  as  it  related 
to  the  subject  of  the  present  discussion.  He  felt  this  to  be  the 
more  necessary,  whatever  might  be  the  indiscretion  of  entering 
upon  so  wide  a  field,  and  the  indisposition  of  the  House  to  attend 
to  matters  necessarily  dry  and  uninviting,  as  he  had  never  heard 
a  speech  more  abounding  in  mistaken  assertions,  more  fraught 
with  erroneous  principles  and  contradictory  inferences,  more 
pregnant  with  alarm,  mischief  and  danger,  or  more  calculated  to 
mislead  the  judgment  by  a  delusive  appeal  to  the  prejudices  and 
sufferings  of  the  people;  and  to  hurry  parliament  itself  into  a 
course  which,  if  once  entered  upon,  it  would  be  too  late  to  retrace, 
however  much  they  might  afterwards  deplore  their  error.  He 
did  not  ascribe  this  character  to  the  honourable  and  learned  gen- 
tleman's views,  under  the  influence  of  party  spirit — far  from  it ; 
his  wish  was,  as  much  as  possible,  to  keep  the  mighty  interests 
at  stake  out  of  the  range  of  party  feeling.  Looking  to  the  com- 
plicated relationships  existing  between  the  landed  interest  and  all 
the  other  great  interests  of  the  country,  and  to  the  manifold  diffi- 
culties of  the  subject,  he  could  wish  gentleme.n  to  come  to  its 
examination  in  that  House  as  calmly  and  dispassionately  as  they 
"would  to  a  similar  discussion  in  the  closet.  This  was  the  course 
which  he  was  determined  to  pursue,  stating  fearlessly  his  own 
impressions,  with  the  greatest  deference  certainly  to  the  judgment 


MEASURES  FOR  ITS  RELIEF.  309 

of  Others  with  whom  he  had  the  misfortune  to  differ,  either  in  or 
out  of  parHament,  but  without  any  personal  consideration,  except 
that  of  regret  at  the  existence  of  any  such  difference  between 
their  sentiments  and  his  own. 

When  the  subject  to  be  considered  is  the  present  distress,  it  is 
natural  to  look  back  to  periods  of  past  distress,  in  the  hope  that, 
by  a  reference  to  former  sufferings,  some  useful  lessons  of  expe- 
rience, some  valuable  inferences,  and  some  monitory  cautions 
may  be  derived,  to  serve  as  a  guide  to  carry  us  through  the  straits 
and  difficulties  of  the  present  moment.  Without  going  into  a  long 
detail,  or  to  remote  events,  he  could  wish  gentlemen  to  bear  in 
mind  that,  in  most  instances  of  former  severe  distress,  w^e  have 
had  to  encounter  evils  (and  those  evils  attended  with  symptoms 
and  dangers),  which  fortunately  do  not  press  upon  us  at  this 
moment.  Let  them  recall  to  their  recollection  the  heart-rending 
accounts  which,  on  former  occasions,  have  reached  us  from  the 
population  of  our  manufacturing  and  trading  districts.  How  long 
is  it  since  the  House  was  told,  and  told  with  too  much  truth,  that 
a  considerable  proportion  of  those  condensed  masses  of  the  people 
were  destitute  of  employment  or  resource,  almost  perishing  in  the 
streets  for  want  of  food  or  clothing,  having  sold  piece-meal  their 
furniture  to  sustain  life ;  that  the  manufactories  were  closed,  the 
prisons  overflowing,  the  work-houses  crowded  to  excess,  the 
shipping  of  the  country  unemployed  and  rotting  in  port  1  It  is 
impossible  to  have  forgotten  the  period  when,  in  those  districts, 
misery  was  so  general  and  so  urgent,  that  neither  the  compulsory 
levies  of  the  poor-rates,  nor  the  liberal  aid  of  voluntary  benevo- 
lence, could  adequately  administer  to  its  relief;  when  that  misery, 
goaded  on  by  public  agitators,  was  rushing  into  acts  of  despera- 
tion; when  life  and  property  were  equally  insecure — at  least, 
when  they  could  not  be  protected  by  the  ordinary  administration 
of  law ;  and  w^hen  expensive  military  precautions  and  new  laws 
became,  therefore,  necessary  to  preserve  the  public  peace. 

What,  in  those  perilous  times  which  followed  so  rapidly  upon 
the  restoration  of  peace,  was  the  language  of  the  same  men,  who 
had  so  steadily  and  systematically  foretold  the  defeat  and  humilia- 
tion of  our  arms  during  the  whole  progress  of  the  war?  The 
trade  of  foreign  prophecy  was  fortunately  at  an  end,  but  faithful 
to  their  vocation,  they  entered  upon  the  new  field  opened  to  them 
by  our  domestic  difiicuhies.  These  difficulties,  we  were  told, 
were  the  necessary  consequences  of  taxation  and  high  prices — 
that  we  had  saved  Europe,  that  we  had  acquired  military  glory 
indeed,  but  that  the  price  had  been  the  ruin  of  England — that  in 
this  country  the  expense  of  hving  was  so  great,  that  we  could  no 
longer  manufacture  or  navigate  in  competition  with  other  nations 
— that  our  manufacturing  and  trading  capitals  would  seek  employ- 


310  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS— 

ment  in  less  burthened  countries — that  the  middle  classes  would 
migrate  to  live  cheaper  and  better  abroad,  and  that  the  bulk  of 
our  industrious  population  would  in  consequence  be  left  destitute 
from  want  of  employment. 

The  manufacturing  population,  assured  by  these  prophets  of 
misfortune,  that  their  then  misery  was  only  the  beginning  of  the 
still  greater  privations  which  awaited  them,  were  further  told, 
that  the  magnitude  of  the  public  debt  was  the  foundation  of  all 
the  evils  under  which  they  laboured — that  this  debt  was  the  crea- 
ture of  a  corrupt  parliament ;  and  that  the  alternative  was,  on 
the  one  hand,  ruin  and  starvation,  or  on  the  other,  the  annihila- 
tion of  the  "  pretended  national  debt,"  and  a  radical  reform  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  These  were  the  only  remedies  at  that  time ; 
they  are  the  only  remedies  of  the  same  class  of  politicians  for 
our  agricultural  difficulties  at  the  present  moment.  If  any  one 
doubt  this,  let  him  compare  the  proceedings  of  all  the  popular 
meetings  about  four  years  ago,  in  the  manufacturing  parts  of  the 
kingdom,  with  the  speeches  at  several  of  the  meetings  lately  called 
in  the  agricultural  districts.  He  will  find  in  both  cases  the  same 
doctrines  inculcated,  in  many  instances  too,  by  the  same  indi- 
viduals, and  adopted  by  those  who  listened  to  them,  as  the  panacea 
for  all  their  difficulties. 

But  our  manufacturing  distress  was  attended  with  alarming 
symptoms,  which  excited  apprehension  even  among  men  not 
given  to  despond.  Consumption  had  diminished,  and  was  rapidly 
diminishing — the  revenue  was  falling  off  from  week  to  week,  and 
from  quarter  to  quarter — public  credit  was  very  low — private 
credit  out  of  the  question,  upon  the  best  securities,  within  the 
limits  of  legal  interest.  These  certainly  were  indications  of  the 
country  being  in  a  labouring,  if  not  in  a  declining  state.  The 
argument,  therefore,  of  those  who  took  a  gloomy  view  of  our 
affairs  was  at  least  intelligible,  and  the  conclusion  consistent  with 
the  argument,  although  in  the  degree  it  might  be  pushed  too  far. 
In  substance  the  argument  was  this — taxation  has  a  tendency  to 
raise  prices,  the  rise  of  prices  to  render  labour  dear,  and  dear' 
labour  to  drive  capital  to  seek  more  profitable  employment  else- 
where. But  that  taxation  can  be  the  cause  of  low  prices,  and 
above  all,  of  the  present  low  price  of  articles  of  universal  demand 
and  consumption,  in  respect  of  which  the  grower  has  the  monopoly 
of  the  home  market,  is  one  of  the  strangest  paradoxes  which  the 
wit  of  man  ever  devised. 

After  this  retrospect  to  the  remedies  proposed  for  the  late  dis- 
tress in  the  manufacturing  and  trading  districts,  it  is  natural  to 
ask,  has  the  national  debt  been  annihilated  ?  Has  the  parliament 
been  re-modelled  ?  Has  the  sinking  fund  been  taken  away  1  Have 
taxes  been  repealed  ?     Or,  without  recurring  to  any  of  these  ex- 


MEASURES  FOR  ITS  RELIEF.  311 

pedients,  have  the  glut  and  stagnation  ceased  ?  Has  manufactur- 
ing industry  recovered  ?  Has  public  credit  been  improved  ?  Is 
private  credit  flourishing?  Is  the  revenue  progressively  growing 
better?  Is  the  population  of  Lancashire,  Yorkshire,  and  the 
other  manufacturing  counties  fully  employed,  cheerful,  loyal, 
obedient  to  the  laws,  contented  and  happy  ?  Has  their  increased 
ability  to  provide  for  their  wants  led  to  an  increase  of  consump- 
tion, and  is  increasing  consumption  every  day  operating  to  relieve 
us  from  the  excess^ of  raw  produce  which  now  gluts  our  markets? 

This  is  not  mere  theory  or  speculation.  The  proofs  of  this 
happy  change  are  to  be  found  in  facts  and  figures,  which  cannot 
deceive,  though  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman,  in  talking 
of  consumption  and  revenue,  hinted  an  opinion,  that  the  increase 
could  not  be  real ;  for  which,  however,  he  could  state  no  better 
reason  than  this,  that  it  did  not  accord  with  his  preconceived 
theory,  or  his  preconceived  appeal  to  the  feelings  of  the  suffering 
part  of  the  community.  Better  and  more  just  would  have  been 
the  application  of  his  eloquence  had  he  said  to  the  landed  interest, 
"  In  the  present  contented  and  improved  condition  of  these  popu- 
lous districts,  in  the  diminution  of  crime  and  misery,  in  the  ease 
with  which  the  laws  are  administered,  in  the  security  and  peace 
which  the  manufacturers  now  enjoy,  in  their  growing  prosperity, 
and  in  the  cessation  of  all  the  anxiety,  expense  and  danger  which 
attended  their  former  state,  there  is  something  which  has  a  ten- 
dency to  compensate  to  your  better  feelings,  at  least,  for  the 
depression  under  which  you  now  labour;  and  be  assured,  the 
improved  condition  of  these  classes,  and  their  augmented  means 
of  consumption,  are  the  sure  harbingers  of  an  improvement  in 
your  own  situation." 

The  temporary  calamities  brought  upon  the  country  by  the  late 
stagnation  of  our  manufactures,  have  been  attended  with  this 
good  effect : — that,  in  seeking  for  remedies,  the  public  mind  of  the 
country,  and  the  mind  of  parliament,  have  been  turned  to  the 
merits  of  what  has  been  called  our  mercantile  system,  with  its 
balance  of  trade,  its  balance  of  prohibitions  and  protections,  and 
checks  and  bounties,  and  all  the  complicated  and  confused 
machinery  by  which  the  interests  of  commerce  have  been  impeded 
instead  of  being  promoted :  that  in  both  Houses  of  parliament  we 
have  had  committees  to  investigate  the  merits  of  that  system,  and 
that  the  result  of  their  inquiries,  aided  by  discussions  out  of  doors, 
has  been  the  diffusion  of  more  liberal  and  enlightened  views  upon 
these  important  points.  Already  we  have  seen  the  fruits  of  these 
researches  in  the  measures  proposed  last  session  by  the  Chairman 
of  the  Committee  of  Foreign  Trade,*  for  the  gradual  relaxation 

*  Mr.  Wallace. 


312  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS— 

of  this  system  of  restraint : — a  relaxation  which,  besides  its  imme- 
diate benefits,  in  muUiplying  the  enjoyments  and  extending  the 
intercourse  of  civilized  society,  would  be  attended  with  the  future 
advantage  of  abating  those  grounds  of  national  jealousies  and 
irritation  which  have  too  frequently  arisen  between  this  and  other 
states  on  commercial  questions — of  leading  us  and  them  to  form 
a  juster  estimate  of  those  causes  of  hostility  which,  during  the 
last  century,  were  too  often  engendered  by  those  jealousies  and 
irritations,  and  thereby  (co-operating  with  the  general  progress 
of  knowledge,  and  the  increasing  control  which  public  opinion 
exercises  over  the  conduct  even  of  despotic  governments)  to 
render  that  greatest  of  all  calamities,  war,  less  frequent  in  the 
world. 

In  like  manner  there  is  reason  to  hope,  that  the  difficulties  of 
the  present  time  have  tended,  through  the  investigation  in  parlia- 
ment and  discussions  out  of  doors,  and  will  still  further  conduce, 
to  remove  many  of  the  prejudices  and  errors  which  have  existed 
on  the  subject  of  the  Corn  Laws.  The  ultimate  result,  he  trusted, 
would  be  such  an  alteration  in  those  laws  as  would  protect  both 
the  grower  and  the  consumer  from  the  evils  to  which  they  are 
alternately  liable  under  the  present  system. 

If  it  can  now  no  longer  be  denied,  that  the  manufacturing  dis- 
tress of  the  years  1816  and  1817  was  produced  by  previous  over- 
trading, combined  with  the  altered  value  of  the  currency;  it 
remains  to  be  seen,  whether  causes,  in  a  great  degree  similar, 
have  not  mainly  contributed  to  the  present  depression  of  our  agri- 
culture. The  excess  of  supply  in  all  the  principal  markets  proves 
the  redundancy  of  produce ;  and  that  redundancy,  together  with 
the  improved  value  of  money,  is  quite  sufficient  to  account  for 
the  present  low  prices.  That  this  superabundant  production  is 
of  our  own  growth  is  also  undeniable.  To  this  state  the  country 
has  been  gradually  approaching  for  many  years.  At  the  breaking 
out  of  the  war  in  1793,  our  average  growth  of  corn  was  certainly 
below  our  consumption.  The  waste  of  war,  the  great  purchases 
of  government,  and  the  difficulties  which  a  state  of  hostility  ^hrew 
in  the  way  of  the  foreign  supply,  by  enhancing  the  price  of  im- 
ported corn,  gave  the  first  stimulus  to  an  extension  of  our  own 
cultivation.  That  stimulus  was  greatly  aided  by  the  bad  harvests 
which  preceded  the  first  stoppage  of  the  Bank  in  1797,  and  by 
the  still  more  deficient  crops  which  followed  that  event,  in  1799 
and  1800.  Before  the  latter  period  the  diminishing  value  of 
money,  consequent  upon  the  restriction  of  cash  payments,  afford- 
ed great  additional  encouragement  and  facility  to  the  ardent  spirit 
of  speculation  which  natural  causes  had  already  created  in  agri- 
culture.    This  artificial  excitement  continued  to  operate  so  long 


MEASURES  FOR  ITS  RELIEF.  313 

as  the  value  of  money  continued  to  decrease,  that  is,  till  the  con- 
clusion of  the  war. 

That  excessive  speculation  is  one  of  the  concomitant  evils  of 
any  system  which  rapidly  lowers  the  value  of  money,  is  an  unde- 
niable proposition.  In  what  manner  this  effect  is  produced  by 
depreciation  is  a  question  which  may  be  passed  over  in  this  dis- 
cussion ;  but  its  consequences  may  be  traced  in  the  present  glut 
of  produce.  It  is  the  cumulative  result  of  the  facility  with  which 
money  or  credit  was  procured  to  bring  barren  tracts  into  cultiva- 
tion, and  to  draw  a  greater  produce  from  lands  previously  culti- 
vated. If  in  both  these  pursuits  speculation  has  been  carried  too 
far,  the  consequences  must  be  the  same  as  in  over-manufacturing 
arid  over-trading — to  the  speculators  a  loss — to  the  consumers, 
the  temporary  benefit  of  prices  lower  than  those  at  which  their 
wants  can  be  permanently  supplied — that  the  latter  will  be  able 
to  consume  somewhat  more,  and  the  former  disabled  or  deterred 
from  producing  as  much  as  heretofore,  until  the  supply  adjusts 
itself  to  the  demand.  There  is,  however,  in  this  respect,  one 
material  difference  between  manufactures  and  agriculture  greatly 
to  the  disadvantage  of  the  latter.  Capitals  embarked  in  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  soil  are  more  slow  in  producing  the  expected 
returns,  and  cannot  so  easily  be  withdrawn,  or  turned  into  some 
other  channel  of  employment.  Should  the  seasons  continue 
favourable,  the  glut  in  agriculture,  therefore,  may  be  of  longer 
duration  than  in  other  branches  of  our  national  industry,  and  the 
more  so,  as  it  is  an  excess  no  part  of  which  is  likely  to  find  a 
vent  in  exportation. 

If  no  alteration  had  been  made  in  our  com  trade  with  Ireland, 
probably  the  pressure  of  this  glut  might  never  have  been  felt,  or 
felt  only  in  a  very  sHght  degree,  by  the  English  grower.  He  did 
not  anticipate  the  immense  change  which  had  been  produced  by 
the  law  of  1806.  His  improvements  proceeded  upon  calculations 
which  did  not  allow  for  the  prolific  powers  of  the  more  fertile 
soils  of  Ireland.  He  did  not  foresee  that  by  the  time  those  expen- 
sive improvements  would  be  in  their  full  bearing,  we  should  be 
furnished  with  an  annual  supply  from  that  country,  exceeding  the 
average  import  of  foreign  corn  from  all  parts  of  the  world  before 
the  introduction  of  that  law.  This,  however,  is  the  fact.  The 
present  depression  is  the  result  of  the  competition  created  by  an 
excess  in  both  countries — a  competition  the  more  severely  felt  by 
both,  as  they  have  to  struggle  at  the  same  time  with  the  increased 
value  of  money. 

The  corn  bill  of  1815,  however  well  intended,  has  certainly 

contributed  to  aggravate  the  present  distress.  It  was  passed  under 

an  impression  of  the  inability  of  this  country  to  raise  corn  enough 

for  its  own  consumption.     The  effect  of  that  impression  was  a 

27  2P 


314  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS— 

pretty  general  belief,  confirmed  by  the  decided  opinions  of  great 
authorities  who  opposed  the  bill  in  both  Houses  of  parliament, 
that  the  import  price  of  eighty  shillings  a  quarter  would  thence- 
forward be  the  minimum  price  of  wheat  in  England.  The  con- 
sequence was,  that  prospective  calculations,  either  of  improve- 
ment, or  for  the  letting  of  land,  were  formed  very  much  upon 
these  assumptions ;  and  as  the  import  price  was  stated  to  be  the 
lowest  price,  which,  according  to  the  doctrine  of  that  day,  would 
remunerate  the  British  grower,  it  was  considered  that  up  to  eighty 
shillings  remuneration  was  secured,  and  all  above  it  would  be 
profit.  The  calculation  would  not  have  been  disappointed,  had 
the  data  been  correct,  but  the  country  was  then  rapidly  advancing 
to  a  state  in  which  its  produce  would  exceed  its  consumption ; 
and  the  erroneous  consequences  of  this  calculation,  joined  to  two 
or  three  productive  harvests,  have  led  to  the  present  depression. 
If  any  man  can  doubt  that  excessive  production  has  materially 
contributed  to  the  fall  of  prices,  let  him  compare  the  quantity  of 
corn  sent  for  sale  to  Mark-lane,  and  to  every  other  principal 
market  in  the  kingdom,  for  the  last  twelve,  and  still  more  for  the 
last  six  months,  with  the  quantity  sent  at  any  former  periods  of 
corresponding  duration.  Low  price  might  be  the  effect  of  the 
increased  value  of  money  unaided  by  other  causes ;  but  increased 
quantity  does  not  depend  upon  the  alteration  in  the  currency.  A 
constantly  overwhelming  supply,  concomitant  with  an  increased 
consumption  (and  both  these  facts  admit  of  positive  proof),  kept 
up  for  a  considerable  period,  can  only  be  the  effect  of  redundance. 
It  is  true  that  the  supply  may  lately  have  been  somewhat  accele- 
rated by  the  poverty  of  many  of  the  farmers.  This  may  have 
been  the  case  for  a  few  months  after  the  harvest.  But  the  average 
quantity  for  a  whole  year  cannot  be  influenced  by  this  temporary 
cause.  It  can  only  be  explained  by  a  general  excess  of  produc- 
tion, of  the  extent  of  which  some  idea  may  be  formed  from  the 
fact,  that  the  whole  supply  in  Mark-lane,  for  the  last  year,  has 
exceeded  by  nearly  one-third  the  supply  of  the  year  preceding, 
and  that  in  the  last  quarter  the  quantity  has  been  very  nearly 
double  that  of  the  quantity  in  the  corresponding  period  of  the  last 
year.  This  excess  of  production  has  been  the  subject  of  much 
idle  declamation  at  meetings  out  of  doors.  It  has  been  said, 
"  who  ever  heard  of  plenty  as  an  evil,  or  of  a  people  brought  to 
the  brink  of  ruin  by  abundance  ?"  Plenty  has  never  been  described 
asan  abstract  or  general  evil,  or  the  whole  nation  as  distressed 
by  abundance.  The  possession  of  this  blessing  brings  with  it 
innumerable  comforts  and  advantages  to  the  consumer.  Cheapness 
is  the  effect  of  plenty,  and  if  that  cheapness  be  now  in  part  at  the 
expense  of  the  grower,  is  he  to  repine  at  the  bounty  of  Provi- 
dence, because  it  is  the  natural  order  of  things  that  bis  speculation. 


MEASURES  FOR  ITS  RELIEF.  315 

like  all  others,  is  liable  to  temporary  excess  and  derangement  ? — 
or  if  not  privileged  against  the  course  of  nature,  is  he  alone  to  be 
indemnified  at  the  expense  of  the  community,  against  the  occa- 
sional contingencies  in  a  great  degree  brought  upon  himself  by 
the  effect  of  those  very  corn  laws  to  which  he  has  resorted  for 
his  own  special  protection  ?  Can  a  provident  legislature  yield  to 
such  an  expectation  ?  Will  it  not  rather  say  to  the  agriculturist, 
as  to  any  other  speculator,  "  whatever  we  may  feel  for  your  dis- 
appointment, every  man  must  abide  the  event  of  his  own  calcu- 
lations." 

If,  however,  upon  some  mistaken  principle,  a  positive  monopoly 
of  the  corn  market  is  habitually  to  be  preserved  to  the  British 
grower,  and  the  people  to  be  precluded  from  resorting  to  foreign 
supply,  except  occasionally  to  guard  themselves  against  existing 
dearth,  then,  indeed,  it  may  be  a  question,  whether  for  the  interest 
of  the  people  themselves,  the  inconveniences  of  this  vicious  sys- 
tem, alternately  visiting  the  grower  and  the  consumer,  may  not 
in  some  degree  be  palliated  by  other  artificial  expedients,  though 
in  principle  scarcely  less  objectionable  than  the  system  itself.  If 
the  tendency  of  excess,  in  working  its  own  cure,  be  to  produce 
deficiency;  and  if  both  excess  and  deficiency  be  liable  to  be 
aggravated  by  the  fluctuations  of  the  seasons,  it  may  be  deserving 
of  consideration,  whether,  in  the  present  state  of  our  corn  laws, 
some  remedy  for  the  former,  and  some  guard  against  the  latter, 
may  not  be  found  in  the  plan  of  a  bounty  upon  the  warehousing 
of  British  corn,  suggested  by  the  noble  marquis,  when  the  markets 
should  be  glutted,  and  corn  below  a  certain  price.  A  moderate 
sacrifice  for  this  purpose  may  perhaps  tend  to  prevent  extreme 
depression  at  one  time,  and  extreme  dearness  at  another ;  and  by 
the  latter  advantage  compensate  to  the  consumer  in  seasons  of 
scarcity,  the  benefit  conferred  upon  the  grower  in  seasons  of 
redundancy.  A  bounty  of  this  description  would  be  more  fair, 
in  reference  to  the  different  classes  of  the  community,  as  well  as 
less  expensive  to  the  state,  than  the  old  system  of  a  bounty  upon 
exportation ;  but  still  it  is  a  measure  which,  if  possible,  should  be 
avoided.  It  will  be  for  the  House  hereafter  to  consider,  whether 
it  be  not  a  wiser  course  to  revise  a  defective  law,  by  getting  rid 
of  its  acknowledged  evils,  rather  than  to  leave  them  in  full  ope- 
ration, for  the  chance  or  expectation  of  trying  how  far  they  can 
be  obviated  by  a  counteracting  expedient ;  of  which  the  best  that 
can  be  said  is,  that  if  we  are  to  continue  to  labour  under  the  dis- 
ease, that  expedient  may  possibly  prove,  if  not  an  antidote,  at  least 
a  palliative,  of  some  of  its  worst  consequences. 

Before  he  proceeded  to  offer  a  few  remarks  on  the  state  of  the 
Currency,  as  connected  with  the  present  distress,  he  felt  it  neces- 
sary to  advert  to  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman's  griev- 


316  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS— 

ance,  that  he  had  not  been  placed  upon  the  Bank  Committee  of 
1819.  From'the  moving  accents  and  subdued  tone,  in  which  the 
honourable  and  learned  gentleman  complained  of  the  refusal 
which  he  had  met  with  on  that  occasion,  he  felt,  if  not  compas- 
sion for  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman's  disappointment, 
at  least  regret  for  the  omission  of  his  name ;  especially  when  he 
mysteriously  hinted,  that,  had  he  been  upon  that  committee,  all 
the  inconveniences  and  pressure  which  have  resulted  from  the 
resumption  of  cash  payments  might  have  been  greatly  palliated, 
if  not  altogether  avoided.  After  this  declaration,  he  had  listened 
with  more  than  ordinary  attention  to  all  that  had  fallen  from  the 
honourable  and  learned  gentleman,  expecting  every  moment  the 
solution  of  this  mysterious  intimation,  and  to  find  himself,  and 
those  who  laboured  with  him  in  the  committee,  overwhelmed  with 
compunction  for  having  ventured  upon  a  Report,  without  the 
Fenefit  of  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman's  counsel  and 
assistance.  But,  after  many  circumlocutions,  the  only  light  which 
the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  had  thrown  upon  the  sub- 
ject was  this,  "  that  the  evil,  after  all,  was  the  departing  from  the 
standard  in  1797."  Wonderful  discovery !  What  an  Iliad  of  woes 
might  have  been  saved  to  this  country,  if  those  words,  instead 
of  escaping  from  the  lips  of  the  honourable  and  learned  member 
in  1822,  could  have  found  vent  in  1819 ! 

But  when  the  honourable  and  learned  member  did  at  last  come 
forward,  at  the  twelfth  hour,  with  his  marvellous  proposition,  not 
more  astounding  from  its  immediate  practical  importance,  than 
new  as  a  discovery,  he  seemed  conscious  that  a  heavy  responsi- 
bility might  be  cast  upon  him,  on  the  score  of  public  duty,  for 
having  kept  the  secret  so  long  in  his  own  bosom.  He  felt  that  it 
might  have  been  divulged,  if  not  to  the  Committee  up  stairs,  at 
least  to  the  House  during  the  discussion  of  the  Report,  and  the 
measures  grounded  upon  it  in  1819.  He  therefore  very  properly 
protected  himself  from  this  reproach,  by  reminding  us,  that  he 
was  prevented  by  illness  from  attending  the  House  during  those 
proceedings.  The  future  philosopher,  in  reading  the  history  of 
these  eventful  times,  may  find  in  this  misfortune,  as  in  the  original 
stoppage  of  the  Bank,  a  proof  how  much  the  misery  or  happiness 
of  nations  turns  upon  some  accident  not  much  noticed  at  the 
^  time,  because  its  influence  for  good  or  evil  is  not  then  foreseen. 
For  ourselves  of  the  present  day,  we  may  deplore  the  tardiness 
of  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  in  promulgating  his 
discovery ;  but  that  feeling  will  now  be  as  unavaihng  to  relieve 
the  distresses  of  the  country,  as  the  regret  with  which  we  have 
all  heard  of  that  most  inopportune  illness,  by  the  effect  of  which 
we  were  unfortunately  deprived  of  that  discovery  at  the  critical 
period  of  1819. 


MEASURES  FOR  ITS  RELIEF.  317 

In  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman's  view  of  the  causes 
of  our  present  difficulties,  it  suits  his  purpose  to  lay  great  stress 
upon  the  fluctuations  of  the  currency,  and  he  has  given  us  many 
calculations,  not  very  new,  to  show  the  extent  of  the  depreciation 
at  different  periods.  To  prove  that  during  a  great  part  of  the 
war  the  currency  was  really  depreciated  is  now  become  unneces- 
sary. The  fact  is  admitted,  and  the  arguments  and  principles  of 
those  who  contended  for  it  in  1810,  are  no  longer  controverted. 
But  it  is  rather  curious  that  the  new  converts,  those  who  stoutly 
denied  depreciation  when  it  most  glaringly  existed,  should  now 
be  the  most  strenuous  to  exaggerate  the  extent  to  which  it  was 
then  carried.  When  gold  was  at  5/.  an  ounce,  the  mortgagee, 
the  annuitant,  the  public  creditor,  were  told  that  they  had  nothing 
to  complain  of;  and  now  they  are  told  by  the  same  parties,  that 
they  are  only  entitled  to  three-fourths  of  their  nominal  claims*; 
and  for  this  curious  reason,  that  they  are  at  last  relieved  from  the 
loss  which  they  sustained,  for  many  years,  from  having  been  paid 
their  incomes  in  money  depreciated  twenty-five  per  cent.  But 
this  is  an  exaggerated  statement  of  their  loss.  There  can  be  no 
other  measure  of  their  loss  from  depreciation,  than  the  excess  of 
the  market  above  the  standard  or  coinage  price  of  gold,  and  if 
this  be  taken  as  the  measure,  the  average  of  the  whole  period 
between  1797  and  1819  would  not  amount  to  near  twenty-five 
per  cent.  It  did  not  exceed  five,  as  has  been  justly  observed  by 
the  honourable  member  for  Portarlington,*  at  the  date  of  Mr. 
PeeFs  bill.  But  then  we  must  not  confound  depreciation  with  a 
diminution  in  the  value  of  money.  Quite  independent  of  natural 
causes,  such  as  an  increased  supply  of  the  precious  metals,  there 
may  be  a  diminution  in  the  value  of  money,  and  to  a  considerable 
extent,  without  its  being  depreciated;  and,  in  like  manner,  its 
value  may  increase  without  any  alteration  in  the  standard.  Every 
Contrivance  which  tends  to  economize  the  use  of  the  precious 
metals,  or  to  provide  a  substitute  for  them  in  the  shape  of  volun- 
tary credit,  tends  to  diminish  the  value  of  money.  A  diminution 
of  value  from  these  causes,  involving  no  injustice  to  any  one,  is 
attended  with  great  benefits  to  the  community.  Much  of  the 
prosperity  of  England,  since  the  beginning  of  the  late  reign,  may 
be  ascribed  to  the  legitimate  contrivances,  by  which  this  diminu- 
tion was  gradually  effected  and  extended,  in  all  the  various  modes 
of  verbal,  book,  and  circulating  credits.  This  is  one  of  the  advan- 
tages of  accumulating  wealth,  of  stable  institutions,  and  provident 
laws,  aflibrding  a  high  degree  of  security  to  property  in  all  its 
various  modifications. 

But  this  diminution  in  the  value  of  money  could  not  be  in  pro- 

*  Mr.  Ricardo. 

27* 


318  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS- 

gress  in  one  country,  without  its  being  more  or  l^ss  felt  by  all ; 
not  only  in  proportion  as  other  countries  could  avail  themselves 
of  the  same  means  of  credit  and  economy  in  the  use  of  the  pre- 
cious metals,  but  also  because,  in  proportion  to  the  gradual  exten- 
sion of  those  means  in  any  particular  country,  is  that  country 
enabled  to  dispense  with  a  part  of  its  metallic  currency,  which, 
diffusing  itself  over  the  circulation  of  the  remainder  of  the  world, 
tends  everywhere  to  lower  the  value  of  gold  and  silver  in  relation 
to  all  other  commodities. 

This  may  appear  abstruse,  but  it  is  important  to  the  understand- 
ing of  the  present  subject.  Before  the  Bank  restriction,  England 
had  done  much  to  economize  the  use  of  coin ;  Scotland  still  more, 
and  Ireland  far  less  than  England.  In  Ireland,  gold  was  the  prin- 
cipal medium  of  payments.  In  Scotland,  where  notes  as  low  as 
one  pound  had  long  been  in  use,  it  entered  for  very  little  into  the 
pecuniary  transactions  of  the  country.  In  England  it  still  formed 
a  considerable  part  of  our  circulation,  there  being  then  no  circu- 
lating paper  under  five,  and  only  to  a  small  extent,  under  ten 
pounds.  The  first  effect  of  the  restriction  was,  to  add  to  the 
paper  circulation  by  enlarged  issues,  not  only  from  the  national 
banks  of  England  and  Ireland,  but  also  from  all  the  country 
banks.  This  addition  continued  gradually  to  increase,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  notes  under  five  pounds.  Every  increase  for  the 
first  two  or  three  years  was  a  diminution  in  the  value  of  money, 
but  not  a  depreciation.  Why  ?  Because  the  gold  left  the  country, 
as  the  paper  became  its  substitute,  and  by  this  process,  the 
exchanges  were  kept  at  or  near  par.  The  effect  of  this  exporta- 
tion of  our  coin  was  everywhere  to  lower  the  value  of  money, 
and  by  so  doing,  to  keep  it  upon  a  level  with  its  diminished  value 
in  this  country. 

In  the  progress  of  this  operation  the  United  Kingdom  was 
drained  of  all  its  gold.  There  would,  however,  have  been  no  real 
depreciation  of  the  paper  substituted  in  its  stead,  if,  by  imposing 
proper  limits  upon  the  issues  of  that  paper,  the  par  of  exchange 
with  foreign  countries  (which  is  necessarily  equivalent  with  the 
standard  of  the  gold  coin  in  this  country)  had  been  made  the 
criterion  of  its  value.  But  the  issues  of  paper  not  being  confined 
within  those  limits,  depreciation  took  place. 

The  consequence,  therefore,  of  the  Bank  restriction  was  two- 
fold ; — first,  a  diminution  in  the  value  of  money  generally,  but 
without  depreciation ;  and  secondly,  a  depreciation  specially  super- 
added in  this  country,  the  degree  of  which  at  any  particular 
period  was  the  difference  between  the  standard  and  the  market- 
price  of  gold.  By  the  first  result,  the  price  of  commodities, 
including  of  course  all  the  raw  productions  of  the  soil,  was  raised 
generally.     By  the  second,  this  general  rise  of  prices  was  carried 


MEASURES  FOR  ITS  RELIEF.  319 

Still  further  in  this  country,  in  proportion  to  the  depreciation.  The 
actual  depreciation,  therefore,  as  it  was  not  the  sole  cause  of  the 
rise  of  prices  (speaking  now  of  that  rise  only  in  as  far  as  it  was 
influenced  by  changes  in  the  value  of  money)  during  the  war,  so 
it  cannot  be  taken  as  the  measure  of  the  fall  of  prices  since  1819, 
unless  we  could  have  got  rid  of  the  depreciation  without  recalling 
into  our  own  use  a  part  of  the  gold  which  had  been  exported,  or 
in  any  degree  diminishing  the  extent  in  which  credit  had  become 
a  substitute  for  actual  payments.  That  fall  must  be  still  greater, 
if,  instead  of  importing  gold  for  circulation  here,  the  greatest  part 
of  it  has  been  withdrawn  from  circulation  in  other  countries,  to 
be  buried  in  the  vaults  and  cellars  of  the  Bank.  The  proportioi^i 
of  the  rise  of  prices  generally  during  the  war,  and  of  fall  since 
the  peace,  not  in  England  only,  but  in  all  other  countries,  from 
these  alternate  operations,  may  be  difficult  to  estimate ;  but  it  must 
be  considerable;  and  the  more  so,  as  other  countries,  as  well  as 
England,  had  also  a  depreciated  paper,  and  have  since  endeavour- 
ed to  replace  it  by  a  metallic  currency. 

But  even  diminution  in  the  value  of  money,  without  deprecia- 
tion, and  afterwards  depreciation  superadded,  do  not  afford  a  just 
measure  of  the  actual  rise  of  prices,  and  especially  of  the  rent  of 
land  in  this  country  during  the  war.  To  these  causes  must  be 
added  the  effect  of  excessive  speculation.  It  is  true  that  this  ex- 
cessive speculation  had  its  foundation  in  the  diminishing  value  of 
money ;  but  when  the  farmer  had  saved  a  few^  thousand  pounds, 
was  it  not  natural  that  he  should  wish  to  lay  out  his  capital  in  the 
purchase  of  land, — that  land  upon  which  he  had  realized  an  in- 
dependence, and  of  which  the  rent  and  fee  simple  had  at  least 
♦doubled  within  his  recollection  ?  For  the  same  reason,  w^as  it  not 
natural  that  the  landlord  should  grasp  at  every  opportunity  of 
adding  to  the  number  of  his  acres ;  and  that  he  again  should  be 
met  in  competition  by  the  land-jobber,  ready  to  adventure  his 
capital  in  the  same  market,  as  affording  the  best  prospect  of 
assured  future  profit?  In  this  state  of  general  delusion,  was  it 
surprising  that  tenants  were  ready  to  embark  in  improvements 
and  to  take  leases  not  founded  upon  the  calculation  even  of 
existing  prices,  but  in  the  sanguine  hope  of  prospective  profits,  to 
be  realized  by  a  future  rise  before  the  end  of  their  respective 
terms  ?  And  what  was  the  state  of  the  money  market  whilst  all 
this  speculation  was  going  on?  With  depreciation  guarantied 
by  law,  the  country  banks  had  every  facility  to  lend ;  the  farmer, 
the  land-owner,  the  jobber,  every  temptation  to  borrow.  Can  we 
wonder  at  the  extent  of  the  revulsion  ?  If  we  are  unable  to  rescue 
many  of  its  victims  from  the  ruin  which  it  has  brought  upon  them, 
at  least  let  it  be  a  warning  never  to  be  forgotten,  against  any 
future  tampering  with  the  standard  value  of  tlie  currency. 


320  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS- 

But,  has  nothing  been  omitted  which  was  within  our  power,  to 
mitigate  the  pressure  arising  from  the  restoration  of  our  cur- 
rency 1  If  the  view  and  the  principles  which  he  had  now  sub- 
mitted be  correct,  he  must  say,  that  every  thing  which  might  have 
been  done,  had  not  been  done,  for  that  purpose.  Looi<ing  with 
apprehension  to  the  difficulty  of  reverting  to  a  metallic  currency, 
he  had  stated  his  suggestions  more  fully  in  the  Bank  comniittee. 
They  did  not  differ  very  materially  from  those  of  the  honourable 
member  for  Portarlington.  It  was  his  (Mr.  Huskisson's)  wish  that 
we  should  have  a  gold  coin,  as  a  medium  of  small  payments  in 
the  common  ready-money  dealings  of  the  community,  instead  of 
the  one-pound  notes  of  the  Bank  of  England ;  and  for  reasons 
with  which  he  would  not  trouble  the  House,  he  recommended 
that  there  should  be  a  small  seignorage  taken  upon  that  coin,  as 
there  is  upon  the  silver,  at  least  equal  to  the  expense  of  coinage. 
The  amount  of  such  a  coin  requisite  for  the  purposes  which  he 
had  described  would  not  be  considerable,  at  the  most  seven  or 
eight  millions ;  as  it  was  no  part  of  his  plan  to  interfere  with  the 
circulation  of  country  banks,  except  by  such  regulations  and 
encouragement  as  might  conduce  to  their  increased  stability  and 
security.  Beyond  that  amount  of  seven  or  eight  millions,  gold 
could  be  of  no  use  in  this  country  as  coin,  and  the  only  other 
purpose  for  which  it  could  be  wanted  was,  as  a  check  and  regu- 
lator to  maintain  the  standard  of  the  currency.  That  standard, 
he  agreed  with  the  honourable  member  for  Portarlington,  would 
be  most  perfectly  secured  by  the  Bank  paying  its  notes,  not  in 
coin,  but  in  gold  bullion  at  the  price  of  3/.  175.  lO^d.  an  ounce. 
The  quantity  requisite  for  this  purpose,  he  also  agreed  with  him, 
being  only  the  amount  requisite  to  balance  the  occasional  fluctua- 
tions of  the  exchange,  need  not  be  large ; — an  amount  very  con- 
siderably less  than  that  which  he  apprehended  was  now  hoarded 
by  the  Bank. 

Had  this  principle  been  acted  upon,  the  foreign  exchanges 
could  not  have  been  for  more  than  two  years  constantly  and 
greatly  in  favour  of  this  country, — a  proof,  as  is  observed  in  the 
Report  of  the  Agricultural  Committee,  that  the  value  of  money 
here  has  been  kept  artificially  above  the  par  of  the  increased  value 
of  the  money  of  other  countries ;  for  there  is  nothing  which,  in 
the  natural  stale  of  things,  finds  its  level  with  more  celerity  and 
ease  than  the  course  of  exchanges  between  different  countries. 
He  was  therefore  warranted  in  concluding,  that  the  pressure  had 
been  accelerated  by  the  mode,  and  aggravated  by  the  extent,  of 
preparations  made  for  giving  effect  to  the  Act  of  1819.  He  was 
convinced  this  would  be  the  case,  from  the  moment  the  Bank,  in 
that  year,  demanded  a  repayment  from  Government  of  ten  mil- 
lions. He  recollected  it  was  the  general  opinion  of  the  committee. 


MEASURES  FOR  ITS  RELIEF.  321 

It  was  the  opinion  of  his  right  honourable  friend,*  the  Chairman 
of  that  Committee,  and  was  so  stated  in  his  speech  when  the 

Report  was  taken  into  consideration  by  the  House.  It  was  also 
the  opinion  of  his  noble  friend,  at  the  head  of  the  Govern ment,f 
stated  in  another  place.  In  saying  this,  nothing  could  be  further 
from  his  thoughts  than  to  cast  any  reilection  upon  the  conduct  of 
the  Bank.  A  heavy  responsibility  was  imposed  upon  them,  and  if, 
in  providing  to  meet  it,  they  had  erred  at  all,  they  had  done  so 
from  an  excess  of  precaution,  from  an  over-anxiety  to  fulfil  the 
commands  of  the  law : — an  error  (if  committed)  into  which  it  is 
the  less  surprising  the  Directors  should  have  fallen,  as  their  interest 
as  a  corporation  was  obviously  the  other  way ;  and  it  is  natural 
for  men  of  high  honour  to  arm  themselves,  sometimes  perhaps 
too  scrupulously,  against  the  supposed  influence  of  personal  motives 
in  the  discharge  of  a  great  public  duty. 

After  what  he  had  said,  it  was  scarcely  necessary  to  add,  that 
he  viewed  with  satisfaction  the  plan  mentioned  by  his  noble  friend  J 
of  an  issue  of  four  miUions  of  gold  from  the  Bank  upon  the 
security  of  Exchequer  bills.  He  took  it  as  a  kind  of  admission 
from  the  Bank,  that  they  had  now  in  their  coffers  gold,  at  least 
to  that  amount,  more  than  was  necessary,  even  in  their  cautious 
judgment,  for  protecting  the  credit  of  their  notes,  and,  of  course, 
more  than  was  convenient  for  their  own  interest  to  retain.  The 
effect  of  the  operation,  as  he  understood  it,  would  be,  to  replace 
the  circulation  where  it  would  have  been,  if,  instead  of  a  repay- 
ment of  ten,  the  Bank  had  been  satisfied  with  six  millions  from 
the  public.  In  that  case,  their  accumulated  treasure  would  pro- 
bably have  been  four  millions  less  than  it  now  is-^at  present  they 
will  re-issue  to  that  amount.  In  whatever  degree  four  millions 
withdrawn  has  straitened  the  circulation  and  added  to  the  pres- 
sure, four  millions  restored  will  give  relief.  Not  that  he  ex- 
Eected  that  the  whole  of  the  gold  would  remain  in  this  country ; 
e  knew  it  could  not,  but,  by  diffusing  itself  generally,  it  would 
everywhere  have  a  tendency  to  give  ease  and  life  to  the  labouring 
markets  of  the  world,  and  by  consequence,  and  at  least  in  the 
same  degree,  to  our  own.  What  is  most  urgent  is,  to  stop  the 
progress  of  depression.  That  once  effected,  speculation,  which 
is  now  in  a  manner  dormant,  will  revive,  and  it  is  in  this  view, 
more  than  by  its  actual  amount,  that  this  operation  of  the  Bank 
seems  to  hold  out  a  prospect  of  reviving  confidence  and  hope. 

He  could  have  wished  that,  instead  of  being  advanced  to 
Government,  this  sum  had  been  added  to  the  amount  of  the  dis- 
counts of  the  Bank.     Such  a  proceeding  would  have  been  more 

*  Mr.  Peel.  f  The  Earl  of  Liverpool 

J  Lord  Londonderry. 

2Q 


322  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS— 

conformable  to  the  principles  and  object  of  that  institution.  It 
would  not  only  have  kept  their  issues  nnore  under  their  control, 
but  would  have  afforded  more  relief  to  the  public.  It  would  have 
afforded  more  relief  to  the  public,  because  the  Bank  has  no 
means  of  increasing  their  discount  to  that  amount,  except  by 
lowering  the  rate  which  they  now  charge  for  interest,  lowering  it 
from  five  to  four,  or  possibly  less,  per  cent.  Why  this  should  not 
be  done,  or  why  they  should  prefer  lending  to  Government  at 
three  per  cent,  was  to  him  inconceivable.  The  amount  which  it 
was  safe  and  prudent  to  advance,  either  to  the  state  or  to  indi- 
viduals, was  entirely  their  own  consideration;  but  within  that 
amount,  he,  as  a  member  of  Parliament,  had  a  right  to  say,  that 
under  the  present  circumstances,  discount  was  their  prior  duty. 

The  Government  disclaimed  the  advance  as  an  accommodation 
for  the  service  of  the  year,  and  he  was  glad  they  did  so ;  but  they 
were  willing  to  use  it  as  the  means  of  getting  the  sum  into  circu- 
lation, and  in  the  hope  of  affording  some  relaxation  to  the  existing 
pressure.  The  Bank  is  the  public  banker ;  but  this  was  not  the 
primary  object  of  its  institution.  That  object  was,  and  ought  to 
be,  to  facilitate  the  operations  of  commerce  and  industry,  by 
extending  mercantile  credit ;  and  how  was  that  to  be  extended 
except  by  liberal  discounts?  For  this  purpose,  extensive,  and 
important,  and  exclusive  privileges  are  given  to  the  Bank,  whilst 
all  other  bankers  are  placed  under  restrictions.  These  privileges 
were  given  in  the  expectation  that  the  Bank,  by  keeping  their  rate 
of  discount  rather  under  the  market  rate,  would  tend  to  lower  the 
latter,  and  to  make  the  loans  of  money  cheaper  here  than  in  other 
parts  of  the  world.  But  how  is  this  object  to  be  attained  if  the 
JBank  refuse  to  discount  except  at  a  rate  higher  than  the  market 
interest  of  money  ?  If  they  are  to  keep  the  rate  of  discount  at 
five  per  cent.,  whilst  the  banks  of  other  states,  Hamburgh,  Am- 
sterdam and  Paris,  are  discounting  at  three,  or  at  the  utmost  four 
per  cent.,  the  tables  will  be  turned  against  us ;  commerce  will  find 
cheaper  accommodation  elsewhere,  and  the  privileges  of  the  Bank 
will  only  be  felt  by  the  industry  and  trade  of  this  country  as  tend- 
ing to  uphold  (as  far  as  such  privileges  can  uphold),  instead  of 
tending  to  lower,  the  rate  of  interest  upon  money.  He  could  not, 
therefore,  too  strongly  state  his  opinion,  that  the  Directors  of  the 
Bank  would  best  consult  the  character  and  interest  of  that  insti- 
tution, as  well  a'g'  the  public  interest,  by  lowering  the  rate  of  dis- 
counts in  whatever  proportion  it  may  be  necessary,  in  order  to 
draw  to  themselves  at  least  as  much  demand  for  that  accommo- 
dation as  it  would,  in  their  judgment,  be  safe  for  them  to  grant. 

The  next  great  head  of  this  extensive  subject,  adverted  to  in 
the  speech  of  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman,  was  Taxa- 
tion, to  the  extent  of  which  he  ascribed  mainly,  if  not  exclusively, 


MEASURES  FOR  ITS  RELIEF.  323 

the  present  agricultural  distress.  This  conclusion  the  honourable 
and  learned  member  had  attempted  to  support  by  some  of  the 
most  visionary  doctrines  of  political  economy  which  he  had  ever 
heard,  at  least  from  a  person  of  the  honourable  and  learned  gen- 
tleman's acknowledged  talents  and  ingenuity.  Among  other  posi- 
tions equally  extraordinary,  the  honourable  and  learned  member 
had  stated,  "  as  a  known  and  acknowledged  axiom  of  political 
economy,  as  old  as  the  science  itself,  that  one  effect  of  taxation 
was,  to  raise  prices  by  increasing  the  profits  of  capital."  Now, 
this  principle  he  must  own  was  new  to  him,  and  belonged,  he 
should  say,  to  that  class  of  axioms  which,  a  few  years  ago,  set 
up  the  ideal  unit,  or  the  abstract  pound  sterling,  as  the  real 
standard  of  our  currency ;  axioms  which,  to  his  mind  at  least, 
had  the  merit  of  being  unintelligible.  He  should  like  to  know 
what  the  honourable  member  for  Portarlington  had  to  say  to  this 
axiom  ?  He  had  always  thought,  that  one  of  the  evils  of  taxation 
was,  that  it  diminished  the  profits  of  capital ;  but  if  it  increase 
profits,  how  can  it  produce  this  effect  without  increasing  the 
powers  of  employing  industry,  without  increasing  the  means  of 
consumption  and  enjoyment,  without  adding  to  the  accumulated 
wealth  of  the  country  ?  And  yet,  this  is  one  of  the  axioms  by 
the  aid  of  which  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  endeavours 
to  connect,  as  cause  and  eflfect,  the  amount  of  our  taxation  with 
the  public  distress. 

Another  axiom  of  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  equally 
fallacious  is,  that  prices  are  raised  to  the  consumer  by  the  employ- 
ment of  great  capitals,  and  that  taxation  renders  such  great  capi- 
tals necessary.  If  he  had  said  that,  without  a  great  extent  of 
capital  in  a  country,  there  could  be  no  great  extent  of  taxation, 
he  could  have  understood  him;  but  instead  of  great  fixed  capitals 
raising  the  price  of  manufactured  commodities,  their  tendency 
was  directly  the  reverse.  It  was  by  this  extent  of  wealth,  and 
by  all  the  mechanical  and  chemical  improvements  which  science 
suggested,  but  which  capital  alone  could  turn  to  the  greatest  prac- 
tical advantage,  that  the  natural  effect  of  taxation'in  raising  prices 
was  in  some  degree  counteracted ;  and  that  England  was  enabled 
to  manufacture  cheaper  than  any  other  country  in  the  world. 
This  advantage  enabled  the  industrious  classes  in  this  country  to 
provide  themselves  with  many  of  the  comforts  of  life,  in  clothing, 
Hardware,  and  other  articles,  not  only  cheaper  than  they  could 
be  had  in  other  countries,  but  cheaper  than  they  were  in  this 
country  at  a  time  when  the  public  burthens  were  much  less  in 
their  amount.  This  is  the  case  with  cotton  clothing,  with  coarse 
woollens,  and  with  iron  goods,  articles  of  no  small  consumption 
by  the  agricultural  classes  of  the  community. 

Differing,  therefore,  with  these  doctrines  of  the  honourable  and 


324  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS— 

learned  gentleman  respecting  taxation,  he  was  at  the  same  time 
anxious  that  his  own  principles  should  not  be  misunderstood. 
Those  principles  might  be  found  in  the  Agricuhural  Report  of  last 
year.  To  some  of  the  propositions  and  inferences  of  that  Report 
he  could  only  give  a  quahfied  concurrence ;  but  upon  this  topic, 
it  had  his  entire  assent.  He  was  ready  to  say  now,  as  he  said 
then,  that  "  taxes,  however  imposed,  must  necessarily  abridge  the 
resources  and  comforts  of  those  by  whom  they  are  ultimately 
paid,. and  that  the  general  amount  and  real  pressure  of  taxation 
have  been  positively  increased  in  proportion  to  the  improved  value 
of  the  currency." 

In  one  principle  stated  by  the  honourable  and  learned  gentle- 
man, he  agreed;  namely,  "that  it  was  the  total  amount  more 
than  the  mode  of  levying  the  taxes  that  ought  to  be  considered/' 
But  if  he  agreed  with  him  in  this  general  remark,  he  must  add, 
that  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  had  fallen  into  a  strange 
inconsistency ;  for  a  great  part  of  his  speech  had  been  an  attempt 
to  prove  that  the  malt  tax,  and  most  of  the  productive  taxes  in 
the  collection  of  the  excise,  were  paid  by  the  occupiers  of  the 
land.  As  well  might  he  argue,  that  the  tax  upon  sugar  was  paid 
by  the  West-India  planter,  and  that  upon  tea  by  the  Chinese.  In 
truth,  all  these  taxes  fall  in  the  first  instance  upon  the  consumer, 
and  are  ultimately  borne  either  by  the  profits  of  capital,  or  some- 
times by  the  capital  itself,  belonging  to  all  the  subjects  of  the 
state,  and  must  operate  in  diminution  either  of  the  one  or  of  the 
other.  A  remission  of  taxes,  therefore,  must  be  a  benefit  to  all, 
and  not  exclusively  to  any  particular  class. 

The  immediate  cause  of  the  distress  of  the  farmer  is  the  great 
depression  of  his  market,  creating  a  difference  of  one-third,  at  the 
least,  between  the  nominal  value  of  his  whole  stock  in  business 
now,  compared  with  that  nominal  value  a  few  years  ago.  In  this 
state  of  things,  let  us  suppose  that  taxes  to  a  large  amount  are 
taken  ofl^.  The  effect  will  be,  we  are  told,  a  further  fall  in  prices. 
Be  it  so.  What  will  be  the  consequence  to  the  tenant,  whose 
stock  in  business  is  already  diminished  in  value  one-third  1  Why, 
that  it  will  be  diminished  one-half.  Now,  in  the  case  of  many 
tenants,  at  least  one-half  of  the  capitals  with  which  I  hey  began 
business,  was  money  borrowed.  To  a  man  in  that  situation,  what 
sort  of  relief  should  you  give  1  With  a  new  tenant  who  now 
takes  to  the  concern  and  provides  his  stock  in  business  with  a 
money  capital,  only  one-half  of  that  which  was  requisite  to  his 
predecessor,  the  case  is  different.  The  fall  of  prices,  produced  by 
the  remission  of  taxes,  involving  too  the  fall  of  rent,  will  be- to  him 
anything  but  a  disadvantage.  It  will  be  a  boon  to  him,  as  it  will 
to  capitalists,  under  similar  circumstances,  in  other  branches  of 
industry.     This  appeared  to  him  the  fair  distinction.     The  remis- 


MEASURES  FOR  ITS  RELIEF.  325 

sion  of  taxation  will  be  no  immediate  remedy  to  a  distress  directly 
arising  from  low  prices; — but  in  whatever  degree  it  can  be  effect- 
ed, it  will  ultimately  be  a  benefit  to  the  agricultural,  as  well  as  to 
all  the  other  interests  of  the  country. 

The  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  has  gone  into  minute 
details  to  show  that  taxation  diminishes  consumption.  Here  again 
the  general  principle  may  be  admitted.  But  has  there  been  any 
marked  diminution  of  consumption,  peculiarly  coincident  with  the 
present  distress?  On  the  contrary,  has  not  consumption  increased, 
and  is  it  not  now  increasing  in  all  articles  of  general  use,  even 
those  subject  to  heavy  duties  of  excise  ?  If  taxation,  therefore, 
be  the  immediate  cause  of  the  present  difficulties,  whence  comes 
it  that  the  taxes  complained  of  as  peculiarly  pressing  upon  agri- 
culture, are  more  than  usually  productive  ?  We  are  agreed  as  to 
the  existence  and  character  of  the  distress.  It  rests,  therefore, 
with  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman,  either  to  contend,  that 
distress  increases  consumption,  or  to  admit  (contrary  to  the  whole 
drift  of  his  speech),  that  the  particular  taxes  which  he  has  men- 
tioned,— malt,  soap,  candles,  &c.,  do  not  fall  either  exclusively  or 
extensively  upon  the  distressed  classes  ;  and  if  they  do  not,  it  fol- 
lows that  the  remission  of  those  taxes  would  do  nothing  specifically 
for  the  immediate  relief  of  agriculture. 

The  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  has  shown  that  the  in- 
creased consumption  of  malt  has  not  kept  pace  with  the  increase 
of  our  population.  But  when  he  ascribes  this  circumstance  ex- 
clusively to  the  increase  of  the  tax  on  this  article,  he  might  have 
shown,  had  it  equally  suited  his  purpose,  that  increase  or  diminu- 
tion in  the  annual  consumption  of  this  article  has  not  corresponded 
with  the  augmentation  or  abatement  of  the  tax.  In  1816,  the  tax 
was  reduced  from  45.  4rf,  to  2s.  4d.  a  bushel — the  consumption 
of  1817  was  17,136,020  bushels;  that  of  1818,  26,462,933;  that 
of  1819,  22,346,259;  making  an  average  of  the  three  years  of 
21,981,737  bushels.  In  1819,  the  duty  was  again  raised  to  35. 6d. 
per  bushel;  the  consumption  of  1820  was  24,535,155;  of  1821, 
28,697,057  bushels,  giving  an  average  for  the  two  years  of 
26,616,106  bushels,  and  exceeding  the  average  of  the  three  years 
of  low  duty  by  4,634,369  bushels.  If  upon  a  comparison  of  thirty 
years  the  increase  in  the  consumption  of  malt  has  not  kept  pace 
with  the  increase  of  the  population — without  denying  that  the  tax 
has  contributed  its  share  to  the  falling  off— it  may  in  part  proba- 
bly be  ascribed  to  other  causes — to  improvements  in  the  art  of 
brewing,  by  which  a  saving  of  malt  is  effected — a  saving,  which 
he  understood,  was  still  greater  in  the  distillery — also  he  was 
willing  to  hope,  in  part  to  a  melioration  in  the  habits  of  the  people ; 
at  least  he  was  glad  to  see  that  the  consumption  of  soap,  and 
other  exciseable  articles  connected  with  the  comforts  of  the  indus- 
28 


326  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS— 

trious  classes,  had  increased,  within  the  same  period,  in  a  propor- 
tion greater  even  than  the  increase  of  population ;  for  he  knew  no 
more  certain  indication  of  sobriety  than  increased  cleanliness  and 
an  improvement  in  the  domestic  manners  of  the  community. 

From  whatever  causes,  however,  the  increase  in  the  consump- 
tion of  malt  had  not  kept  pace  with  the  growth  of  the  population, 
upon  a  comparison  of  the  present  period  with  the  year  1792;  it 
would  be  a  fairer  mode  of  inquiry,  in  reference  to  the  effect  of 
taxation,  to  make  the  comparison  not  upon  malt  only,  but  upon 
all  the  articles  of  general  consumption  which  are  liable  to  heavy 
duties  of  excise.  This  comparison,  embracing  some  articles  upon 
which  the  increase  of  taxation  has  been  much  more  rapid  and 
extensive  than  upon  malt  (such  for  instance  as  tea,  mentioned  by 
the  noble  marquis),  would  show  that,  upon  an  average  of  the 
whole,  consumption  has  fully  kept  pace  with  the  augmented  num- 
ber of  our  population. 

But,  oh !  exclaims  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman,  in- 
dignant at  the  mere  mention  of  tea,  "  this  may  be  very  well  for 
the  agriculturist  in  China,  but  does  tea  in  the  smallest  degree  pro- 
mote British  industry  or  give  employment  to  any  one  individual 
in  Great  Britain?"  Does  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman 
wish  us  to  understand,  that  the  Chinese  kindly  make  us  a  present 
of  all  the  tea,  and,  still  more  kindly,  deliver  it  free  of  expense  in 
Leadenhall-street ;  and  that  no  British  industry  is  put  in  motion, 
either  to  provide  the  means  of  procuring  this  foreign  article,  or 
to  convey  it  to  the  shores  of  this  country  ?  Are  we  to  take  this 
as  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman's  doctrine,  in  respect  to 
commerce  with  foreign  states,  and  as  another  sample  of  that 
political  economy  which  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman 
has  attempted  to  palm  upon  the  good  sense  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, but  which,  in  fact,  is  more  worthy  of  a  drunken  mob  in 
Palace-yard  ? 

The  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  has  compared  the 
nominal  amount  of  the  taxes,  including  the  charge  of  collection, 
now,  and  at  various  periods  of  the  war,  in  order  to  show  that 
their  real  amount  has  not  been  diminished.  "  The  people  pay  as 
much  now  in  the  seventh  year  of  peace,"  he  says,  "  as  they  did 
in  1806 ;  aye,  even  as  much  as  they  did  in  1813.  Was  there  ever 
anything  so  monstrous?  In  1813,  eighty-four  millions  was  the 
gross  sum  collected,  last  year  it  was  sixty.  The  difference  is  just 
equivalent  to  the  depreciation  of  the  currency." 

The  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  entered  into  a  similar 
comparison  with  the  year  1806.  No  wonder,  that  for  these  com- 
parisons it  suited  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman's  purpose 
to  take  the  average  depreciation  of  the  currency  at  twenty-five 
per  cent.     But,  even  if  it  were  true  that  the  average  depreciation 


MEASURES  FOR  ITS  RELIEF.  327 

had  been  carried  to  that  extent,  we  have  in  these  comparisons, 
the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman's  implied  admission,  that 
agriculture  flourished,  during  the  war,  with  an  amount  of  taxation 
at  least  equal  to  that  of  the  present  time.  Its  present  depression, 
therefore,  is  not  the  consequence  of  taxation.  In  the  next  place, 
what  is  there  so  monstrous  or  so  new,  that  a  country  which  resorts 
to  loans  during  war,  should  have  to  pay  the  interest  of  those  loans 
after  peace?  Was  not  this  the  case  after  the  American  war?  If 
the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  had  been  in  the  House  in 
1789,  he  might  have  exclaimed  "  how  monstrous !  our  revenue  is 
now,  in  the  sixth  year  of  peace,  seventeen  millions;  and  in  1781, 
a  year  of  war,  it  was  only  ten  millions."  He  might  then  have 
further  exclaimed — "  a  great  part  of  the  difference  arises  from 
new  taxes  which  did  not  exist  during  the  war,  but  which  have 
been  imposed  in  successive  years  since  the  peace !"  On  the  other 
hand,  to  make  his  present  statement  correct,  he  ought  to  have 
added  to  it — that,  "  contrary  to  the  practice  of  all  former  wars, 
we  had  been  able  to  wind  up  this  last,  the  most  protracted  and 
the  most  expensive  of  all,  not  only  without  any  addition  to,  but 
with  a  great  remission  of,  the  public  burthens." 

Whether  our  expenditure  upon  the  reduced  scale  stated  by  the 
noble  marquis,  be  still  too  great,  is  a  point  reserved  for  further 
investigation  and  discussion ;  but  when  the  whole  charge  for  the 
current  year  is  brought  under  fifty  millions,  including  the  extra- 
ordinary expenses  incident  to  the  insurrection  in  Ireland,  it  ought 
to  be  a  strong  presumption  with  gentlemen  on  the  other  side,  that, 
with  safety  and  justice,  retrenchment  cannot  go  much  further. 
The  honourable  member  for  Essex,*  whose  absence  from  indis- 
position he  particularly  regretted,  had  deliberately  stated  his 
opinion  in  1816,  "  that  fifty  millions  was  the  lowest  sum  to  which 
we  could  hope  to  bring  our  expenditure,  and  that  he  did  not  see 
how  it  could  be  brought  so  low."  No  man  will  question  his 
capacity  to  investigate  these  subjects,  no  man  will  question  his 
disposition  to  economy.  This  is  an  authority  which  must  have 
its  weight  with  the  other  side  of  the  House,  and  which  is  justly 
looked  up  to  by  the  country ;  he  therefore  referred  to  it  with  the 
more  confidence,  as  he  was  sure  it  would  be  a  satisfaction  to  that 
honourable  member  to  find,  that  the  expenditure  was  now  actu- 
ally within  the  estimate  which  he  considered  the  lowest  that  could 
be  suflicient. 

The  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  recommends  an  imme- 
diate remission  of  taxes  to  the  extent  of  any  existing  surplus. 
But  he  goes  further.  If  the  taking  off  of  five  millions  of  taxes 
should  not  aflford  immediate  relief — and  assuredly  it  would  not — 

*  Mr.  Western, 


328  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS— 

the  next  step  would  be,  to  apply  the  remedy  of  an  "  unreasoning 
necessity,"  as  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  describes  it ; 
but  which,  in  plain  terms,  means  neither  more  nor  less  than  a 
breach  of  faith  with  the  public  creditor.  That  a  nation,  like  an 
individual,  may  be  compelled  to  bend  to  an  absolute  uncontrolla- 
ble necessity,  is  what  cannot  be  denied ;  but  when  the  honourable 
and  learned  gentleman  calmly  contemplates  a  state  of  things  short 
of  that,  and  attempts  to  measure  and  define  it  by  the  present  dif- 
ficulties of  the  country ;  the  continuance  of  which,  he  intimated, 
would  come  up  to  his  view  of  an  "  unreasoning  necessity,"  the 
proposition  is  most  alarming.  Setting  aside  all  considerations  of 
morality,  justice,  and  public  honour,  is  there  any  man  weak 
enough  to  believe,  that  a  national  bankruptcy  would  relieve  the 
present  distress  ?  blind  enough  not  to  see,  that  it  would  involve  us 
in  general  confusion,  and  weaken,  if  not  destroy,  the  foundations 
upon  which  the  security  of  all  other  property  now  rests  ? 

Something  has  been  said  of  the  Public  Debt  being  a  mortgage 
upon  all  the  lands  of  England.  This  he  would  deny.  There  is 
no  such  specific  mortgage.  The  public  creditor  can  show  no 
parchment — produce  no  deeds.  His  title  is  not  upon  the  lands, 
more  than  upon  the  whole  capital  and  income  of  the  country.  He 
derives  that  title  from  the  same  source  as  that  which  gives  to 
every  other  subject  of  the  realm  the  security  in  what  he  possesses 
— from  the  guarantee  of  the  public  power  of  the  state.  What 
is  property  itself,  but  the  creature  of  that  public  power  ?  Has  not 
the  claim  of  the  public  creditor  the  same  sanction  and  pledge  of 
that  public  power,  as  the  private  engagements  between  man  and 
man,  or  as  the  transmission  of  property  by  inheritance  or  by  will  ? 
Are  not  all  these  means  of  possession  created  and  upheld  by  law, 
administered  and  enjoyed  according  to  law ;  and  can  you  make 
an  inroad  upon  any  one  without  endangering  the  whole  ?  The 
possessor  of  an  estate  which  he  has  inherited  or  purchased,  or  the 
holder  of  a  mortgage  upon  that  estate,  has  no  more  natural  right, 
the  one  to  his  rent,  or  the  other  to  his  interest,  than  the  public 
creditor  has  to  his  dividend.  Titles  to  property  are  not  like  life, 
or  liberty — the  gifts  of  God  and  nature.  If  you  cancel  the  security 
given  to  one  class  of  property,  you  endanger  the  rights  of  all. 
Your  blow  may  indeed  be  aimed  at  one  corner  of  the  edifice 
only,  but  its  recoil,  depend  upon  it,  will  damage,  perhaps  destroy, 
the  foundation  of  the  whole  fabric. 

With  respect  to  the  Sinking  Fund,  he  had  no  difficulty  in  avow- 
ing, that  there  could  be  no  real  Sinking  Fund  in  time  of  peace, 
except  the  surplus  of  revenue  above  expenditure.  Nothing  else 
could  be  deserving  of  the  name.  But  with  such  a  debt  as  ours, 
and  without  such  a  Sinking  Fund,  he  should  look  with  disquietude, 
not  so  much  to  the  immediate  interests  of  the  public  creditor  as 


MEASURES  FOR  ITS  RELIEF.  329 

to  the  security  of  the  state.  If  parliament  proclaim  our  utter 
inability  to  reduce  our  debt  during  peace,  what  can  we  expect 
upon  the  renewal  of  hostilities,  but  the  annihilation  of  credit, 
forcing  us  either  to  limit  the  extraordinary  exertions  of  war  within 
the  additional  means  that  can  be  raised  annually  by  taxation,  or 
to  declare  a  national  bankruptcy?  Is  this  the  alternative  for  which 
the  country  is  prepared  ?  If  we  had  never  had  a  Sinking  Fund, 
it  would  be  one  question,  whether,  at  a  moment  of  difficulty  like 
the  present,  we  should,  for  the  first  time,  make  the  effort  necessary 
for  creating  one :  it  is  quite  another  question,  whether,  without  the 
most  overruling  necessity,  we  ought  to  give  up  the  Sinking  Fund 
which  we  already  possess ;  to  give  it  up  too  in  the  face  of  the 
Resolution  of  the  year  1819,  thus  exhibiting  to  the  world  such  a 
proof  of  distress  and  inability,  of  weakness  and  vacillation  in 
council,  as  must  lower  our  station,  and  destroy  our  influence,  in 
Europe ;  and  as  could  not  fail,  ere  long,  by  inviting  aggression, 
to  bring  upon  us,  in  increased  expense  and  diminished  security,  the 
punishment,  even  in  a  pecuniary  view,  of  our  own  short-sighted 
and  miserable  policy.  If  hitherto,  public  credit  has  been  to  Eng- 
land power  and  safety,  are  we  to  part  with  it  at  the  moment  when 
all  the  states  in  the  world  are  cultivating  that  source  of  strength 
by  establishing  Sinking  Funds  for  the  reduction  of  their  respective 
debts  ?  In  France,  the  Sinking  Fund  is  greater  in  proportion  to 
the  total  amount  of  debt  than  in  this  country ;  and  in  America 
still  greater  than  in  France. 

But  one  great  authority,  hitherto  most  friendly  to  a  Sinking 
Fund,*  has  told  us,  that  we  may  part  with  it  now,  and  restore  it 
again  some  years  hence,  when  the  country  shall  be  more  pros- 
perous. This  appears  a  weak  and  dangerous  course.  If  once 
given  up,  the  Sinking  Fund  will  be  gone  for  ever.  Besides,  can 
any  man  say  how  soon  this  country  may  be  driven  to  the  neces- 
sity of  preparing  for  war  ?  Would  that  be  a  case  which  we  could 
postpone,  because  we  should  have  postponed  our  Sinking  Fund  ? 
If  called  upon  to  vindicate  our  honour,  could  we  adjourn  the 
demand  of  satisfaction  to  some  indefinite  but  more  convenient 
period  ?  If  we  once  adopt  this  principle,  if  the  feelings  of  the 
country  be  once  subdued  to  it,  insults  and  injuries  will  certainly 
not  be  wanting ;  but  as  we  should  have  first  parted  with  the  means, 
so  we  should  soon  be  without  the  spirit  to  avenge  them. 

That  the  resources  of  England,  however,  are  reduced  to  this 
extremity,  he  utterly  denied.  If  in  reference  to  any  other  great 
state  in  Europe,  it  had  been  proved  to  him,  that  its  public  credit 
stood  very  high — that  its  revenue  was  increasing,  without  any  in- 
crease of  taxes,  that  its  population  was  increasing  in  numbers 

*  Mr.  Tieraey. 
28*  2R 


330  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS.     . 

with  a  rapidity  unparalleled  in  any  long-settled  country,  and  that 
its  internal  improvements  were  keeping  pace  with  the  growth  of 
its  population ; — and  if,  notwithstanding  these  facts,  he  had  been 
told,  that  the  real  state  of  that  country  was  desperate  and  hope- 
less, he  should  have  mistrusted  the  accuracy  of  the  assertion.  If 
these  be  the  immediate  forerunners  of  decline,  decay,  and  ruin, 
what,  he  might  be  allowed  to  ask,  are  the  steady  indications  of 
increasing  wealth,  power,  and  prosperity  ? 

Not  concurring,  therefore,  in  the  gloomy  view,  not  dismayed 
by  the  mysterious  and  fearful  forebodings  of  the  honourable  and 
learned  gentleman,  he  could  not  consent,  under  a  pressure  which 
he  trusted  would  be  temporary,  to  break  down  the  best  hopes, 
and  to  destroy  the  public  credit,  of  the  country.  If  after  all  the 
dangers  we  had  defied,  all  the  difficulties  which  we  had  overcome, 
and  all  the  trials  which  our  fortitude  and  firmness  had  met  unap- 
palled,  during  a  ,war  of  twenty  years — if  after  we  had  terminated 
that  long  struggle  in  a  manner  which  had  raised  the  name  and 
character  of  England  to  a  height  which  no  other  country  ever 
attained,  we  were,  in  a  moment  of  despondency,  to  dash  away, 
for  ever,  one  of  the  main  resources  which  have  raised  us  to  that 
proud  distinction — a  resource  which  is  well  described  in  the  con- 
clusion of  the  Speech  from  the  throne,  as  "  that  public  credit,  in 
the  maintenance  of  which  all  the  best  interests  of  this  kingdom 
are  equally  involved,  and  by  a  steady  adherence  to  the  principles 
whereof  we  have  attained  and  can  alone  expect  to  preserve  our 
high  station  amongst  the  nations  of  the  world," — he  should  then 
make  it  his  earnest  entreaty  to  those  with  whom  he  had  acted  in 
pubHc  life,  he  should  call  upon  them  by  the  reverence  which  they 
felt  for  the  character  and  memory  of  Mr.  Pitt,  and,  he  might  add, 
by  their  regard  for  their  own  fair  fame,  not  to  lend  themselves  to 
pull  down  this  monument  of  our  greatness  and  our  strength ;  and 
if,  unfortunately,  the  House  should  resolve  that  it  ought  not  to  be 
sustained,  to  leave  to  other  hands  the  unhallowed  task  of  its  de- 
moHtion. 

The  motion  was  agreed  to,  and  the  several  returns  were  laid  on  the  table. 


(    331     ) 


MR.  WESTERN'S  MOTION 

RELATIVE  TO  THE  EFFECTS  OF  THE  RESUMPTION  OF  CASH 
PAYMENTS  ON  THE  AGRICULTURE,  MANUFACTURES,  AND 
COMMERCE  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

JUNE  11,  1822. 

Tffls  day  Mr.  Western,  pursuant  to  notice,  called  the  attention  of  the  House 
to  the  effect  which  the  Resumption  of  Cash  Payments  by  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land had  had  in  producing  the  present  Agricultural  Distress,  yhe  honoura- 
ble gentleman  stated  in  the  outset  of  his  address,  that  his  object  was  to 
arraign  the  wisdom,  the  justice,  and  the  policy  of  the  measure  passed  in 
1819 ;  and  he  concluded  with  moving,  "  That  a  committee  be  appointed  to 
consider  of  the  effects  produced  by  the  Act  of  the  59th  Geo.  IIL  c.  49,  in- 
tituled, '  An  Act  to  continue  the  restrictions  contained  in  several  Acts  on 
payments  in  cash  by  the  Bank  of  England,  until  the  1st  of  May  1823,  and  to 
provide  for  the  gradual  resumption  of  such  cash  payments,  and  to  permit  the 
exportation  of  gold  and  silver,'  upon  the  Agriculture,  Manufactures,  and  Com- 
merce, of  the  united  empire,  and  upon  the  general  condition  of  the  different 
classes  of  society." 

Mr.  Huskisson  rose,  and  spoke  in  substance  as  follows : 
The  subject  which  the  honourable  gentlenian  has  brought  under 
the  consideration  of  the  House  is  one  of  the  greatest  magnitude. 
It  involves  nothing  less  than  an  alteration  of  that  standard  of 
value  by  which  all  property  is  secured,  and  all  pecuniary  con- 
tracts and  dealings  naeasured  and  ascertained.  The  course  sug- 
gested for  the  attainment  of  this  object,  is  pregnant  with  conse- 
quences of  the  most  fearful  importance.  These  considerations — 
the  magnitude  of  the  subject,  and  the  alarming  consequences  to 
be  apprehended  from  the  present  motion — will,  I  trust,  be  suffi- 
cient to  induce  the  House  to  afford  a  patient  hearing  to  the  dis- 
cussion, without  any  personal  appeal  to  their  indulgence,  even 
from  an  individual  standing  so  much  in  need  of  it  as  myself. 

I  have  listened  with  every  attention  in  my  power  to  the  state- 
ments and  doctrines  of  the  honourable  member,  during  his  long 
and  elaborate,  but  able  speech.  Some  parts  of  it  I  have  heard 
with  surprise ;  other  parts,  I  must  candidly  confess,  with  regret ; 
— surprise,  at  the  view  which  he  has  taken  of  the  subject,  and  the 
extraordinary  positions  which  he  has  laboured  to  establish ; — re- 
gret, at  some  of  his  inferences  and  suggestions,  which  appeared 


832  MR.  WESTERN'S  MOTION  ON  THE 

to  be  incompatible  with  every  principle,  not  only  of  private  right 
and  individual  justice,  but  of  public  honour  and  national  faith: 
although  I  feel  perfectly  assured,  that,  in  all  the  relations  of  public 
or  private  life,  there  is  no  man  more  incapable  of  countenancing 
any  wrong-doing  than  the  honourable  member  for  Essex. 

It  was  my  lot.  Sir,  to  be  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
in  the  year  1797,  when  cash  payments  were,  for  the  first  time, 
suspended.  I  have  continued  to  enjoy  the  honour  of  a  seat  in  this 
House  for  the  long  series  of  years  which  have  since  elapsed. 
During  that  period  I  have  not  been  an  inattentive  observer  of  the 
proceedings  in  Parliament,  and  of  the  effect  of  those  proceedings, 
in  respect  to  the  Currency.  In  my  opinions  upon  this  subject,  it 
was  my  misfortune,  in  1810,  to  differ  from  some  distinguished 
members  of  this  House  to  whom  I  was  personally  attached,  and 
in  whose  political  views  I  had  generally  concurred ;  but,  having 
formed  those  opinions  deliberately  and  conscientiously,  I  could 
not  honestly  withhold  them  from  the  public.  I  shall  not  at  pre- 
sent advert  more  particularly  to  those  differences,  or  to  the  mea- 
sures adopted  by  this  House  after  the  Report  of  the  Bullion  Com- 
mittee ;  but  I  own  that  if  I  had  been  uninformed  of  all  that  had 
passed  on  this  subject  since  the  suspension,  I  should  have  inferred 
from  the  speech  of  the  honourable  gentleman,  this  evening,  that 
it  had  been  something  of  this  sort : — first,  that  the  liability  of  the 
Bank  to  pay  all  its  notes  on  demand  in  the  legal  coin  of  the  realm 
having  been  suspended  in  1797,  a  difference  had  ensued  between 
the  nominal  value  of  those  notes  and  the  real  value  of  the  coin 
which  they  purported  to  represent : — and  secondly,  that  this  dif- 
ference had  been  acknowledged  by  the  legislature,  and  acted  upon 
by  the  public ; — ^that  it  had  been  allowed  and  compensated  for  in 
the  adjustment  of  all  pecuniary  contracts  made  prior  to  the  sus- 
pension ; — that  all  dealings  since  had  been  made  in  reference  to 
that  difference ;  and,  consequently,  that  it  was  a  difference,  which, 
however  fluctuating  in  its  degree,  was  at  any  time  capable  of 
being  ascertained  by  exact  measurement,  and  set  right  by  specific 
adjustment. 

I  should  further  have  been  led  to  infer,  from  the  reasoning  and 
statements  of  the  honourable  member,  that  at  some  period  of  this 
long  suspension  (perhaps  about  1811,  when  the  difference  between 
the  nominal  value  of  the  paper  and  the  real  value  of  the  coin  was 
very  considerable),  an  attempt  had  been  made  in  Parliament  to 
prevent  that  difTerence  from  being  any  longer  acted  upon  in  the 
adjustment  of  pecuniary  contracts ;  and  that,  for  this  purpose,  it 
had  been  proposed  to  enact,  that  all  such  contracts  should  be 
satisfied  by  a  tender  of  bank  notes  at  their  nominal  value,  and  to 
inflict  penalties  upon  any  one  who  paid  a  guinea  for  more,  or 
received  a  bank  note  for  less,  than  its  denominative  amount   But 


RESUMPTION  OF  CASH  PAYMENTS.  333 

I  should  have  felt  quite  sure,  that  this  attempt,  whenever  made, 
had  been  rejected  with  scorn  and  indignation  by  the  House,  and 
particularly  by  the  landed  interest : — that  the  leading  members  of 
that  interest  had  vied  with  each  other  in  denouncing  the  iniquity 
of  a  proposal  calculated  to  defeat  the  just  claims  of  age  and  in- 
fancy— to  rob  a  parent  of  a  part  of  that  dower  which  had  been 
allotted  to  her,  in  the  old  standard  of  the  realm,  long  before  the 
suspension  of  cash  payments — to  defraud  orphan  brothers  and 
sisters  of  a  considerable  portion  of  those  fortunes,  which  the  will 
or  marriage  settlement  of  their  father  had  assigned  for  their 
education,  and  maintenance  in  the  world — or,  if  there  were  no 
widows  to  be  curtailed  of  a  part  of  their  jointures — no  orphans 
to  be  stript  of  a  share  of  their  inheritance — w^as  there  no  unfortu- 
nate mortgagee  (possibly  a  near  relation  or  friend)  to  be  deprived 
of  a  part  of  that  interest  which  he  had  stipulated  to  receive  in 
the  same  standard  of  value  in  which  he  had  advanced  the  money 
for* his  mortgage?  What!  could  it  be  expected  that  the  great 
land-owners  would  suffer  such  a  proposal  as  this  to  be  entertained, 
doing  such  violence  to  their  love  of  justice,  so  offensive  to  their 
best  feelings  as  men,  at  a  moment,  too,  when  they  were  conscious 
that  their  estates,  whether  Hable  to  the  portions  of  younger  chil- 
dren, or  charged  with  dower,  or  incumbered  with  mortgage,  had 
doubled  in  rent  since  the  commencement  of  the  suspension  T — and, 
if  their  personal  feelings  revolted  at  a  suggestion  which  was  cal- 
culated to  injure  those  who  were  near  and  dear  to  them,  their 
public  feelings  were  surely  equally  repugnant  to  the  idea  of  a 
measure  not  less  fraught  with  injustice,  and  calculated  to  blight 
our  national  character,  in  the  case  of  the  public  creditor. 

This  is  the  inference  which,  in  ignorance  of  all  that  had  really 
taken  place,  I  should  have  drawn  from  the  general  tenor  of  the 
honourable  member's  speech ;  but  it  would  even  have  led  me  one 
step  further:  I  should  also  have  imagined,  that  the  ancient  stand- 
ard of  value  being  now  again  restored,  some  of  those  same 
creditors  who  had  been  so  equitably  dealt  with  during  the  de- 
parture from  it,  were  at  this  moment  enforcing  the  higher  nominal 
payments  which  they  had  received  during  the  depreciation ;  and 
that  the  honourable  member  had  come  forward  this  evening,  very 
properly,  to  claim  the  interposition  of  the  House  against  such  an 
unfair  demand  on  their  part. 

But,  Sir,  instead  of  this  having  been  the  real  state  of  things, 
what  is  the  course  which  has  been  pursued  since  the  suspension 
of  cash  payments?  Did  the  legislature  recognize  a  difference 
between  paper  and  coin  ?  Were  pecuniary  transactions  adjusted 
with  a  reference  to  that  difference  ?  Were  dealings  entered  into, 
or  contracts  made,  under  stipulations  founded  on  that  difference  ? 
Did  not  the  law,  on  the  contrary,  compel  every  creditor,  whether 


334  MR.  WESTERN'S  MOTION  ON  THE 

public  or  private,  whether  his  contract  was  prior  or  subsequent 
to  the  restriction,  to  accept  payment  in  bank-notes,  according  to 
their  denominative  value?  Did  not  that  same  law  prohibit  him, 
under  severe  penalties,  from  having  reference  to  any  other  than 
the  nominal  value  of  the  currency  in  the  adjustment  of  any  pecu- 
niary transactions,  either  retrospective  or  prospective  ? 

If  these  were  the  regulations  in  force  during  the  depreciation, 
what  is  proposed  now  that  money  is  restored  to  its  former  value  ? 
Why,  that  having  had  hitherto  one  measure  of  justice  for  the 
creditor,  we  should  now  have  another  measure  of  justice  for  the 
debtor : — that  the  latter  having  been  protected  by  one  law  in  pay- 
ing according  to  the  nominal  value,  when  that  value  was  less  than 
the  standard  in  which  he  had  contracted,  he  should  now — and  for 
no  other  reason  than  because  that  standard  is  restored — be  pro- 
tected by  another  law  in  paying  less  than  that  nominal  value  ?  It 
is  no  sufficient  answer  to  state,  "  that  most  of  the  pecuniary  con- 
tracts now  in  force  have  been  entered  into  since  the  year  1797, 
and  that  they  were  contracted  in  a  depreciated  currency."  Be 
it  so,  for  the  sake  of  argument.  But  then  all  contracts  prior  to 
1797  have  been  liquidated  in  that  same  currency.  By  what  rule 
of  right  can  you  allow  for  its  depreciation  in  the  one  case,  and 
not  in  the  other  ?  By  what  designation  would  any  impartial  man 
describe  that  equity  which  should  grant  an  abatement  of  interest 
upon  the  debt  of  1811,  and  refuse  a  compensation  for  interest  paid 
short  upon  a  debt  prior  to  1797? 

This,  however,  is  the  new  principle  of  equity  which  the  speech 
of  the  honourable  member  inculcates,  and  which  it  is  the  object 
of  his  present  motion  to  establish,  as  a  remedy  for  all  the  injustice 
of  depreciation,  and  all  the  evils  which  now  press  upon  the  coun- 
try. He  has  taken  a  distinction  between  the  interference  of  the 
State  to  decrease,  or  to  increase,  by  artificial  means,  the  denomi- 
native value  of  money — and  what  is  that  distinction  ?  Is  the  one 
course  more  moral  or  more  just  than  the  other?  This,  indeed,  is 
not  the  position  of  the  honourable  member — but  that  it  is  politi- 
cally more  expedient.  A  constantly  progressive  depreciation  of 
money,  is,  according  to  the  doctrines  of  the  honourable  member, 
the  great  secret  of  public  prosperity.  This  is  no  new  theory.  He 
only  proposes  to  revive  the  Scheme  of  the  famous  Mr.  Law  in  a 
more  mitigated  shape.  If  once  adopted  by  any  country,  it  must 
end,  as  his  scheme  ended.  You  may  retard  its  progress  to  ma- 
turity, but  you  cannot  perpetuate  the  delusion.  You  must  either 
retrace  your  steps,  or  the  bubble  must  burst  at  last.  This  was  the 
fate  of  Law*s  scheme,  as  it  must  be  of  any  project  founded  on 
the  principle  now  recommended  to  the  House.  During  the  exist- 
ence of  that  scheme,  what  country  was  apparently  so  prosperous 
as  France,  what  financier  so  popular  as  Mr.  Law  ?  exultingly 


RESUMPTION  OF  CASH  PAYMENTS.  335 

mentioned  by  a  French  political  writer  of  that  day,  in  the  follow- 
ing terms,  "  a  minister  far  above  all  the  past  age  has  known,  that 
the  present  can  conceive,  or  that  the  future  will  believe."  Mr. 
Law,  it  is  true,  outlived  his  popularity  and  his  scheme.*  He 
brought  distress  and  ruin  upon  thousands,  and  died,  himself,  in 
misery  and  want.  The  more  wary  theorists  of  the  present  day 
might  prolong  the  duration  of  artificial  excitement,  but  they  could 
not  prevent  the  final  decay  and  overthrow  of  the  system.  There 
is  no  escape  from  this  result  in  any  country  that  has,  through  in- 
advertency or  a  temporary  necessity,  once  lost  sight  of  a  fixed 
standard  of  value,  except  by  its  restoration. 

This  restoration,  I  know,  cannot  be  effected  without  pressure 
and  difliculty.  But  I  cannot  admit  the  justice  of  the  distinction 
which  the  honourable  member  has  taken  between  the  loss  to  the 
land-owner  by  an  increase  in  the  value  of  money,  and  the  loss  to 
his  creditor  by  its  decrease.  The  honourable  gentleman's  illus- 
tration was  this,  "  By  decreasing  the  value  of  money  to  one-half," 
he  said,  "  you  reduce  the  creditor  of  500/.  a  year  to  250/.,  and 
again  by  decreasing  that  sum  to  one-half,  to  125/.,  but  still  he  is 
left  with  some  income.  Now,  on  the  other  hand,  a  man  who  pur- 
chased an  estate  having  a  rental  of  1,000/.  a  year,  when  the  value 
of  money  was  decreased  one-half,  is  reduced  to  nothing  if  money 
is  restored  to  its  former  value,  and  the  purchaser  has  to  pay  500/. 
a  year  out  of  the  estate." 

Passing  by,  for  the  present,  the  right  of  any  government  in 
which  the  nature  of  property  is  understood,  and  the  principles  of 
justice  respected,  artificially  to  raise  or  lower  the  standard  of 
value,  let  us  examine  a  little  more  closely  this  practical  illustra- 
tion. Let  me  for  a  moment  reverse  the  data  of  the  honourable 
member's  comparison,  which,  ingeniously  enough  for  his  purpose, 
assumes  the  land-owner  to  be  in  debt,  and  the  moneyed  man  with- 
out any  similar  demand  against  his  income.  Let  me  suppose  on 
the  one  side,  a  land-owner  with  an  estate  unencumbered,  and  his 

*  Law  concluded  the  chequered  course  of  his  life  at  Venice,  where  he  died 
in  a  state  but  little  removed  fi-om  indigence,  on  the  21st  of  March  1720,  in 
the  fifty-eighth  year  of  his  age ;  and  he  lies  buried  in  one  of  the  churches  of 
that  city,  where  a  monument  to  his  memory  is  still  to  be  seen.  The  follow- 
ing epitaph  appeared  soon  afterwards : 

"  Ci  git  cet  Ecossois  celebre, 

Ce  calculateur  sans  egal,  .  , 

Qui,  par  les  regies  de  I'algebre, 
A  mis  la  France  k  rHdpital." 

"C'etait,"  says  Montesquieu,  "le  m^me  homme,  tou jours  I'esprit  occup6 
de  projets,  toujours  la  t^te  remplie  de  calculs  et  de  valeurs  numeraires  ou 
representatives.  II  jouait  souvent,  et  assez  gros  jeu,  quoivue  sa  fortune  flit 
fort  mince." 


336  MR.  WESTERN'S  MOTION  ON  THE 

rent  doubled  from  500/.  to  1,000/.  a  year  during  the  depreciation; 
and  on  the  other,  a  moneyed  man,  who,  with  500/.  a  year  in  the 
three  per  cents.,  purchased  at  90/.,  had  borrowed  one-half  of  the 
purchase  money,  and  found  himself  compelled  to  repay  it  when 
the  price  had  fallen  to  50/. ; — or,  to  come  still  nearer  to  the  honour- 
able gentleman's  comparison,  take  the  case  of  an  income  of  1,000/. 
a  year,  liable  to  an  obligation  to  pay  abroad  an  annuity  stipulated 
for  in  some  foreign  currency.  If  that  annuity  had  been  satisfied 
with  500/.  when  the  exchange  with  such  foreign  country  was  at 
par,  it  would  have  required  the  whole  income,  when  by  depre- 
ciating our  money  one-half,  the  same  exchange  was  turned  in  that 
proportion  against  us. 

But  I  must  protest  against  this  description  of  argument  alto- 
gether. The  price  of  land  may  rise  or  fall  from  natural  causes, 
as  may  the  price  of  commodities.  Every  holder  of  the  one  or  the 
other  is  hable  to  such  fluctuations ;  but  that  which  is  the  common 
and  fixed  measure  of  all  price  is  not  to  be  tampered  with  and 
adjusted,  to  countervail  these  fluctuations.  In  this  country,  where 
gold  is  the  standard  of  value,  what  is  it  which  the  parties  stipu- 
late for,  and  the  State  guaranties,  in  every  contract  for  a  money 
payment  ?  Why,  that  the  sum  tendered,  in  satisfaction  of  such 
payment,  shall  not  be  less  in  weight  and  fineness  than  is  required 
by  the  standard ;  but  the  contract  does  not  stipulate,  neither  does 
the  State  guaranty,  that  the  quantity  of  gold  contained  in  that 
sum  shall  bear,  at  all  time  to  come,  the  same  value,  in  relation 
either  to  land  or  to  other  commodities,  as  it  did  at  the  time  when 
the  parties  contracted  together.  It  is  among  the  highest  and  first 
duties  of  the  State,  in  relation  to  property,  to  maintain  that  stand- 
ard inviolate  and  immutable,  and  it  is  because  we  have  neglected 
that  duty,  that  we  are  now  suffering  all  the  evil  consequences  of 
our  neglect. 

But,  admitting  that  a  certain  quantum  of  injustice  has  been  done 
to  one  class  of  the  community  during  the  suspension,  and  that 
now,  by  its  removal,  a  consequent  degree  of  injury  and  hardship 
is  inflicted  upon  another,  does  it  follow  that  we  are  either  to  per- 
petuate and  aggravate  the  first  injustice,  or  that  it  is  wise  or  prac- 
ticable to  attempt  to  revise  and  re-adjust  all  the  pecuniary  trans- 
actions of  the  last  twenty-five  years  ?  The  honourable  member, 
indeed,  seems  to  think  that  nothing  is  more  simple  than  the  first 
of  these  courses ;  but  he  only  looks  at  one  side  of  the  question.  He 
puts  the  case  of  hardship  to  the  land-owner  who  encumbered  his 
estate  during  the  depreciation ;  but  let  me  ask  him  to  recollect  the 
mortgagee  who  lent  his  money  before  that  event.  Let  me  suppose 
the  honourable  member  himself  (and  there  is  no  man  to  whose 
candour  and  sense  of  justice  I  would  with  more  confidence  apply 
myself  in  this  illustration)  to  have  two  mortgages  upon  his  estate ; 


RESUMPTION  OF  CASH  PAYMENTS.  337 

ihe  one  dated  in  1796,  and  the  otfier  in  1811.  How  has  he  hitherto 
settled  with  his  two  creditors,  and  how  does  he  propose  to  settle 
with  them  now?  Has  he  two  measures  of  justice  and  value — one 
for  the  creditor  of  1811,  and  another  for  the  creditor  of  1796? 
What  the  honourable  member  now  says  to  the  mortgagee  of  1811, 
in  substance  is  this,  "  when  I  signed  your  mortgage  the  currency 
^vas  depreciated  forty  per  cent.,  and  my  rents  have  since  fallen  in 
nearly  the  same  amount:  if,  therefore,  I  now  reduce  your  claim 
in  that  proportion,  there  can  be  no  real  injustice,"  Against  the 
fairness  of  this  proposal  what  says  the  mortgagee ?  "I  lent  my 
money,"  he  replies,  "  without  reference  to  that  difference,  and  I 
produce  the  act  of  parliament  which  prohibits  any  such  reference: 
— I  further  appeal  to  the  repeated  and  solemn  declarations  of  the 
legislature,  that  cash  payments  should  be  resumed  on  the  restora- 
tion of  peace.  I  ask,  if  the  depreciation  had  increased  from  forty 
to  sixty  in  the  first  year  after  our  contract,  and  from  sixty  to 
eighty  in  the  year  following,  would  you  (the  mortgager)  have 
compensated  me  for  these  differences ;  or  would  you  not,  if  it  had 
suited  your  convenience,  have  paid  me  off  without  any  such  com- 
pensation ?  If  you  did  not  pay  me  off,  it  may  be,  because  you 
assumed  that  the  value, of  money  would  go  on  further  diminishing 
from  year  to  year,  but  you  had  no  right  to  assume  that  it  might 
not  be  the  other  way  ;  and,  at  any  rate,  you  were  distinctly  fore- 
warned, that,  in  one  contingency,  which  from  the  nature  of  things 
could  not  be  very  remote,  the  ancient  standard  was  to  be  re- 
stored," 

Notwithstanding  this  answer,  conclusive,  I  conceive,  as  to  the 
strict  legal  right  of  the  creditor,  it  may  be  said,  that  the  case  of 
the  debtor  may  be  such  as  to  entitle  him  to  an  equitable  con- 
sideration. Be  it  so.  But  then,  what  becomes  of  the  other  mort- 
gagee who  had  lent  his  money  in  1796?  Has  he  been  paid  during 
the  whole  of  the  suspension  in  depreciated  money?  In  1811,  for 
instance,  did  his  debtor  force  him  to  accept  payment  in  the  cur- 
rency of  that  year  ?  Did  he  tender  to  him  Bank  notes,  depreciated, 
as  he  says,  forty  per  <fent.,  together  with  the  act  of  parliament 
which  prohibits  any  reference  to  that  depreciation  ?  Against  such 
a  tender,  backed  by  such  a  law,  what  would  the  mortgagee  of 
1796  have  to  urge  r  Might  he  not  say, — "  At  the  period  when  I 
made  this  advance,  I  relied  on  the  public  faith.  The  money  which 
I  lent  you  was  of  due  weight  and  fineness ;  according  to  that 
standard  which  had  remained  unaltered  since  the  reign  of  Eliza- 
beth, To  preserve  that  standard  for  ever  inviolate,  I  knew  was 
the  declared  policy  of  the  State,  and  that  parliament,  in  each  suc- 
ceeding reign,  had  passed  laws  for  that  purpose.  Resting  upon 
an  unbroken  pledge  of  near  three  centuries,  upon  the  positive 
enactments  of  law,  upon  the  universal  understanding  of  the  coun- 
29  2S 


338  MR.  WESTERN'S  MOTION  ON  THE 

try,  upon  the  obvious  justice  of  the  case,  upon  the  avowed  inten- 
tion of  parliament,  recorded  in  every  statute  that  imposed  or  con- 
tinued the  suspension, — that  cash  payments  should  (^e  resumed  as 
soon  as  possible,  and  upon  the  implied  assurance,  involved  in  this 
declaration,  that  it  was  not  intended,  by  these  temporary  suspen- 
sions, to  alter  the  standard  of  our  money — upon  all  these  grounds, 
I  claim  to  be  paid  with  reference  to  the  existing  difference  between 
Bank  notes  and  that  standard."  "No!"  replies  the  mortgager, 
"  here  is  a  law  which  forbids  that  reference,  and  by  that  law  1 
will  abide,  whether  the  difference  be  forty  or  eighty  per  cent., 
whether  the  rent  of  my  estate  upon  which  your  mortgage  is 
secured,  has  been  doubled  or  tripled  in  consequence  of  that  dif- 
ference." 

Now,  I  ask  of  the  honourable  member,  in  these  two  cases,  could 
he  claim  an  equitable  adjustment  in  the  one,  and  refuse  it  in  the 
other  ?  Could  he  require  an  abatement  upon  one  mortgage,  with- 
out accounting  for  the  arrear  due  upon  the  other  1  If  the  two 
mortgages  were  held  by  different  persons,  I  will  not  say  that  the 
man  does  not  exist  (certainly  not  the  honourable  member),  who 
might,  and  perhaps,  w^ould,  contend  with  each  separately  for  such 
an  arrangement ;  but,  if  both  securities  were  held  by  one  and  the 
same  individual,  it  would  require  no  small  share  of  ingenuity  to 
satisfy  him,  that  he  was  about  to  receive  an  equal  measure  of 
equity  in  both  instances.  For  my  own  part,  I  should  as  little  envy 
the  casuistry  which  could  countenance,  as  I  should  the  justice 
which  could  award,  such  a  decision. 

But,  whatever  may  be  the  difficulty  in  respect  to  mortgages, 
would  an  equitable  adjustment  be  more  easy  in  other  pecuniary 
contracts,  for  instance,  with  the  public  creditor?  Far  from  it 
Here  the  principle  is  the  same,  but  the  difficulty  would  be  a  thou- 
sand fold.  In  the  mass  of  the  public  debt,  can  we  distinguish 
each  separate  loan,  and  the  original  subscribers  to  that  loan  ?  and 
if  we  could,  can  we  hope  to  trace,  and  unravel,  and  identify,  every 
separate  purchase  and  sale  connected  with  that  debt,  between  the 
year  1797,  and  the  present  time?  How  should  we  distinguish  the 
bond  fide  holders  prior  to  1797 — those  who  became  holders  during 
the  depreciation,  and  during  each  different  state  of  it — and  those 
who  have  become  holders  since  the  year  1814  or  1819;  and,  if 
we  could  distinguish  them,  must  we  not  trace  the  money  of  each 
purchase  since  1797,  through  all  its  previous  career?  Can  we 
hope  to  follow  every  Bank-note  through  all  the  transactions,  and 
to  fix  the  date  of  each,  in  which  it  has  formed  a  part?  It  may, 
for  instance,  happen  that  the  present  holder  of  any  given  quantity 
of  three  per  cents.,  purchased  when  paper  was  at  its  greatest  de- 
preciation, had  made  that  purchase  with  money  received  in  dis- 
charge of  some  old  mortgage.    Is  he  to  be  amerced,  or  is  the  loss 


RESUMPTION  OF  CASH  PAYMENTS.  339 

to  fall  upon  the  seller  of  the  stock  who  received  that  money,  or 
upon  the  mortgager  who  paid  it  ?  or  are  we  to  trace  this  particular 
sum  in  all  its  component  parts,  divided  and  re-united  in  a  thousand 
different  ways,  through  all  its  prior  and  subsequent  combinations, 
and  to  follow  it  up  through  all  their  ramifications  ?  To  attempt 
such  a  task  would  be  as  hopeless  as  to  endeavour  to  identify,  in 
the  great  mass  of  waters,  the  particular  share  of  each  tributary 
stream  which  has  emptied  itself  into  the  ocean  for  the  last  twenty 
years. 

The  same  difficulties  would  occur  in  the  revision  of  all  the  pri- 
vate transactions  of  the  community ;  and  if  we  are  to  engage  in 
this  undertaking,  we  shall  not  satisfy  the  equity  of  the  case,  unless 
it  embrace,  not  only  all  pecuniary  contracts  existing  prior  to 
1797,  and  all  which  have  been  made  since,  and  which  are  still  in 
force,  but  likewise,  all  which  have  been  closed  and  settled.  Surely, 
every  man  must  see  that  such  a  revision  is  impracticable ;  that  it 
cannot  be  entertained  w^ithout  involving  all  the  dealings  of  the 
community  in  inextricable  confusion,  and  that  any  partial  applica- 
tion of  a  principle,  which  nothing  but  a  general  re-adjustment 
could  justify,  would  only  tend  to  destroy  all  confidence  and  credit, 
and  to  aggravate  all  the  evils  which  it  is  intended  to  remedy. 

In  arguing  upon  an  assumed  depreciation  of  forty  per  cent.,  I 
am  anxious  to  be  understood  as  not  admitting,  that,  upon  an 
average  of  the  whole  period,  or  indeed  at  any  part  of  it,  the  de- 
preciation actually  reached  that  extent.  The  honourable  member 
says,  "  the  depreciation  is  not  to  be  measured  by  the  difference 
between  the  Mint  and  the  market  price  of  gold."  I  should  wish 
to  ask  him,  by  what  other  test  he  would  determine  its  extent  ?  If, 
in  1811,  it  was  open  to  any  man,  in  any  part  of  Europe,  England 
excepted,  to  have  bought  a  hundred  guineas,  or  105/.  with  130^1 
in  Bank-notes,  how  can  it  be  contended,  that  the  difl^erence  be- 
tween the  nominal  value  given  and  received,  was  not  the  measure 
of  the  depreciation  of  the  paper  ?  I  can  conceive  no  other  measure; 
although  I  not  only  admit,  but  have  uniformly  maintained,  that, 
having  once  parted  with  all  our  coin,  we  could  not  again  resort 
to  a  metallic  currency,  without,  in  some  degree,  raising  the  value 
of  the  precious  metals  all  over  the  world.  This  is  .a  good  reason, 
as  I  have  stated  before  to  this  House,  for  using  them  as  sparingly 
as  possible,  and  for  maintaining  the  circulation  with  as  small  a 
proportion  of  gold  as  is  consistent  with  the  preservation  of  a 
metallic  standard.  But,  inasmuch  as  any  diminution  in  the  value 
of  the  precious  metals — either  from  natural  causes,  such  as  an 
abundant  supply  from  the  mines,  or  from  legitimate  causes,  such 
as  the  substitution  of  paper,  really  payable  on  demand,  or  the 
other  contrivances  of  credit — involves  no  breach  of  a  pecuniary 
contract,  however  prejudicial  to  the  creditor;  so,  on  the  other 


340  MR.  WESTERN'S  MOTION  ON  THE 

hand,  an  increased  demand  for  the  precious  metals,  in  this  or  in 
any  other  country — (for  the  effect  would  be  the  same  should  the 
demand  arise  elsewhere) — or  a  diminished  supply  from  the  mines 
affords  no  ground  for  the  interference  of  the  State  with  the  con- 
ditions of  that  contract,  by  which  it  would  be  violated  for  the 
benefit  of  the  debtor. 

I  trust  that  I  have  satisfied  the  House,  that,  retaining  the  pre- 
sent standard  of  value,  an  adjustment  between  debtor  and  creditor, 
to  be  equitable,  must  embrace  all  contracts,  as  well  prior  as  sub- 
sequent to  1797,  and  that  such  an  adjustment  is  impracticable.  I 
would  next  inquire,  what  would  be  the  effect  of  altering  that 
standard,  without  any  reference  to  such  an  adjustment!  An 
extensive  alteration  to  this  effect,  I  take  to  be  the  plan  of  the 
honourable  member  for  Essex.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  evident, 
that  such  an  alteration  would  be  nothing  less  than  a  direct  breach 
of  faith  to  all  creditors  generally,  without  any  discrimination 
between  debts  contracted  before  the  period  of  the  depreciation, 
or  during  that  period,  or  since  the  restoration  of  the  currency. 

Is  the  House  of  Commons  prepared  to  sanction  such  a  sweeping 
and  monstrous  principle  as  this  ?  Is  it  prepared  to  say  to  the  old 
creditor,  "  the  full  measure  of  injustice  which  you  suffered  for 
many  years,  we  are  now  about  to  acknowledge,  not,  however,  for 
the  purpose  of  repairing,  but  of  perpetuating,  that  injustice ;" — 
and  to  all  creditors  who  have  entered  into  contracts  since  the 
restoration  of  the  standard — "  we  are  about  to  rob  you  of  forty 
per  cent,  of  your  property,  because  there  are  other  creditors  in 
this  country  who  made  their  contracts  when  the  currency  was 
depreciated  to  that  amount."  Can  any  legislature,  not  lost  to  all 
regard  for  character,  and  to  every  feeling  of  common  honesty, 
listen  for  a  moment  to  such  morality,  and  to  such  proposals  as 
these  ? 

But,  apart  from  these-  considerations,  let  us  examine  this  mea- 
sure on  the  narrower  grounds  of  policy  and  expediency: — if, 
indeed,  the  House  can  allow  itself  to  suppose,  that  the  present  case 
may  be  an  exception  to  the  general  rule — that  the  interests  of  the 
state  can  never  be  promoted  by  the  violation  of  public  justice,  and 
the  forfeiture  of  public  honour.  How  strange  must  be  the  con- 
dition of  this  country,  if  it  can  only  prosper  by  a  violation  of 
national  faith  and  a  subversion  of  private  property !  if  it  can  only 
be  saved  by  a  measure,  reprobated  by  all  statesmen  and  all  his- 
torians— the  wretched  but  antiquated  resource  of  barbarous  igno- 
rance and  arbitrary  power,  and  only  known  among  civilized 
communities,  as  the  last  mark  of  a  nation's  weakness  and  degra- 
dation !  Does  not  the  honourable  member  see,  that  such  a  mea- 
sure would  be  the  death-blow  to  all  public  credit,  and  to  all  con- 
fidence in  private  dealings  between  man  and  man?    Does  he  not 


RESUMPTION  OF  CASH  PAYMENTS.  341 

see,  that  if  you  once  lower  your  standard,  it  will  become  a  pre- 
cedent that  will  be  resorted  to  on  every  emergency  or  temporary 
pressure — resorted  to  the  more  readily,  as  credit  and  every  other 
more  valuable  resource,  on  which  this  country  has  hitherto  relied, 
will  be  at  an  end  ?  Does  he  not  see,  that  the  expectation  of  such 
a  recurrence  will  produce  much  of  the  mischief  of  its  reality  ? — 
that  when  men  find,  that  in  England  there  is  no  security  in  pecu- 
niary contracts,  they  will  seek  that  security  elsewhere?  If  we 
once  embark  in  this  career;  if  once,  openly  and  deliberately,  we 
avow  and  recognize  this  principle,  England,  depend  upon  it,  will 
rapidly  descend — and  not  more  rapidly  in  character  than  in 
wealth — to  the  level  of  those  countries,  in  which,  from  ignorance 
and  barbarism,  such  expedients  are  not  yet  exploded. 

But,  Sir,  whatever  fallacious  expectations  of  relief  to  the  coun- 
try the  honourable  gentleman  may  have  conceived  from  a  plan  so 
pregnant  with  mischief  and  disaster,  fortunately  there  is  little 
danger  of  its  being  adopted.  In  the  mysterious  councils  of 
despotism  such  a  project  may  be  matured,  so  as  to  burst  by  sur- 
prise upon  the  country.  Here  it  must  be  discussed  in  Parliament, 
and  would  be  examined  and  understood  by  the  Public,  long  before 
it  could  be  ripe  for  execution.  I  will  venture  to  say,  that  if  this 
House  were  even  to  entertain  such  a  proposition  by  a  vote,  the 
country  would  be  in  alarm  and  confusion,  from  one  end  of  the 
kingdom  to  the  other.  All  pecuniary  dealings  would  be  at  an  end ; 
all  pending  transactions  w^ould  be  thrown  into  disorder ;  all  debtors 
would  be  called  upon  for  immediate  payment ;  all  holders  of  paper 
circulation  would  insist  upon  its  being  converted  into  coin  or 
bullion ;  and  all  the  coin  and  bullion  so  withdrawn,  whether  gold 
or  silver,  would  be  hoarded.  Neither  the  Bank,  nor  the  London 
bankers,  nor  the  Country  banks  could  survive  the  shock.  Every 
man  would  be  struggling  to  call  in  credits,  whether  in  public  or 
private  hands,  and  either  by  converting  those  credits  into  goods, 
or  by  sending  them  abroad,  to  place  them  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
honourable  member's  bill.  What  a  scene  of  strife,  insolvency, 
stagnation  of  business,  individual  misery,  and  general  disorder, 
would  ensue !  All  this  would  precede  the  passing  of  the  honoura- 
ble gentleman's  bill,  whilst  it  was  proceeding  in  its  several  stages 
in  this  and  the  other  House  of  Parliament. 

It  would  be  a  waste  of  the  time  of  the  House,  to  follow  the 
measure  in  its  effects  when  it  should  have  become  the  law  of  thq 
land,  because  such  an  event  is  happily  impossible.  Let  the  House 
give  the  honourable  member  his  Committee,  after  the  speech  in 
which  he  has  proposed  it  to-night,  and  I  am  perfectly  sure,  that 
this  first  step,  in  furtherance  of  his  object,  would,  even  to-morrow% 
create  such  a  commencement  of  stir  and  alarm  in  the  metropolis, 
and  Very  soon  in  every  part  of  the  country,  as  would  induce  the 
29* 


342  MR.  WESTERN'S  MOTION  ON  THE 

honourable  gentleman  himself,  to  be  among  the  first  to  proclaim 
his  abandonment  of  all  such  desperate  expedients. 

The  House,  I  am  sure,  must  be  satisfied  of  the  dangerous  prin- 
ciple, and  immediate  tendency,  of  such  a  proposal ;  but  it  may 
not  be  altogether  inexpedient  to  examine,  a  little,  the  extent  to 
which,  as  I  understand  the  honourable  member,  he  would  be  dis- 
posed to  go  in  the  execution  of  his  purpose.  That  extent  I  take 
to  be,  in  substance  this : — that  he  would  lower  the  standard  of 
the  currency,  in,  or  nearly  in,  the  proportion  of  the  difference 
between  the  average  price  of  wheat  taken  for  the  period  between 
1797  and  1819,  and  the  average  price  between  1819  and  the  pre- 
sent year :  for  instance,  if  the  average  price  in  the  latter  should 
be  45,  and  in  the  former  80  shillings;  he  would  provide  that> 
henceforward,  45  shillings  should  pass  for  80  shillings ;  and,  con- 
sequently, that,  for  every  debt  or  contract  now  existing,  a  tender 
in  this  proportion  should  be  a  payment  in  full. 

The  honourable  gentleman,  in  order  to  pave  the  way  for  this 
proposal,  has  laboured  hard  to  prove  that  corn  is  a  better  standard 
than  gold.  Like  most  gentlemen  who  claim  to  be  exclusively 
practical  men,  and  who  rail  at  those  whom  they  are  pleased  to 
designate  as  theorists,  and  political  economists — for  no  other 
reason  than  because  they  argue  from  principles  which  their  adver- 
saries cannot  controvert,  and  proceed  by  deductions  which  they 
cannot  refute  or  deny — the  honourable  member  has,  himself, 
launched  into  some  of  the  wildest  theories,  and  drawn  his  infer- 
ences from  some  of  the  most  extravagant  positions  which  were 
ever  promulgated  in  this  House. 

As  the  foundation  and  groundwork  of  his  plan,  he  lays  down 
in  principle,  that  "  the  standard  of  value  in  every  country,  should 
be  that  article  which  forms  the  constant  and  most  general  food 
of  its  population ;"  and  therefore  it  is,  that  he  fixes  upon  wheat. 
It  follows  from  this  princflple,  that  wheat  could  not  be  the  standard 
in  Ireland.  There  potatoes  must  be  the  measure  of  value.  This, 
indeed,  is  a  novelty  even  in  theory.  We  heard  a  great  deal,  in 
1811,  of  fanciful  standards,  the  ideal  unit,  the  abstract  pound  ster- 
ling, and  so  forth;  but,  who  ever  heard  before  of  a  potatoe 
standard?  What  a  beautiful  simplicity  of  system,  and  what 
facility  it  would  afford  to  the  settlement  of  all  transactions  between 
the  two  parts  of  the  same  empire,  to  have  a  wheat  standard  for 
the  one,  and  a  potatoe  standard  for  the  other ! 

I  will  admit  to  the  honourable  member,  that  there  is  no  positive 
and  absolute  disqualification,  either  in  wheat  or  potatoes,  to  pre- 
vent the  one  or  the  other  being  a  standard  of  value.  Wheal,  like 
any  other  commodity,  possessing  value,  is  capable  of  being  made 
the  common  measure  to  which  the  relative  value  of  all  other  com- 
modities shall  be  referred,  and  the  common  equivalent  or  medium 


RESUMPTION  OF  CASH  PAYMENTS.  343 

by  the  intervention  of  which,  they  shall  be  exchanged  the  one 
against  the  other.  But  this  is  only  saying,  that  a  given  nreasure 
of  wheat,  a  bushel  for  instance,  instead  of  a  given  quantity  of 
gold,  a  sovereign  for  instance,  shall  be  the  money  and  legal  tender 
of  the  country.  For  such  a  purpose,  for  reasons  obvious  to  all 
who  have  ever  turned  their  attention  to  the  subject,  wheat  is  one 
of  the  commodities  the  least  adapted,  always  however  with  the 
exception  of  the  new  Irish  standard,  potatoes. 

But  the  honourable  member,  I  shall  be  told,  does  not  pro|X)se 
to  make  wheat  the  currency,  but  only  the  standard.  I  am  aware 
of  it ;  but  how  does  this  help  his  theory  ?  How  can  a  given  weight 
of  gold,  of  a  given  fineness,  and  of  a  certain  denomination,  which 
in  this  country  is  now  the  common  measure  of  all  commodities, 
be  itself  Hable  to  be  varied  in  weight,  fineness,  or  denomination, 
according  to  the  exchangeable  value  of  some  other  commodity, 
without  taking  from  gold  the  quality  of  money,  and  transferring 
it  to  that  other  commodity  ?  All  that  you  do  is,  in  fact,  to  make 
wheat  money,  and  gold  the  representative  of  that  money,  as  paper 
now  is  of  gold.  But  to  say,  that  one  commodity  shall  be  the 
money,  and  another  the  standard  of  that  money,  betrays  a  con- 
fusion of  ideas,  and  is  little  short  of  a  contradiction  in  terms.  As 
well  might  you  propose,  that  the  Winchester  bushel  should  be  the 
measure  of  corn, — and  the  price  of  a  yard  of  broad-cloth,  the 
standard  by  which  the  contents  of  that  bushel  should  be  deter- 
mined. What  the  honourable  gentleman  therefore  aims  at,  as  I 
conceive,  is  not  that  wheat  should  be  either  money  or  standard ; 
but  that  the  standard  of  money,  instead  of  being  fixed,  once  for 
all,  should  be  varied,  from  time  to  time,  according  to  the  price  of 
wheat ;  so  that  if  wheat,  upon  an  average  of  ten  or  twenty  years, 
should  fall,  the  standard  should  be  lowered,  or,  what  is  the  same 
thing,  the  denomination  of  our  money  be  raised ;  and,  vice  versa, 
if  wheat  should  rise,  that  the  standard  should  be  raised. 

This  appeared  to  me  the  honourable  member's  general  doctrine, 
but  perhaps  I  have  mistaken  the  application  of  it:  for  although 
he  suggests  the  lowering  of  the  standard  when  the  price  of  w^heat 
falls,  I  heard  nothing  about  raising  it  when  the  price  rises :  and, 
certainly,  to  do  the  latter,  however  called  for  by  reciprocity  and 
justice,  would  militate  against  his  other  leading  principle — that 
the  prosperity  of  a  state  depends  on  the  gradual  but  constant  de- 
preciation of  its  currency.  One  thing,  indeed,  would  rather  con- 
firm my  suspicion,  that  this  reciprocity  forms  no  part  of  his  plan; 
for,  during  the  twenty  years  which  preceded  1819,  we  never  heard 
from  him,  or  any  other  practical  gentleman,  a  proposal  to  revise 
the  standard,  by  a  comparison  of  the  average  price  of  wheat  for 
ten  or  twenty  years  preceding :  the  result  of  which  might  have 
been,  that  every  debtor,  instead  of  discharging  a  debt  of  80s,  by 


344  MR.  WESTERN'S  MOTION  ON  THE 

the  payment  of  455.,  would  have  had  to  pay  nearly  80s.  for  every 
45  of  his  debt,  during  ten  or  twenty  years  to  come  according  as 
the  one  or  the  other  of  those  terms  might  have  been  fixed  upon 
for  the  periodical  revision  of  the  standard. 

Without  stopping  to  inquire,  on  the  one  hand,  what  would  have 
been  the  effect  of  such  a  periodical  revision  at  stated  intervals, 
since  the  discovery  of  the  mines  of  America,  or  how  that  effect 
might  be  varied  hereafter  by  the  future  productiveness  of  those 
mines ;  and  without  adverting,  on  the  other  hand,  to  the  obyious 
objection,  that  in  this  attempt  to  adjust  the  standard  of  money  by 
the  price  of  corn,  the  precious  metals  may  be  stationary  in  their 
relative  value  to  other  commodities,  whilst  their  variation  in 
respect  to  corn,  may  arise  from  peculiar  circumstances  bearing 
upon  the  price  of  that  commodity,  such  as  the  growth  of  wealth 
and  population  in  any  particular  country,  its  state  of  dependance 
or  independance  of  foreign  supply,  the  state  of  its  corn  laws,  its 
state  and  relations  of  peace  or  war,  the  fluctuation  of  the  seasons 
for  a  given  number  of  years,  and  a  variety  of  other  circumstances 
of  which  w^  have  witnessed  the  powerful  effects  during  the  late 
war,  and  since  the  restoration  of  peace.  I  say,  without  dwelling 
on  these  considerations,  I  would  ask  what  would  be  the  condition 
of  a  civilized  and  opulent  country  in  which  every  pecuniary  con- 
tract was  to  be  revised  and  altered,  every  ten,  or  every  twenty 
years  V  The  wit  of  man,  I  am  sure,  could  not  devise  a  scheme 
better  adapted  to  destroy  all  confidence  and  credit.  Suppose  they 
could  survive  it — which,  however,  is  impossible — to  what  specu- 
lations, and  struggles,  and  devices,  would  not  the  system  give 
rise,  to  raise  or  depress  the  price  of  corn  according  to  the  con- 
flicting interests  of  the  parties  ?  If  a  corn  law  now  agitates  the 
country  from  one  end  to  the  other,  what  would  it  do  then  ?  With 
what  anxiety  would  the  averages  be  watched  in  the  last  year  of 
the  term ;  and  if  their  fairness  be  called  in  question  now,  what 
would  be  the  suspicions  at  a  time  w^hen  every  pecuniary  contract 
for  a  pound  sterling  might  be  lowered  to  155.  or  raised  to  255.  for 
the  next  term,  according  to  the  striking  of  that  average  ?  Is  this 
the  visionary  plan  which  the  honourable  member  for  Callington* 
propounds,  which  the  honourable  member  for  Essex  inculcates, 
whilst  they  are  branding  their  opponents  as  theorists ;  because 
they  maintain  the  good  old  principle,  that  the  standard  of  money 
once  fixed  ought  to  be  immutable ;  because  they  consider  it  as 
the  guarantee,  not  only  from  the  state  to  its  own  creditors,  but 
the  pledge,  as  far  as  the  power  of  the  state  can  extend,  that,  in 
pecuniary  dealings  between  man  and  man,  property  shall   be 

*  Mr.  Attwood. 


RESUMPTION  OF  CASH  PAYMENTS.  345 

respected,  and  that  all  contracts  entered  into  with  sincerity,  shall 
be  settled  in  good  faith,  and  executed  in  justice? 

The  first  essay  of  this  notable  plan,  if  now  adopted,  would  be 
founded  bn  an  average  taken  from  a  period  of  war,  during  which 
the  country  did  not  grow  corn  enough  for  its  own  consumption, 
during  which  it  was  afflicted  with  several  harvests  calamitously 
deficient,  and  forced  to  draw  corn  from  abroad  under  every  dis- 
advantage of  freight  and  expense,  and  during  the  greatest  part 
of  which  period,  too,  Ireland  was  excluded  from  our  market ; — 
compared  with  an  average  taken  from  years  of  peace  and  general 
abundance,  and  when  that  abundance,  joined  to  the  immense 
produce  of  Ireland,  has  created  a  glut  in  all  the  markets  of  the 
empire. 

Several  other  strange  theories  and  positions  were  laid  down  by 
the  honourable  member  for  Essex  in  the  course  of  his  elaborate 
speech ;  but  as  they  do  not  appear  to  me  to  have  much  connex- 
ion with  the  immediate  object  of  his  motion,  I  shall  not  waste 
the  patience  of  the  House  by  observing  upon  them  at  any  length. 
There  is  one,  however,  which  I  cannot  help  adverting  to ;  because 
it  is  a  point  to  which  he  seemed  to  attach  great  importance,  and 
to  illustrate  by  many  calculations.  That  point,  if  I  understand 
the  honourable  member,  is  this,  that  we  ought  to  measure  the 
pressure  of  taxation  by  the  price  of  corn.  "  In  1813,"  says  the 
honourable  member,  "the  price  of  wheat  being  IO85.  9^.,  and  the 
taxes  74,674,798/.,  13,733,296  quarters  of  wheat  were  sufficient 
for  the  payment  thereof:  in  the  present  year,  the  price  of  wheat 
being  45s.— very  nearly  double  that  amount  of  quarters  are  ne- 
cessary to  pay  the  taxes  thereof"  I  wonder,  when  he  was  mak- 
ing these  comparisons,  that  he  did  not  extend  them  to  a  few  other 
years.  If  he  had,  he  would  have  found  in  1812,  for  instance,  that 
the  taxes  being  70,435,679/.,  and  wheat  at  the  moderate  price  of 
125s.  5d. — 11,224,809  quarters  of  wheat  were  sufficient  for  the 
payment  thereof.  In  1815,  that  the  taxes  being  79,948,670/.,  and 
the  price  of  wheat  only  64s.  4d. — 24,854,508  quarters  were  re- 
quisite for  the  payment  thereof.  But,  then,  1817  was  again  a 
prosperous  year ;  for  the  taxes  being  reduced  to  55,836,259/.,  and 
wheat  having  risen  to  94s.  9d. — 11,786,017  were  sufficient  for  the 
payment  thereof.  Now,  according  to  this  statement,  the  years 
1812  and  1817  must  have  been  those  of  the  lightest  pressure,  and 
1815  and  1821  those  in  which  that  pressure  was  most  severe.  If 
distress  bordering  upon  famine,  if  misery  bursting  forth  in  insur- 
rection, and  all  the  other  symptoms  of  wretchedness,  discontent, 
and  difficulty,  are  to  be  taken  as  symptoms  of  pressure  upon  the 
people;  then  I  should  say,  that  1812  and  1817  were  two  years 
of  which  no  good  man  can  ever  wish  to  witness  the  like  again : 
but,  if  all  the  usual  consequences  of  general  ease  in  the  great 

2T 


346  MR.  WESTERN'S  MOTION  ON  THE 

masses  of  our  condensed  population,  and  all  the  habitual  conco- 
mitants of  contented  industry,  are  indications  of  a  better  state  of 
things,  then  I  should  say,  that  1815  and  1821 — periods  of  the 
severest  pressure  of  taxation,  according  to  this  new  measure  of 
its  pressure, — are  among  those  years,  in  which,  judging  from  their 
conduct,  the  labouring  parts  of  the  community  have  had  least 
reason  to  complain  of  their  situation. 

The  high  price  of  the  necessaries  of  life  is,  at  all  times,  a  deli- 
cate topic  for  public  discussion,  from  the  misconceptions  to  which 
it  is  liable.  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  are  indiscriminate  ad- 
vocates for  cheap  bread ;  on  the  contrary,  I  am  ready  to  maintain, 
that  a  price  moderate  and  reasonable,  but,  above  all,  as  steady  as 
possible,  is  most  for  the  interest  of  the  consumer ;  though  I  can- 
not admit  that  the  amount  of  the  public  burthens,  in  any  particular 
year,  is  in  the  inverse  ratio  of  the  price  of  corn,  or  that  a  scarcity 
price  is  a  fair  test,  either  of  relief  generally,  or  of  the  alleviation 
of  that  particular  pressure.  This  forms  no  part  of  my  creed  of 
political  economy.  Indeed,  I  should  think  I  was  much  nearer  the 
truth  in  contending,  that  such  a  price  of  corn  as  that  of  1812,  in- 
stead of  mitigating  the  pressure  of  the  taxes,  had  a  tendency  to 
abridge  the  profits  of  capital  and  the  comforts  of  the  people,  in 
much  the  same  way  as  they  would  certainly  be  abridged  by  any 
great  addition  to  the  amount  of  the  previously  existing  taxes. 

The  honourable  member,  however,  is  so  convinced  that,  what- 
ever inconvenience  the  consumers  may  have  experienced  from 
the  extreme  de^rness  of  corn,  they  are  suffering  still  more  severe- 
ly from  its  present  cheapness,  that  he  did  not  hesitate  to  offer,  in 
support  of  this  inference,  a  comparison  between  the  quantity  of 
corn  imported  into  London  in  the  years  1812  and  1821.  In  1812, 
he  says,  "the  quantity  imported  was  386,921  quarters;  and  in 
1821,  365,535  only.  Here,"  says  the  honourable  member,  "it  is 
undeniably  proved,  that  with  an  increasing  demand,  w^e  should 
suppose,  from  a  generally  increased  population,  there  was  a  less 
consumption  in  1821  at  50s.  a  quarter,  than  in  1812  at  1255.  a 
quarter."  The  quantities  may  be  correct,  but  the  explanation  is 
obvious.  In  1812,  the  country  districts,  as  well  as  the  metropolis, 
were  fed  in  a  great  degree  by  foreign  corn  imported  into  the  port 
of  London.  In  1821,  all  the  country  markets  were  glutted  with 
corn  of  our  own  growth,  and  the  demand  in  Marklane  being 
supplied  from  those  markets,  it  was,  of  course,  limited  to  the  con- 
sumption of  London.  This  is  the  simple  solution  of  the  honour- 
able gentleman's  paradox ;  and  I  really  believe  that  the  inference 
which  he  has  drawn  from  it  is  entitled  to  about  as  much  weight 
as  his  unqualified  assertion — "  that  misery  and  distress  are  rapidly 
increasing  among  all  ranks  of  the  people,  not  excepting  those  in 


RESUMPTION  OF  CASH  PAYMENTS.  347 

humble  life ;  and  that  the  proofs  of  it  are  to  be  found  in  the  great 
increase  of  bankruptcy  and  crime." 

Except  in  the  increase  of  the  revenue,  I  have  not  the  nneans  at 
hand  of  refuting,  by  docun^ents  and  figures,  the  gloomy  statements 
of  the  honourable  member;  but  the  revenue  has  certainly  increas- 
ed in  all  the  articles  of  consumption,  and  is,  I  understand,  still 
increasing.  The  honourable  member  must  either  disprove  this 
fact,  or  explain  how  it  happens,  that  universal  distress  leads  to  an 
increased  consumption  of  commodities,  most  of  which  constitute 
the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  the  middling  and  inferior  classes  of 
the  community.  I  believe  him  to  be  mistaken  in  respect  to  the 
increase  of  insolvency  and  crime.  Sure  I  am,  that  Great  Britain, 
as  far  as  I  can  judge,  appears  to  be  more  quiet  and  easily  govern- 
ed than  at* almost  any  period,  which  I  can  recollect,  of  those  hal- 
cyon days  when  money  was  depreciated,  and  when,  from  that 
depreciation,  among  other  evils  which  it  inflicted  on  the  labouring 
classes,  the  necessaries  of  life  were  not  only  generally  rising,  but 
liable  to  great  and  rapid  fluctuations,  within  short  intervals  of 
time,  to  which  the  price  of  labour  could  not  accommodate  itself. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  I  am  insensible  to  the 
magnitude  of  the  pressure  which  bears  upon  other  classes  of  the 
community.  It  is,  as  I  have  said  before  in  this  House,  the  inevita- 
ble consequence  of  having  tampered  with  the  currency.  It  is  an 
evil  which  has  visited  all  classes  in  succession,  and  from  the  ex- 
perience of  which,  I  trust,  future  times  will  take  a  salutary  warn- 
ing. But  the  honourable  member  seems  to  think  that  this  evil  has 
fallen  with  disproportionate  severity  on  the  landed  interest.  This 
I  cannot  admit.  It  appears  to  me  that  its  operation,  in  this  respect, 
is  rather  a  question  of  time  than  of  degree,  by  a  comparison  with 
other  interests.  During  the  progress  of  depreciation,  the  evil  did 
not  reach  the  land-owner  with  an  unencumbered  estate.  In  the 
rise  of  his  rents  he  found  a  full  compensation  for  the  cheapness 
of  money ;  aye,  more  than  a  compensation,  by  the  excessive  spcr 
culation  to  which  the  stimulus  of  that  cheapness  gave  rise.  If 
his  estate  was  encumbered,  it  is  obvious  that  he  was  relatively 
still  more  benefited.  By  the  fall  of  rents  the  encumbered  estate, 
in  its  turn,  feels  that  fall  more  severely ;  but  it  is  as  debtor,  in 
common  and  in  the  same  degree  only  with  all  other  debtors,  that 
the  interest  of  the  land-owner  is  afliected.  Taking  the  land-owner, 
therefore,  abstractedly  from  any  pecuniary  engagements,  he  has 
been  the  most  favoured  class  of  the  community.  During  the 
depreciation  he  was  compensated  to  its  full  amount ;  and  he  is  no 
loser  if  he  gives  up  that  compensation,  now  that  the  evil  which  it 
countervailed  no  longer  exists.  To  this  extent  a  fall  of  rent  is  to 
him  no  injury,  although  it  will  diminish  the  nominal  nett  income 
paid  into  his  banker's  hands.  "  ^ 


348  MR.  WESTERN'S  MOTION  ON  THE 

On  this  point  of  rent,  I  know  what  prejudices  and  alarms  exist 
at  this  moment;  I  know  that  it  is  a  tender  subject  in  this  House; 
I  know  by  how  many  other  circumstances,  independent  of  depre- 
ciation, the  rents  of  land  may  be  varied ;  and  I  also  know  the 
inconvenience  of  indulging  in  predictions  on  public  matters;  but 
I  feel  the  opinion  so  confidently,  that  I  will  not  hesitate  to  state  it 
— that,  after  the  struggle  incident  to  the  present  re-adjustment  of 
rents  shall  be  over,  the  result  of  that  re-adjustment,  speaking 
generally,  will  be  a  very  considerable  permanent  increase  upon 
the  rental  of  1797 : — and  I  state  this  opinion  with  the  more  as- 
surance of  its  being  realized,  because  such  an  increase  is  the 
natural  consequence  of  circumstances  unconnected  with  depre- 
ciation, and  over  which  the  return  to  cash  payments  can  have 
no  control. 

Taking,  therefore,  the  land-owner,  simply  as  such,  with  his 
income  doubled  during  the  war,  to  meet  depreciation ;  and  with 
his  income,  when  that  depreciation  ceases,  considerable  larger 
than  when  it  began,  is  there  any  other  class  which  has  escaped 
with  so  little  injury?  It  is  no  answer  to  this  question,  to  talk  of 
increased  taxation,  and  the  local  burthens  upon  the  land.  These 
are  evils  greatly  to  be  lamented ;  but  the  comparison  is  between 
the  nett  money  income  of  the  landlord,  available  for  his  own  pur- 
poses after  all  local  burthens  have  been  paid,  and  the  nett  income 
of  another  member  of  the  community,  for  instance,  the  annuitant. 
Both  are  liable  to  the  same  general  taxation;  and  the  100/.  re- 
ceived from  land,  or  the  100/.  derived  from  the  funds,  have  no 
preference  or  distinction  in  this  respect. 

There  is,  indeed,  I  state  it  with  deep  regret,  another  class,  con- 
nected with  the  land,  whose  losses  are  more  severe,  and  whose 
reverse  of  fortune  is  one  of  the  greatest  calamities  which  the 
depreciation,  in  its  consequences,  has  inflicted  upon  the  country. 
I  mean  the  Tenantry.  For  that  most  meritorious  body  of  men,  I 
feel  the  greatest  compassion.  But  here  again  the  same  distinction 
applies  as  in  the  case  of  the  landlord,  between  the  tenant  carrying 
on  business  upon  his  own  capital,  and  the  tenant  under  pecuniary 
engagements.  Suppose  the  former  to  have  commenced  business 
in  the  year  1797,  with  a  stock  of  his  own  worth  1000/.,  and 
money  at  the  end  of  ten  years  from  that  time  to  have  been  depre- 
ciated fifty  per  cent.,  his  stock  would  then  have  been  nominally 
w^orth  1500/.,  but,  in  fact,  he  would  not  have  been  one  penny  the 
richer,  all  other  commodities  having  risen  in  the  same  proportion: 
and,  if  money  had  then  been  restored  to  its  former  value,  his 
stock  would  again  have  become  nominally  1000/.,  without  his 
being  in  reality  one  penny  the  poorer.  But,  if  he  had  borrowed 
that  1000/.,  and  at  the  end  of  ten  years  had  reckoned  himself  (as 
he  had  a  right  to  do)  worth  500/.  more  than  he  owed,  that  gain 


RESUMPTION  OF  CASH  PAYMENTS.  349 

is  now  lost,  though  the  capital,  in  both  cases,  remains  the  same. 
Still  worse  if  he  borrowed  the  1000/.  during  the  depreciation,  he 
is  now  insolvent.  In  this  illustration,  the  House  will  trace  the 
progress  of  the  evils  growing  out  of  a  depreciating  currency. 
The  man  who  has  borrowed  lOOOA,  and  finds  it  increased  to 
1500Z.,  naturally  concludes  that  he  has  been  very  successful  in 
business.  He  enlarges  his  expenses,  and  style  of  living — his 
neighbour,  who  witnesses  his  prosperity,  is  tempted  to  follow  his 
course;  and  hence  arises  a  spirit  of  competition  which  raises  the 
rent  of  land  far  beyond  even  the  quantum  of  the  depreciation. 

The  same  state  of  things  which  led  to  this  eager  disposition  to 
borrow,  created  also  an  unbounded  facility  to  lend.  What  was 
the  result  upon  the  moral  habits  and  feelings  of  the  community  T 
The  sober  expectations  of  industry,  together  with  the  old  maxims 
and  prudent  courses  by  which  those  expectations  have  heretofore 
been  realized,  were  neglected  and  exploded.  Profit  from  depre- 
ciation became  confounded  with  the  legitimate  return  of  capital, 
and,  in  too  many  instances,  the  ancient  spirit  of  the  British  te- 
nantry degenerated  into  dashing  speculation,  and  consequent 
extravagance.  But,  will  any  man  say,  that  the  gain  arising  from 
a  constantly  growing  depreciation,  is  the  fair  profit  of  industry, 
that  it  is  the  profit  which  the  law  intended  to  countenance  or  en- 
courage, or  that  such  a  principle,  if  once  avowed,  would  not  soon 
defeat  or  destroy  itself?  Can  there  be  a  man  so  short-sighted  as 
to  believe,  that,  in  the  state  in  which  we  found  ourselves  at  the 
close  of  the  war,  we  could  content  ourselves  with  doing  nothing  ? 
There  was  no  alternative  between  resorting  again  to  a  fixed 
standard  of  value,  or  going  on  in  a  career  of  constantly  increas- 
ing depreciation,  which  must  have  hurried  the  country  at  last  to 
a  general  catastrophe ;  for,  I  believe,  there  is  no  instance  of  an 
opulent  country  led  away  by  such  a  delusion,  where  it  has  not 
ended  in  a  convulsion  of  the  property,  and  generally  of  the  power, 
of  the  state. 

Having  to  make  an  option  between  these  opposite  courses, 
parliament  in  1819,  resolved  to  return  to  the  ancient  standard  of 
value.  It  is  this  decision  which  the  honourable  member  arraigns, 
and  proposes  to  you  to  rescind.  It  would  be  diflicult  for  him  to 
contend,  that  it  was  not  the  most  manly  and  the  most  honest 
course ;  and  I  think  he  has  failed  to  prove  that  it  was  not,  under 
all  circumstances,  the  wisest  and  the  best.  Could  I  entertain  a 
doubt  in  that  respect  (which  I  own  I  do  not),  it  would  by  no 
means  follow  that  we  ought  to  undo  in  1822,  that  which  we  had 
done  in  1819;  and  when  we  have  undergone  all  the  suflferings 
and  privations  incident  to  the  restoration  of  health,  that  we  should 
again  plunge  into  the  same  vicious  indulgences  and  irregularities 
as  had  first  brought  on  the  disease. 
30 


350  MR.  WESTERN'S  MOTION  ON  THE 

In  deciding  upon  a  matter  of  state  policy,  of  this  complicated 
and  delicate  nature,  we  cannot  do  better  than  to  take  experience 
for  our  guide ;  because,  in  looking  to  the  opinions  of  the  wisest 
philosophers,  and  the  proceedings  of  the  greatest  statesmen,  of 
formef  days,  under  similar  circumstances,  we  may  at  least  be 
sure  that  we  are  resorting  to  ajuthorities  entitled,  in  all  respects, 
to  the  greatest  deference,  but,  above  all,  from  their  being  free 
from  the  possible  suspicion  of  their  judgments  being  influenced  by 
the  prejudices,  the  passions,  and  the  interests  of  the  present  day. 
I  feel  it  necessary,  on  this  occasion,  to  resort  to  these  authorities, 
not  on  these  grounds  only,  but  because  I  have  heard  again,  from 
the  honourable  member  to-night,  an  assertion  which  astonished 
me  when  it  was  first  made,  in  a  former  debate,  by  the  honourable 
member  for  Westminster,^  that  "  nothing  like  this  depreciation 
and  restoration  of  the  currency  ever  occurred  in  any  country 
before" — an  assertion  which  astonished  me  the  more,  as,  if  my 
memory  does  not  deceive  me,  that  honourable  baronet  referred, 
on  the  same  occasion,  to  the  occurrences  of  King  William's  reign. 
Now,  Sir,  I  affirm,  without  fear  of  contradiction :  first,  that  the 
state  of  the  currency  in  King  William's  time,  prior  to  the  year 
1696,  was,  in  principle,  exactly  similar  to  the  state  in  which  it 
was  prior  to  the  year  1819:  secondly,  that  the  restoration  of  that 
currency,  in  the  year  1696,  was  a  measure  precisely  similar,  in 
principle,  to  the  present  restoration  of  our  ancient  standard  of 
value :  thirdly,  that  it  brought  upon  the  country  difficulties  pre- 
cisely of  the  same  nature :  and,  lastly,  that  the  remedies  then 
proposed  for  those  difficulties,  and  rejected  by  parliament,  as  I 
trust  the  remedies  now  proposed  will  be  rejected,  were  exactly 
the  same  as  those  which  are  in  the  contemplation  of  the  honour- 
able member. 

No  man  can  read  the  writers  and  historians  of  those  days,  or 
the  Journal  of  Parliament,  without  being  aware  that  the  Currency 
was  then  greatly  debased ;  so  much  so,  that  the  current  price  of 
the- ounce  of  silver  (in  the  silver  coin  of  the  realm,  then  the  only 
legal  tender)  fluctuated  from  65.  3d.  to  nearly  7s.,  whilst  the 
standard  or  coinage  price  was  55.  2d.  Is  not  this,  in  principle, 
the  same  depreciation  as  that  which  we  have  witnessed  in  our 
time  ?  In  this  state  of  things,  parliament,  in  the  month  of  Decem- 
ber 1695,  addressed  the  king  to  take  measures  for  the  restoration 
of  a  sound  Currency.  What  were  those  measures  ? — the  calling 
in  of  all  the  clipped  corn  (which,  having  lost  nearly  half  its 
standard  weight,  till  then  had  passed  at  its  full  nominal  value), 
and  recoining  it  of  full  weight,  according  to  the  ancient  standard. 
Again,  is  not  this,  in  principle,  precisely  what  wjb  have  lately 

*  Sir  Francis  Burdett 


RESUMPTION  OF  CASH  PAYMENTS.  35I 

done  ?  To  show  that  the  currency  was  then  as  much  depreciated 
as  I  have  stated  (a  depreciation  at  least  equal  to  any  which  we 
have  experienced,  taken  at  its  most  exaggerated  estimate),  it  is 
sufficient  to  mention,  that  it  appears,  by  a  return  made  from  the 
Mint  at  that  time,  that  five  hundred  and  seventy-two  bags  of  the 
silver  coin  called  in,  which  ought  to  have  weighed  221,418  ounces, 
did  actually  weigh  only  113,771,  leaving  a  deficiency  of  107,647, 
or  very  nearly  one  half. 

In  respect  to  my  third  position,  that  this  restoration  of  the 
standard  by  King  William,  brought  upon  the  country  difficulties 
of  a  similar  nature  to  those  which  are  now  complained  of,  I  might 
content  myself  with  referring  to  historical  memoirs,  which  have 
been  long  known  to  the  world.  But  the  recent  publication  of  a 
most  interesting  Correspondence  between  King  William  and  his 
minister,  the  Duke  of  Shrewsbury,  so  strikingly  displays  the 
extent  of  those  difficulties,  and  so  directly  proves,  at  the  same 
time,  and  in  the  most  authentic  manner,  my  last  position, — that 
the  remedies  suggested  were  similar  to  those  which  are  now  pro- 
posed— that  I  am  sure  the  House  will  permit  me  to  read  to  them 
a  few  short  extracts  from  that  correspondence.  For  its  publica- 
tion the  world  is  immediately  indebted  to  Archdeacon  Coxe,  who 
introduces  this  part  of  it  with  the  following  statement.  Speaking 
of  the  year  1696,  he  writes  thus: 

"  The  evils  arising  from  the  dilapidated  state  of  the  coinage 
had  been  so  long  and  deeply  felt,  that  in  the  preceding  year,  an 
act  had  passed  for  the  immediate  recoinage  of  the  silver  money 
which  was  clipped,  and  otherwise  much  decreased  in  value.  The 
measures,  however,  which  were  adopted  to  accomplish  so  desir- 
able a  purpose,  created  a  great,  though  temporary  aggravation 
of  the  evil:  for  such  a  check  to  the  circulation  immediately 
ensued,  that  all  the  operations  of  trade  were  cramped,  the  collec- 
tion of  the  public  supplies  was  suspended,  guineas  were  raised  to 
the  value  of  thirty  shillings,  and  paper  currency  was  reduced  to 
an  alarming  discount ;  bank  notes  falling  twenty,  and  tallies  and 
other  government  securities  sixty  per  cent.  By  these  causes  the 
army  was  deprived  of  its  regular  pay  and  supplies ;  and  the  letters 
of  the  King  feelingly  detail  the  mischievous  consequences  which 
ensued."* 

Here  we  see  that  the  evil,  like  the  depreciation  which  it  has 
fallen  to  our  lot  to  remedy,  had  been  of  long  standing;  and  I 
think  this  description  of  its  eflects  does  not  fall  short  even  of  the 
most  desponding  and  exaggerated  pictures  of  our  present  diffi- 
culties. In  fact,  the  fall  of  prices,  upon  the  then  restoration  of 
the  standard,  was  quite  as  great  as  upon  the  present  occasion 

*  Archdeacon  Coxe's  Shrewsbury  Correspondence,  p.  110. 


352  MR.  WESTERN'S  MOTION  ON  THE 

The  guinea,  which  was  then  a  commodity  fluctuating  in  its  cur- 
rent value  according  to  the  price  of  bullion,  fell  from  305.  to  21s, 
6d. ;  wool,  from  36s.  to  20s.  a  tod,  and  all  other  commodities  in 
nearly  the  same  proportion.  But  let  us  refer  to  the  Correspondence 
itself.  On  the  15th  of  May  1696,  we  find  the  Duke  ot  Shrews- 
bury writing  to  the  King  as  follows : 

"  Upon  the  receipt  of  your  Majesty's  commands  this  moning, 
I  engaged  the  rest  of  the  justices  to  represent  the  case  of  the 
army  abroad,  to  my  Lord  Godolphin,  but  found  your  Majesty's 
new  letter  to  him  had  made  him  sufficiently  sensible  of  their  con- 
dition. We  discoursed  this  morning  with  several  of  the  most 
eminent  goldsmiths,  and  with  some  of  the  Bank,  and  had  the  dis- 
malest  accounts  from  them  of  the  state  of  credit  in  this  town,  and 
of  the  effects  it  would  soon  have  upon  all  the  traders  in  money: 
none  of  them  being  able  to  propose  a  remedy,  except  letting  the 
parUament  sit  in  June"  [an  inconvenience  it  would  seem  much 
dreaded  by  our  ancestors  in  this  House,  but  to  which  we  submit 
with  resignation],  "  and  enacting  the  dipt  money  to  go  again,  the 
very  hopes  of  v-hich  locks  up  all  the  gold  and  good  Money,  and 
would  be  to  undo  all  that  has  been  done.^^ 

Enacting  the  clip  money  to  go  again  I  undoing  all  that  has  been 
done !  Is  not  this  precisely  what  the  honourable  member  for 
Essex  points  at,  by  his  motion  of  this  evening  1 

I  shall  now  read  a  very  short  extract  from  a  Letter  of  the  King 
to  the  Duke  of  Shrewsbury,  written  after  he  had  received  a  com- 
munication from  the  Lords  Justices  to  the  same  effect  as  the 
above :— "  Camp  of  Altere,  20th  July,  1696.  The  letter  from  the 
Lords  Justices,  of  the  14th,  has  quite  overcome  me,  and  I  know 
not  where  I  am,  since  at  present  I  see  no  resource  which  can 
prevent  the  army  from  mutiny  or  total  desertion."  On  the  28th 
July,  after  holding  another  council,  the  Duke  of  Shrewsbury 
writes  to  the  King  as  follows :  "  It  was  universally  the  opinion  of 
all  here,  that  a  session  in  your  absence,  and  in  the  divisions  the 
nation  labours  under  now,  would  produce  nothing  but  heat  among 
themselves,  and  petitions  from  all  the  counties  about  the  state  of  the 
money ;  that  they  could  afford  little  help  as  to  a  present  supply,  but 
by  the  expectation  they  would  raise,  that  dipt  money  should  be  cur- 
rent again,  or  a  recompense  allowed  for  it ;  that  the  standard  should 
be  advanced,  and  the  price  of  guineas  improved.^* 

Would  not  the  house  almost  suppose,  that  instead  of  reading  a 
dispatch  dated  in  1696, 1  was  describing,  from  some  letter  written 
during  the  present  session,  the  feelings  which  parts  of  the  country 
have  expressed,  and  the  advice  which  the  weakness  of  some  in- 
dividuals has  suggested  for  our  present  difficulties?  I  will  only 
read  one  short  extract  from  the  answer  of  King  William  to  this 
letter ;  it  is  dated,  "  Camp  at  Altere,  6th  August,  1696."     «  May 


RESUMPTION  OF  CASH  PAYMENTS.  353 

God  relieve  us  from  our  present  embarrassment;  for  I  cannot 
suppose  it  is  his  will  to  sufler  a  nation  to  perish,  which  he  has  so 
often  almost  miraculously  saved."* 

Sir;  when  we  reflect,  that  this  extract  is  not  taken  from  a 
speech  to  parliament,  or  any  document  intended  to  meet  the  public 
eye,  but  from  a  confidential  letter  from  a  king  to  his  minister  and 
friend,  the  pious  confidence  which  it  breathes,  and  the  beautiful 
simplicity  of  the  language  in  which  that  confidence  is  expressed, 
are  equally  calculated  to  raise  the  general  character  of  that  great 
prince  in  our  estimation. 

But  let  us  see  a  little,  in  more  immediate  reference  to  the  present 
subject,  under  what  circumstances  this  aflecting  letter  was  written. 
It  was  written  at  ihe  head  of  his  army  by  a  king  not  insensible  to 
military  glory.  But  was  military  glory  all  that  King  William  had 
then  at  stake  ?  Was  he  not  at  the  head  of  that  army  to  defend  his 
native  land  from  the  encroachments  of  an  ambitious  and  too- 
powerful  neighbour  ?  Was  he  not  engaged  in  a  struggle  for  the 
liberties  of  this  country,  for  the  liberties  of  Europe,  and  (as  far 
as  a  personal  object  could  weigh  with  him  in  such  a  struggle)  for 
the  crown  of  England,  which  had  been  placed  upon  his  head  by 
the  Revolution  of  1688  ?  It  was  in  order  to  procure  the  pecuniary 
means  of  sustaining  that  struggle,  that  in  the  spring  of  1696,  he 
had  sent  the  Earl  of  Portland  to  England.  After  long  consulta- 
tions with  the  ministers,  with  the  Bank,  and  with  the  monied  in- 
terest, that  noble  person  returned  to  the  king,  confirming  the 
reports  of  his  council,  that  no  mode  of  extricating  him  from  his 
difliculties  could  be  suggested,  except  that  which  we  have  already 
seen  described,  namely,  "  the  re-issuing  of  the  dipt  money,  and 
the  undoing  all  that  has  been  done^  Did  King  William  listen  to 
this  suggestion,  and  dishonour  his  reign  by  lowering  the  standard 
of  our  money?  No,  Sir.  He  was  a  man  that  knew  how  to  meet 
adversity.  His  life  had  been  one  continued  struggle  with  difli- 
culties ;  but  it  had  been  the  fixed  rule  of  that  life  to  encounter 
them  with  an  unshaken  fortitude,  and  a  rigid  adherence  to  what 
he  considered  to  be  right.  This  was  the  quality  of  his  mind, 
without  which  his  other  virtues  would  have  lost  all  their  lustre,  a 
quality  which  did  not  forsake  him  on  this  most  trying  occasion. 

Instead  of  re-dispatching  the  Earl  of  Portland  to  England  to 
concert  measures  "^r  undoing  all  that  had  been  done^"*  he  sent 
him  privately  to  sound  Louis  XIV.,  and  to  endeavour  to  bring 
about  a  negotiation  for  peace ;  and  coming  himself  to  England, 
he  met  his  parliament  on  the  20th  of  October,  1696.  In  his  Speech 
from  the  Throne  on  that  day,  he  earnestly  called  their  attentiop 
to  the  state  of  the  Currency,  and  the  difliculties  in  which  the 

*  Archdeacon  Coxe*s  Shrewsbury  Correspondence,  pp.  116,  129,  132, 
30*  2U 


354  MR.  WESTERN'S  MOTION  ON  THE 

country  was,  in  consequence,  involved.'  At  that  period,  this  sub- 
ject agitated  the  country  from  one  end  to  the  other.  The  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Lowndes,  had  recommended  the  lower- 
ing the  standard  from  5s.  2d.  to  65.  3d.  the  ounce  of  silver — an 
operation  equivalent  to  the  lowering  of  the  gold  standard,  at  this 
time,  from  3/.  175.  lO^d.  to  41.  148.  6d, — a  degree  of  depreciation 
which,  to  begin  with,  would,  I  believe,  almost  satisfy  even  the 
honourable  member  for  Callington. 

The  popular  feeling  was  all  on  the  side  of  this  advice.  That 
feeling  was  manifested  in  petitions  from  several  counties,  and 
most  of  the  great  towns.  But,  did  Parliament  adopt  this  advice? 
Far  from  it.  With  true  wisdom,  on  the  very  first  day  of  the 
meeting,  immediately  after  voting  an  Address  in  answer  to  the 
Speech  from  the  Throne,  on  that  same  20th  of  October,  1696, 
Mr.  Montague,  the  then  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  proposed, 
and  Parliament  adopted,  the  following  resolution: — "  That  this 
House  will  not  alter  the  Standard  of  the  Gold  and  Silver  Coins  of 
this  kingdom,  in  fineness,  weight,  or  denomination.^*  The  circum- 
stance of  coming  to  a  resolution  of  this  importance,  on  the  very 
first  day  of  the  meeting,  is  the  more  remarkable,  as  in  those  times, 
the  Address,  in  answer  to  the  Speech,  was  sometimes  not  voted 
till  some  days  after  the  opening ;  but  the  ministers  of  King  Wil- 
liam felt  the  great  importance  of  removing  all  doubts,  and  of  at 
once  settling  the  public  mind  on  this  point. 

We  know  what  followed.  The  ancient  standard  was  maintain- 
ed ;  the  difficulties  gradually  subsided ;  and  every  thing  finding 
its  proper  level,  all  the  transactions  of  the  country  were  restored 
to  their  former  facility.  "  The  receiving,  that  is  to  say,  the  call- 
ing in,  the  silver  money,"  says  a  writer  of  that  period,  "  could  not 
but  occasion  much  hardship  and  many  complaints  among  the 
people ;  yet  the  greatest  part  attributed  this  to  the  necessity  of 
aflfairs,  and  began  to  hope,  both  from  the  prospect  of  a  peace,  and 
wisdom  of  those  at  the  helm,  that  they  should  enjoy  more  favour- 
able times." 

We  are  now  fortunately  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  peace  dictated 
by  ourselves,  and  I  trust  likely  to  be  durable  ;  but  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted— indeed,  the  Shrewsbury  Correspondence  leaves  no  doubt 
upon  the  subject — that  the  peace  of  Ryswick,  a  peace  by  no 
means  of  the  same  lofty  character,  was  hastened  by  the  difficulties 
incident  to  the  restoration  of  the  currency.  By  that  peace  most 
of  the  objects  of  the  war  were  either  sacrificed  or  postponed.  It 
was  considered,  at  the  time,  as  little  better  than  a  hollow  truce, 
submitted  to  from  necessity.  But  this  only  confirms  the  paramount 
importance  which  the  government  of  King  William  attached  to 
the  restoratichi  of  the  currency.  Their  view  of  the  peace  of 
Ryswick  was  certainly  a  just  one ;  and  we  all  know  that,  after  a 


RESUMPTION  OF  CASH  PAYMENTS.  355 

few  years  of  a  feverish  armistice,  it  was  followed  by  a  long  and 
arduous  war.  If  I  refer  at  all  to  that  war,  the  war  of  the  Suc- 
cession, it  is  to  recall  the  recollection  of  the  great  share  and 
glorious  exertions  of  England  in  that  contest ;  and  to  satisfy  the 
House,  that  whatever  were  the  straits  to  which  the  country 
was  reduced  in  1696,  the  firm  and  wise  resolution  then  adopted 
was  not  incompatible  with  the  speedy  restoration  of  prosperity 
and  power.  If,  in  1696,  this  House,  having  then  so  recently 
restored  the  ancient  landmarks  of  property,  refused,  under  the 
strongest  temptation,  both  from  the  state  of  the  war  on  the  con- 
tinent, and  from  popular  feeling  at  home,  again  to  alter  them ; 
shall  we,  after  those  same  land-marks  have  now  been  replaced 
for  three  years,  adopt  a  measure,  which  would  be  as  fatal  to  our 
national  character,  as  it  would  to  the  security  of  individual  pos- 
session, to  the  maintenance  of  credit  in  private  dealings,  and  to 
the  very  existence  of  the  public  credit  of  the  state  ? 

When  projects  of  this  nature  are  afloat  out  of  doors,  and  when 
they  are  now  propounded  to  this  House,  shall  we,  with  such 
mighty  interests  at  stake,  hesitate  to  manifest  our  firm  determina- 
tion to  maintain  the  present  standard  of  value?  Shall  we  shrink 
from  the  precedent  of  1696?  I  am  as  little  disposed  as  any  man 
to  call  upon  parliament  to  bind  itself  to  any  general  or  abstract 
principles,  but  I  own  this  appears  to  me  an  occasion  for  such  a 
proceeding.  Under  that  impression,  Sir,  however  conscious  of 
the  humble  station  which  I  hold  in  this  House  and  in  the  country, 
and  of  its  immeasurable  distance  from  that  held  by  the  great  man 
by  whom  the  resolution  of  1696  w^as  moved;  but  with  the  same 
feelings  for  the  honour  and  the  best  interests  of  my  country,  which 
actuated  his  bosom  on  that  occasion;  I  shall  conclude,  thanking 
the  House  for  their  indulgence,  by  proposing  to  amend  the  motion 
of  the  honourable  member,  by  substituting  for  it  the  resolution  of 
1696 ;  namely,  "  That  this  House  will  not  alter  the  Standard  of 
Gold  01'  Silver,  in  fineness,  weight,  or  denomination." 

The  debate  was  adjourned  till  the  following  day,  when  the  original  motion 
was  supported  by  Mr.  Bennet,  Alderman  Heygate,  Mr.  H.  Gurney,  Mr. 
Attwood,  and  Mr.  Brougham ;  and  the  amendment  by  Mr.  Haldimand,  Mr. 
Secretary  Peel,  the  Marquis  of  Londonderry,  and  Mr.  Ricardo,  who  main- 
tained that  the  success  of  the  motion  would  be  attended  with  all  the  injurious 
effects  which  Mr.  Huskisson  had  so  ably  pointed  out.  The  House  divided : 
For  Mr.  Western's  Motion,  30.  For  Mr.  Huskisson's  Amendment,  194. 
Majority,  164. 


(    356    ) 
USURY  LAWS  REPEAL  BILL. 

FEBRUARY  16.  1824. 

On  the  11th,  Mr.  Serjeant  Onslow  obtained  leave  to  bring  in  a  Bill  "  for 
repealing  the  Laws  which  prohibit  the  taking  of  Interest  for  Money,  or  limit 
the  rate  of  it."     On  the  motion,  that  it  be  read  a  second  time, 

Mr.  HusKissoN  said,  he  had  been  a  member  of  the  Committee 
to  whom  this  subject  was  referred  in  the  year  1816,  and  who  had 
reported  their  opinions  to  the  House.  The  opinion  which  he  had 
formed  in  that  Committee,  he  still  entertained.  Indeed  he  had 
never  varied  from  it.  He  need  hardly  say  that  it  was  entirely  in 
unison  with  the  object  of  the  learned  serjeant.  He  considered  the 
Usury  Laws  as  only  calculated  to  add  to  the  difficulties  of  bor- 
rowing money,  to  increase  litigation,  and  to  encourage  fraud. 

FEBRUARY  27,  1824. 

On  the  motion  for  going  into  a  Committee  on  the  Bill,  Mr.  Robertson 
moved,  that  it  be  committed  on  that  day  six  months.  The  original  motion 
was  supported  by  Captain  Marberly  and  Mr.  Wynn ;  the  amendment  by  Al- 
derman Hey  gate,  and  also  by  Mr.  Calcraft,  who  said,  he  thought  the  measure 
of  such  importance,  that  the  Government  should  make  it  their  own,  and  he 
put  it  to  Mr.  Huskisson,  whether  that  would  not  be  the  more  proper  course 
to  pursue. 

Mr.  Huskisson  said,  that  the  honourable  gentleman  had  called 
upon  him  to  state  in  what  capacity  he  supported  this  measure, 
and  had  insisted  that  it  ought  to  be  brought  forward  as  a  govern- 
ment measure.  But  surely  it  would  be  very  strange  if  the  govern- 
ment were  to  take  it  out  of  the  hands  of  a  gentleman  who  had 
had  the  management  of  the  subject  for  years,  and  who  was  pe- 
culiarly qualified,  from  the  circumstance  of  his  having  been  the 
Chairman  of  the  former  Committee.  But,  the  honourable  gentle- 
man seemed  to  suppose,  that  if  it  were  not  made  a  government 
measure,  all  persons  connected  with  Government  ought  to  be  pre- 
cluded from  voting  upon  it.  Now,  he  sat  there  as  a  member  of 
Parliament,  like  the  honourable  gentleman  himself,  to  discharge 
his  duty  to  the  country,  to  the  best  of  his  abilities,  and  he  would 
be  the  last  man  to  describe  any  of  those  gentlemen  who  might 
differ  from  him  as  dull,  or  stupid,  or  prejudiced.   It  was  a  subject 


USURY  LAWS  REPEAL  BILL.  357 

on  which  individuals  might  very  widely  and  very  conscientiously 
differ,  without  deserving  any  approbrious  names.  Because,  after 
the  best  consideration  he  had  been  able  to  give  to  the  measure, 
his  opinions  were  in  contradiction  to  those  of  the  honourable 
gentleman,  was  that  a  reason  that  he  should  be  taunted,  as  that 
honourabe  gentleman  had  been  pleased  to  taunt  him  ? 

The  view  which  he  took  of  the  question  was  shortly  this ;  but 
he  by  no  means  pretended  to  say  that  he  must  be  right.  He 
thought,  that  any  law  which  attempted  to  limit  the  rate  of  the 
interest  of  money  was  oppressive  to  those  who  wanted  to  borrow. 
The  honourable  gentleman  was  of  opinion  that  the  law  was  ad- 
vantageous to  the  borrower ;  and  yet,  by  a  strange  inconsistency, 
in  describing  the  relative  situation  of  the  borrower  and  the  lender, 
he  maintained  that  the  borrower  was  the  party  obliged  to  yield 
to  the  terms  of  the  lender.  The  honourable  gentleman  had  also 
alluded  to  the  obloquy  which  attached  to  those  who  lent  at  a 
large  rate  of  interest.  But  that  obloquy  was,  as  the  law  now 
stood,  an  aggravation  of  the  misfortunes  of  the  borrower ;  who 
was  obliged  to  pay  the  lender  a  premium,  in  order  to  induce  him 
to  submit  to  the  obloquy.  Nor  was  it  obloquy  alone  for  which 
the  borrower  was  compelled  to  pay  the  lender.  He  was  obliged 
to  pay  for  the  whole  course  of  evasion  to  which  the  existing  law 
necessarily  gave  birth.  From  the  evidence  which  would  be 
proved  in  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  1818 ;  from  all  that  he 
had  observed  in  other  respects ;  and  from  all  the  reflection  which 
he  had  been  able  to  bestow  upon  the  subject,  he  w^as  perfectly 
satisfied,  that  the  Usury  Laws  were  oppressive  and  injurious  to 
the  borrowers  of  money. 

He  was  not  much  surprised  that  individuals  connected  with  the 
landed  interest  should  have  expressed  their  dissent  from  a  pro- 

f)osition  for  repealing  the  present  laws.  In  the  first  place,  the 
anded  interest  always  felt  a  much  greater  indisposition  to  a 
change  of  any  kind,  than  the  commercial  did.  For  his  own  part, 
however,  he  was  convinced  that  the  law,  as  it  stood,  must,  in  the 
course  of  years,  put  the  interest  of  landed  proprietors  to  great 
hazard.  It  was  well  known,  that,  during  the  late  war,  it  had  be- 
come, in  consequence  of  these  laws,  often  difficult  to  obtain  money 
by  mortgage  on  land ;  and  the  consequence  was,  that  the  value 
of  land  had  become  unduly  depreciated.  He  attached  so  much 
value  to  the  repeal  of  the  law,  by  which  the  interest  of  money 
was  regulated  in  this  country,  that,  if  the  gentlemen  who  had 
mortgages  on  their  estates  at  five  per  cent.,  would  be  satisfied 
with  a  clause  in  the  bill,  providing  that  those  mortgages  should 
not  be  affected  by  the  alteration  of  the  law,  whatever  he  might 
think  of  such  a  provision,  he,  for  one,  would  consent  to  its  admis- 
sion.   Much  had  been  said  of  the  existence  of  similar  laws  in 


358  USURY  LAWS  REPEAL  BILL. 

Other  countries.  But,  was  there  any  resemblance  between  them  ? 
Did  the  Usury  Laws  in  Holland  empower  any  one  to  sue  a  man 
who  had  been  guilty  of  usury,  for  penalties  trebling  in  amount 
the  principal  which  he  had  so  lent  ? 

The  advocates  for  these  laws  talked  of  the  ingenious  evasions 
which  took  place  respecting  it ;  but  it  was  of  those  very  evasions 
that  he  complained.  Those  evasions  were  frequently  ruinous 
expedients ;  and  he  charged  the  law  with  them.  Adverting  to 
the  argument  which  had  been  made  by  an  honourable  gentleman, 
to  show  that  those  who  derived  their  income  from  money  trans- 
actions did  not  contribute  so  much  to  the  revenue  as  the  landed 
interest,  he  contended,  that  nothing. could  be  more  opposite  to  the 
fact.  He  was  utterly  at  a  loss  to  conceive  how  any  one  could, 
for  a  moment,  suppose  that  from  whatever  source  income  was 
derived,  whether  from  land,  from  the  funds,  from  commerce,  or 
from  whatever  other  quarter,  it  did  not  pay  equally  in  taxation 
to  the  revenue. 

On  the  question,  that  the  Speaker  do  leave  the  chair,  the  House  divided : 
Ayes,  43.  Noes,  34.  The  second  reading  of  the  Bill  was  afterwards  post- 
poned for  six  months. 


(     359     ) 


ALTERATION  IN  THE  LAWS   RELATING  TO 
THE   SILK  TRADE. 

MARCH  5,  1824. 

Mr.  Baring,  in  presenting  a  Petition  from  the  Silk  Manufacturers  of  Lon- 
don, praying  that  the  House  would  not  suffer  any  Bill  to  pass  into  a  law, 
which  would  repeal  the  prohibition  on  the  importation  of  Foreign  wrought  Silk, 
and  insisting  that  the  removal  of  the  said  prohibition  would  be  ruinous  to  their 
interests,  said,  that  after  all  the  consideration  he  could  give  to  the  subject,  he 
was  of  opinion,  that  the  Petitioners  were  in  the  right.  With  the  application 
of  their  chemical  knowledge  to  dyeing,  and  with  their  other  advantages,  the 
French  would,  he  said,  have  such  a  start  in  all  the  branches  of  their  Silk 
Manufacture,  that  he  was  sure  there  would  be  no  person  by  whom  the  French 
Silks  would  not  be  exclusively  used.  It  was  not  London  alone  that  would  be 
affected.  Many  country  towns,  and  Taunton  in  particular,  had  changed  from 
another  manufacture  to  that  of  Silk.  In  this  instance,  he  should  vote  against 
the  system  of  Free  Trade,  and  trusted  that  Ministers  would  abandon  their 
intention.  Mr.  Secretary  Canning  begged  the  House  to  consider,  if  the 
reasoning  of  the  honourable  member  for  Taunton  were  adopted,  in  what  a 
situation  all  those  were  likely  to  be  placed,  who  were  desirous  of  introducing 
a  liberal  system  of  Commercial  Policy.  It  should  be  recollected,  that  this 
liberal  system  had  been  pressed  upon  Ministers  by  nearly  the  whole  House, 
but  by  no  individual  with  so  much  effect  and  so  much  authority,  as  by  the 
same  honourable  member,  who  had  that  night  argued  so  strenuously  against 
it.  If  the  proposition  of  the  honourable  gentleman  were  agreed  to,  it  would 
be  vain  to  endeavour  to  adopt  a  more  liberal  system,  with  regard  to  Silk,  or 
to  any  other  branch  of  Commerce.  Mr.  Denman  said,  that  though  he  had  no 
doubt  that  the  ultimate  result  of  the  new  system  of  commercial  policy  would 
be  beneficial,  a  conviction  of  the  inconveniences  and  hardships  attendant  on 
the  change,  would  induce  him  to  vote  against  it 

Mr.  HusKissoN  said,  he  was  surprised,  after  what  the  honour- 
able and  learned  gentleman  had  advanced  on  former  occasions, 
that  he  should  have  overlooked  the  main  argument  for  the  pro- 
posed alteration;  namely,  the  doing  away  with  a  system  of  pro- 
nibition  the  most  offensive  of  all  others  in  its  consequences;  as 
under  it  the  officers  of  the  excise  were  empowered  to  search  the 
persons  and  the  dwellings,  not  of  dealers  only,  but  of  any  person, 
in  search  of  smuggled  silks,  and  to  resort  to  other  modes  of  detec- 
tion and  examination  extremely  repugnant  to  the  character  of 


360  ALTERATION  IN  THE  LAWS 

Englishmen,  and  which  had  not  unfrequently  been  even  termed 
unconstitutional. 

The  honourable  member  for  Taunton  had  stated,  that  labour 
was  higher  in  this  country  than  it  was  abroad.  But  the  honour- 
able gentleman  seemed  to  have  forgotten,  that  if  it  were  dearer, 
as  applied  to  one  branch  of  manufacture,  it  was  dearer  with 
respect  to  all.  In  this  respect  Silk  was  not  peculiar ;  and  it  was 
singular,  that  a  mind  so  acute  and  enlightened,  should  have  that 
night  discovered,  for  the  first  time — (probably  in  consequence  of 
some  intelligence  from  Taunton) — that  the  price  of  labour  in  this 
country  was  dearer  than  it  was  on  the  Continent,  in  the  manu- 
facture of  Silk  alone.  The  cotton  and  woollen  trades,  and  indeed 
all  branches,  laboured  under  the  same  disadvantage ;  yet  in  those 
measures  we  competed  successfully  with  foreigners.  On  the 
authority  of  a  French  writer  who  had  access  to  the  best  sources 
of  information,  he  could  assert,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that 
at  that  moment,  and  subject  to  these  restrictions  and  to  heavy 
duties,  the  export  of  Silk  manufactured  goods  from  Great  Britain 
to  the  foreign  markets,  exceeded  the  whole  export  of  France: 
and  from  that  fact,  the  House  would  judge  whether,  with  a  duty 
of  thirty  per  cent.,  the  British  Silk  manufacturer  could  not  be 
quite  equal  to  compete  with  France  in  our  own  market. 

The  honourable  gentleman  had  also  expressed  his  astonishment 
that  the  subject  had  been  brought  forward  by  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer,  without  consulting  the  parties  interested,  and 
without  information  obtained  through  a  Committee.  Certainly, 
he  should  have  thought  that  Government  had  neglected  its  duty 
if  it  had  not,  with  regard  to  the  Silk  Trade,  attended,  in  some 
degree,  to  the  repeated  admonitions  of  the  other  side  of  the  House ; 
and  recollecting  the  inquiries  that  had  taken  place  in  the  other 
House  of  Parliament  before  Committees,  the  present  could  not  be 
fairly  called  an  attempt  to  legislate  without  due  information.  He 
protested  against  the  assumption,  that  either  that  House  or  the 
Trade  had  been  taken  by  surprise.  The  Trade,  indeed,  had  been 
the  first  to  suggest  the  removal  of  those  restrictions ;  and  he  was 
confident  they  would  be  nearly  the  first  to  rejoice  at  their  removal. 

Mr.  Davenport  maintained,  that  the  proposed  measure  would  be  a  damper, 
if  not  an  extinguisher,  to  the  Silk  Trade.  Mr.  Ellice  approved  of  the  liberal 
system  of  policy,  but  was  unwilling  to  commence  the  alteration  with  that 
branch  of  industry,  which  was  exposed  to  the  greatest  chance  of  successful 
competition.  Mr.  Secretary  Peel  entreated  the  House  to  consider,  in  what 
a  light  it  would  stand  before  Europe,  if,  after  declaiming  so  long  in  favour 
of  the  principles  of  Free  Trade,  it  did  not  attempt,  instead  of  aiming  at  tem- 
porary popularity,  to  establish  sound  principles  of  commercial  policy.     How 


RELATING  TO  THE  SILK  TRADE.  ggl 

greatly  would  those  principles  be  prejudiced,  if,  knowing  them  to  be  irre- 
fragable, Parliament,  not  having  the  courage  to  encounter  difficulties,  were 
to  yield  to  the  fears  of  the  timid,  or  the  representations  of  the  interested. 

MARCH  8,  1824. 

The  House  having  resolved  itself  into  a  committee  of  the  whole  House,  on 
the  Acts  charging  duties  of  Customs  on  goods,  wares,  and  merchandize,  and 
for  granting  Bounties  on  Linen  and  Silk  Manufactures, 

Mr.  HusKissoN  rose,  and  spoke  to  the  following  effect : — 

Although  my  right  honourable  friend,  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  when  he  brought  forward  his  general  exposition  of 
the  Finances  of  the  country,  stated,  with  a  perspicuity  so  pecu- 
liarly his  own,  the  grounds  upon  which  he  should  think  it  ex- 
pedient to  recommend  to  Parliament  an  alteration  in  the  laws 
relating  to  the  Silk  Trade ;  yet,  as  considerable  objections  have 
been  taken  to  this  part  of  my  right  honourable  friend's  plan,  both 
in  this  House  and  out  of  doors,  however  unable  I  may  be  to 
follow  in  the  steps  of  my  right  honourable  friend,  I  trust  I  shall 
have  the  indulgence  of  the  Committee,  while  I  state,  in  his  un- 
avoidable absence,  the  views  of  his  Majesty's  Government  on  this 
important  subject 

To  the  general  plan  proposed  by  my  right  honourable  friend, 
two  descriptions  of  objections  have  been  taken  in  this  House  and 
out  of  doors.  The  first  class  of  objections  proceeds  from  those 
who  consider  that  it  would  be  more  desirable,  that  any  relief 
which  can  be  afforded,  in  the  present  state  of  the  finances  of  the 
country,  should  fall  upon  some  of  the  direct  taxes.  The  second 
class  of  objections  is 'urged  by  those  who  are  desirous  that  the 
laws  relative  to  the  trade  in  Silk  should  remain  as  they  are. 

Now,  with  respect  to  the  first  class  of  objections,  I  own  it  ap- 
pears to  me,  that  the  course  in  which  his  Majesty's  Government 
nave  had  to  travel — since  the  state  of  the  finances  of  the  country 
has  been  such  as  to  warrant  them  in  considering  what  ought  to 
be  the  proper  subjects  for  the  remission  of  taxation — has  been  to 
make  the  remission  in  the  way  most  consonant  with  the  wishes 
and  interests  of  the  people.  In  commencing  measures  of  relief, 
his  Majesty's  Government  felt  the  greatest  anxiety;  as  it  was 
their  first  duty,  to  afford  assistance  to  those  humbler  classes  of 
society,  which  had  been  more  immediately  aflected  by  the  in- 
crease of  taxation,  during  the  war,  on  certain  articles  of  general 
consumption.  In  this  view,  the  salt  and  the  malt  taxes  have  been 
considerably  reduced.  The  leather  tax  has  also  been  reduced ; 
and  last,  though  not  least  in  their  operation  and  eflfects  on  the 
lower  classes  of  the  people,  lotteries  have  been  entirely  abolished. 
31  2V 


362  ALTERATION  IN  THE  LAWS 

A  very  considerable  remission  has  also  been  made  in  the  taxation 
affecting  the  middle  classes  of  society. 

Having  thus  extended  relief  to  the  amount  of  seven  millions  of 
taxes  to  the  different  classes  of  society,  it  has  been  asked,  why 
we  did  not  proceed  in  that  course,  by  a  further  diminution  of  the 
assessed  taxes  ?  I  am  ready  to  admit  that  this  would  have  been  a 
desirable  and  a  popular  course;  for  nothing  certainly  is  more 
unpleasant  than  the  feeling  with  which  a  man  pays  money  out  of 
his  pocket  to  a  tax-gatherer,  without  having  any  thing  to  show 
for  the  money  so  paid  but  a  receipt.  We  felt  it  our  duty,  how- 
ever, to  examine  whether  it  might  not  be  possible,  not  only  to 
afford  some  rehef  in  the  way  of  taxation,  but  at  the  same  time  to 
make  that  relief  conducive  to  the  advancement  of  the  industry, 
the  wealth,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  country.  We  considered, 
whether  the  present  moment  was  not  peculiarly  favourable  for 
carrying  into  effect  those  principles  of  Commercial  Policy  which 
were  calculated  to  produce  these  important  results. 

The  state  of  our  possessions  in  India  has  been  recently  alluded 
to ;  and  certainly  it  is  an  object  of  no  slight  importance  to  con- 
sider, whether,  by  some  convenient  and  practical  arrangements, 
an  extended  mart  may  not  be  obtained  for  the  native  productions 
of  our  vast  empire  in  that  quarter.  Jf  we  look  also  to  the  im- 
mense changes  which  are  taking  place  in  the  colonial  system  of 
the  world,  it  is  peculiarly  incumbent  on  this  country  not  to  iose 
sight  of  the  great  commercial  advantages  which  may  be  derived 
from  the  immense  mart  which  is  opened  by  those  changes,  for 
the  extension  of  our  manufactures  and  commerce.  It  is  true,  that 
at  this  moment  the  provinces  of  South  America  are  engaged  in  a 
struggle  with  the  mother  country,  and  that  in  many  parts  the 
government  is  still  unsettled ;  but  it  is  almost  equally  certain,  that 
they  can  never  return  to  that  state  of  dependence,  with  reference 
at  least  to  commercial  relations,  in  which  they  were  placed  be- 
fore the  recent  changes.  When  we  consider  the  immense  pro- 
gress in  the  commercial  relations  between  this  country  and  the 
United  States  of  America,  since  they  established  their  indepen- 
dence, it  is  not  too  much  to  assume — allowing  for  the  difference 
on  the  score  of  industry,  skill,  enterprise,  and  wealth,  between  the 
United  States  and  South  America,  but  still  looking  to  the  popula- 
tion of  the  latter,  and  to  the  extent  of  country  over  which  that 
population  is  spread, — it  is  not,  I  say,  too  much  to  assume,  that, 
under  any  system  calculated  to  promote  industry.  South  America 
will  open  a  mart  to  our  commerce,  of  which  our  present  experi- 
ence is  but  an  earnest  of  its  future  extent. 

In  such  a  state  of  things,  if  we  find,  in  legislating  with  a  view 
to  extended  commercial  advantages,  that  a  particular  branch  of 
our  manufactures  is  clogged  and  impeded  in  its  progress  by  im- 


RELATING  TO  THE  SILK  TRADE.  363 

politic  laws  and  regulations — such  as  restrictions  on  the  freedom 
of  labour,  duties  on  the  raw  material,  drawbacks  improperly  or 
inadequately  applied,  being  in  some  cases  more  than  are  neces- 
sary, and  in  others  not  sufficient, —  I  think  it  then  becomes  the 
duty  of  a  Government,  having  a  small  excess  of  revenue,  care- 
fully to  inquire,  whether  it  may  not  be  better  to  forego  the  im 
mediate  benefit  of  a  reduction  of  direct  taxation,  in  order  to 
remove  such  impolitic  restriction. 

It  has  been  truly  observed  by  the  honourable  member  for 
Taunton,  that  the  excess  of  revenue,  on  which  my  right  honour- 
able friend  calculated  as  a  permanent  excess  on  which  to  found 
a  remission  of  taxation,  did  not  exceed  500,000/.  Indeed,  my 
right  honourable  friend  himself  stated,  that  he  had  taken  a  saving 
upon  four  years,  amounting  to  200,000/. ;  this  saving  arising,  in 
part,  from  sources  which  could  not  be  regarded  as  permanent. 
My  right  honourable  friend  has  done  this,  under  the  feeling,  that 
if  ever  we  were  to  change  the  system,  by  which  our  Commerce 
and  Manufactures  were  impeded,  the  present  was  a  favourable 
moment  for  so  doing.  And  he  has  contemplated,  not  merely  the 
relief  which  would  be  derived  from  the  extent  to  which  taxation 
was  remitted,  but  that  further  relief  which  might  reasonably  be 
expected  to  grow  out  of  the  increasing  prosperity  of  the  country. 
In  promoting  new  branches  of  industry,  public  wealth,  and  com- 
mercial prosperity,  we  are  sowing  those  seeds  which,  in  the  ful- 
ness and  fecundity  of  future  harvests,  will  afford  us  the  means  of 
future  relief  from  other  burthens ;  and  which,  if  unfortunately  the 
country  should  again  be  involved  in  war,  will  supply  the  best 
means  by  which  our  efforts  will  be  sustained. 

It  is  upon  these  principles,  notwithstanding  the  unpopularity 
which  they  might  bring  upon  themselves,  that  his  Majesty's 
Government  have  determined  to  persevere  in  recommending  to 
Parliament  to  make  the  alterations  in  the  Laws  relative  to  the 
Silk  and  Woollen  Trades ;  the  grounds  of  \yhich  alterations  were 
so  ably  opened  by  my  right  honourable  friend  on  the  former 
occasion. 

It  has,  I  am  aware,  been  said,  that  the  views  taken  by  his 
Majesty's  Government,  of  the  disadvantages  under  which  the  Silk 
Trade  labours  from  the  existing  laws,  have  not  been  supported 
by  those  engaged  in  that  trade.  The  honourable  member  for 
Cheshire*  has  said,  that  the  trade  is  perfectly  satisfied  with  the 
present  state  of  the  law ;  and  the  honourable  member  for  Taun- 
ton asserts,  that  no  person  in  the  trade  wishes  for  any  change. 
Now,  until  I  heard  the  assertion  made  in  this  House,  I  did  not 
believe  that  there  were  any  persons  in  the  trade  who  did  not  wish 

*  Mr.  Davenport. 


364  ALTERATION  OF  THE  LAWS 

to  be  relieved  from  the  shackles  and  disadvantages  under  which 
they  have  hitherto  laboured;  for  it  occurred  to  me,  that,  during 
the  last  session  of  Parliament,  almost  all  the  principal  persons 
concerned  in  the  Silk  Trade  petitioned  the  House  to  be  relieved 
from  these  very  restrictions.  And  on  looking  to  the  petition  pre- 
sented by  the  Silk  Manufacturers  of  London  and  Westminster,  I 
find,  that,  so  far  from  being  satisfied  with  these  restrictions,  they 
express  themselves  thus : 

"  Important  as  this  manufacture  is  acknowledged  to  be,  and 
much  as  it  has  been  recently  extended,  it  is  still  depressed  below 
its  natural  level,  and  prevented,  by  existing  laws,  from  advancing 
to  a  far  higher  degree  of  prosperity  than  it  has  hitherto  attained, 
and  which,  under  more  favourable  circumstances,  it  would,  with- 
out difficulty,  realize.  Possessing,  as  this  country  does,  access  to 
an  unlimited  supply  of  silk  from  its  eastern  possessions,  an  inde- 
finite command  over  capital  and  machinery,  and  artizans  whose 
skill  and  industry  cannot  be  surpassed,  your  petitioners  hesitate 
not  to  express  their  conviction,  that,  by  judicious  arrangements, 
the  Silk  Manufacture  of  Great  Britain  may  yet  be  placed  in  a 
situation  ultimately  to  triumph  over  foreign  competition ;  and  that 
silk,  like  cotton,  may  be  rendered  one  of  the  staple  commodities 
of  the  country." 

With  such  statements  before  him,  my  right  honourable  friend 
came  down  to  the  House,  under  the-  conviction  that  this  trade 
was  greatly  depressed,  and  suffering  especially  from  the  duty  im- 
posed on  the  raw  material.  It  will  scarcely  be  necessary  for  me 
to  enter  into  any  arguments  of  a  general  nature,  to  show  the  im- 
policy of  such  a  duty,  or  the  thousand  checks  and  disadvantages 
to  which  the  trade  is  exposed,  from  regulations  interfering  with 
freedom  of  labour.  I  have  heard  no  general  argument  advanced 
in  favour  of  the  state  of  things  to  which  I  have  alluded.  I  have, 
indeed,  heard  some  limited  arguments  put  forward  by  honourable 
gentlemen  opposite,  which  apply  more  immediately  to  the  peculiar 
situation  of  this  particular  trade.  The  honourable  member  for 
Coventry,  for  instance,  told  us,  on  a  former  evening,  that  silk  was 
not  a  native  manufacture  of  this  country.  The  honourable  mem- 
ber for  Taunton  even  went  so  far  as  to  assert,  that  the  silk  manu- 
facture, like  peculiar  kinds  of  fruit,  could  only  flourish  in  particular 
places;  and  I  confess  that  the  instance  which  the  honourable 
gentleman  adduced  in  support  of  his  proposition,  struck  me  as 
somewhat  a  whimsical  one ;  for  he  told  us,  that  Taunton,  which 
has  at  present  several  very  extensive  silk  manufactures,  was, 
thirty  or  forty  years  ago,  unacquainted  with  the  article,  but  pos- 
sessed a  considerable  manufacture  of  woollens.  ,  Now,  Sir,  I 
cannot  say  who  the  individual  was  that  represented  that  very 
respectable  borough  in  Parliament,  thirty  or  forty  years  ago.  He 


RELATING  TO  THE  SILK  TRADE.  355 

might  have  been  a  very  eminent  merchant,  and  most  influential 
and  enlightened  member  of  this  House ;  he  might,  for  aught  I 
know,  have  been  famiHarly  conversant  with  the  principles  of 
political  economy — a  staunch  and  determined  advocate  of  free 
trade — a  zealous  disciple  of  Adam  Smith,  whose  opinions  were, 
about  that  time,  first  published  to  the  world  ;  but,  if  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  of  that  day  had  come  down  to  the  House,  and 
said,  "I  am  desirous  to  place  the  cotton  manufactures" — (which 
were  then  subject  to  the  same  heavy  duties  which  now  attach  to 
the  silk  trade) — *'  upon  the  same  footing  as  other  manufactures, 
with  respect  to  w^hich  something  hke  a  free  trade  exists — I  wish 
to  give  to  that  branch  of  our  industry  an  opportunity  of  extending 
itself  as  far  as  it  is  capable  in  this  country,"  doubtless,  the  then 
honourable  member  for  Taunton,  be  he  who  he  might,  represent- 
ing the  woollen  manufactures  of  his  constituents,  would  have  risen 
in  his  place,  and  said,  "How  cari  you  think  of  proposing  any  thing 
so  injurious  to  the  best  interests  of  the  country?  The  woollen 
manufacture  has  for  ages  been  the  staple  trade  of  this  country ; 
and  how  can  you  expect  that  England,  which  possesses  so  little 
machinery,  can  compete  with  the  fine  and  delicate  textures  which- 
proceed  from  the  Indian  cotton  manufactories,  where  labour  is  so 
cheap  ?"  These  are  precisely  the  same  objections  which  are  now 
put  forw^ard  by  the  honourable  gentlemen  opposite  against  the 
proposed  alteration  in  the  Silk  trade.  The  House  is  told,  that  the 
manufacture  of  silk  is  not  capable  of  being  extended  by  the  use 
of  machinery,  and  that  its  production  requires  more  labour  than 
the  cotton  manufacture.  Had  this  grave  objection  been  taken  at 
the  period  to  which  I  have  alluded,  the  language  of  the  honour- 
able member  for  Taunton  of  that  day  would  doubtless  have  been 
— "You  surely  will  not  touch  the  staple  manufacture  of  England! 
Look  at  the  alteration  which  is  taking  place  in  the  dress  of  our 
females !  Only  think  what  the  consequences  will  be,  when  native 
jflannel  petticoats  and  woollen  hose  shall  have  fallen  into  disuse !" 
And  I  dare  to  say  it  would  have  been  adduced,  as  an  instance  of 
the  "  wisdom  of  our  ancestors,"  and  the  strongest  possible  proof 
of  the  high  consideration  in  which  the  woollen  manufacture  had 
always  been  held,  that  the  very  shrouds  of  the  dead  were,  by 
law,  required  to  be  composed  exclusively  of  that  native  manu- 
facture. 

At  this  stage  of  the  question,  I  entreat  the  attention  of  the  Com- 
mittee, whilst  I  state  what  has  been  the  progress  of  the  cotton 
manufacture,  in  the  short  period  to  which  I  have  alluded;  and  I 
do  so  because  I  feel,  and  ihdeed  it  cannot  be  doubted,  that  the 
arguments  which  are  now  applied  to  the  proposed  change  in  the 
silk  trade,  were  then  applicable  to  the  cotton  manufacture.  I 
know.  Sir,  of  nothing  in  the  history  of  commerce — I  am  not  ac- 
31* 


366  ALTERATION  IN  THE  LAWS 

quainted  with  any  thing  in  the  history  of  our  manufacturing  pros- 
perity— that  can  be  at  all  compared  with  the  wonderful  change 
which  has  taken  place  in  the  cotton  trade. 

It  is  perfectly  true,  that  forty  years  ago  the  manufacture  of 
woollens  was  the  great  staple  of  the  country.  In  the  year  1780, 
the  whole  export  of  manufactured  cotton  goods,  of  every  descrip- 
tion, amounted  in  value  to  only  355,000/.  In  1785,  which  was 
two  years  after  the  restoration  of  peace,  and  when  the  commerce 
of  the  country  had  in  some  measure  recovered  from  the  difficulties 
under  which  it  necessarily  laboured  during  the  war,  the  whole 
extent  of  our  cotton  exports,  of  every  description,  amounted  to  no 
more  than  864,000/. ;  whilst,  at  the  same  period,  the  exports  of 
woollen  manufactured  goods  amounted  to  considerably  more  than 
four  millions ;  the  proportion  between  the  two  commodities  being 
at  that  time  as  five  to  one.  But  how  stands  the  case  at  present  ? 
Why,  Sir,  from  that  period  to  the  present,  that  is  from  the  year 
1785  to  the  year  1822, — incredible  almost  as  it  may  appear — the 
exports  alone  of  manufactured  cotton  goods  have  risen  to  the 
enormous  amount  of  33,337,000/. ;  being  forty  times  greater  than 
it  was  in  the  year  1785.  Of  course,  I  aqi  speaking  from  the 
official  estimate.  But  wdth  respect  to  the  woollen  manufactures, 
the  great  staple  trade  of  the  country  in  former  times,  the  exports 
do  not,  at  the  present  moment,  amount  to  more  than  6,000,000/. ; 
being  not  so  much  as  one-fifth  the  amount  of  the  exports  of  cotton. 
Why  then.  Sir,  when  I  see  the  pre-eminent  advantages  which 
have  arisen  from  the  circumstance  of  allowing  capital  to  run  in  a 
free  and  unrestrained  channel — when  I  contemplate  the  benefits 
which  the  country  has  derived  from  the  application  of  sound  and 
liberal  principles  to  this  single  branch  of  commerce — am  I  not 
justified  in  endeavouring  to  prevail  upon  the  House  to  extend 
still  further  those  principles,  which  have  produced  such  salutary 
results  ? 

Hitherto,  I  have  only  stated  what  the  growth  of  our  cotton 
manufactures  has  been,  with  respect  to  our  exports.  In  so  doing 
— as  I  have  already  stated, — I  took  the  official  value;  and  this 
was  perfectly  fair,  because  I  did  so  with  both  articles ;  although, 
of  course,  the  official  value  is  somewhat  higher  than  the  real. 
But,  according  to  the  best  information  I  have  been  able  to  obtain 
on  the  subject — and  I  have  taken  some  pains  to  acquire  it — I  be- 
lieve I  am  not  overstating  the  fact,  when  I  state,  that  the  real 
value  of  cotton  goods  consumed  at  home,  within  the  last  year, 
amounted  to  32,000,000/.  sterhng. 

Now,  I  know  I  shall  be  asked,  how  does  all  this  apply  to  the 
question  of  the  Silk  Trade,  which  is  produced  by  little  labour, 
and  from  a  comparatively  small  quantity  of  raw  material  ?  But 
when  I  state,  that  of  the  thirty-two  millions'  worth  of  manufactured 


RELATING  TO  THE  SILK  TRADE.  36T 

goods,  not  more  than  six  millions  were  invested  in  the  raw  ma- 
terial, and  that  the  remaining  twenty-six  millions  went  to  the 
profits  of  the  capitalists  and  the  income  of  the  persons  employed 
in  the  manufacture,  I  believe  no  man  who  takes  a  statesman-like 
view  of  the  subject,  will  doubt  the  soundness  of  the  proposition 
with  which  I  set  out ;  namely,  that  when  you  remove  the  restric- 
tions and  burthens  from  any  particular  branch  of  industry,  you 
not  only  afford  relief  to  the  extent  of  the  tax  remitted,  but  you 
lay  the  foundation  for  commercial  enterprise,  of  the  beneficial 
effects  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  foresee  the  extent.  I  would 
ask  any  man  who  has  attentively  considered  the  resources  of  this 
country,  whether,  if  the  restrictions  had  not  been  removed  from 
tlie  manufacture  of  cotton,  (the  continuance  of  which  restrictions 
would  necessarily  have  impeded  its  extension)  this  country  could 
possibly  have  made  the  gigantic  exertions  which  it  put  forth  during 
the  last  war  ?  I  would  ask,  whether  the  number  of  persons  em- 
ployed in  this  manufacture,  to  the  amount,  I  believe,  of  one  million 
two  hundred  thousand  souls,  whose  wants  are  supplied  in  return 
for  their  labour,  does  not  afford  more  real  encouragement  to  the 
agriculture  of  the  country,  than  any  regulation  for  keeping  up 
artificial  prices  could  possibly  effect  ?  It  is  to  the  increasing  wealth 
of  the  manufacturing  population  and  the  progress  of  industry,  and 
not  to  artificial  regulations  for  creating  high  prices,  that  this 
country  must  look,  not  only  for  relief  from  her  present  burthens, 
but  for  the  power  of  making  fresh  exertions,  whenever  her  situa- 
tion may  demand  them.  It  is  not  in  the  power  of  any  artificial 
measures  to  give  that  real  relief  to  agriculture,  or  to  any  other 
mode  of  occupation,  which  can  only  flow  from  the  increasing 
activity  and  unceasing  industry  of  the  people. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  in  the  history  of  the  Cotton 
Manufacture  is  the  impetus  which  it  has  given  to  invention,  the 
numerous  valuable  discoveries  which  it  has  brought  forth,  the 
ingenuity  which  it  has  called  into  action, — the  tendency  and  effect 
of  all  which  have  been,  to  produce  the  article  at  the  lowest  possi- 
ble rate.  Each  of  these  valuable  improvements  occasioned,  at 
the  time,  some  inconvenience  to  those  who  had  before  produced 
the  manufacture  by  manual  labour ;  but  the  result  has  been,  that 
not  only  has  much  more  capital  been  beneficially  vested  in 
machinery,  but  a  greater  number  of  hands  have  been  employed 
to  manage  it,  in  proportion  as  the  prospect  of  fresh  resources 
was  opened  to  the  manufacturer. 

But  what  is  the  situation  of  the  Silk  Trade,  under  the  system 
of  entire  prohibition  from  foreign  competition,  which  some  honour- 
able gentlemen  consider  as  its  greatest  advantage?  Why,  Sir,  the 
system  of  monopoly  in  this  trade  has  produced,  what  monopoly 
is  always  sure  to  produce,  an  indifference  with  regard  to  improve- 


368  ALTERATION  IN  THE  LAWS 

ment.  That  useful  competition,  which  gives  life  to  invention, 
which  fosters  ingenuity,  and  in  manufacturing  concerns  promotes 
a  desire  to  produce  the  article  in  the  most  economical  form,  has 
been  completely  extinguished.  The  system  of  prohibitory  duties, 
which  has  been  maintained  with  respect  to  the  Silk  Trade,  has 
had  the  eftect — -to  the  shame  of  England  be  it  spoken  ! — of  leaving 
us  far  behind  our  neighbours  in  this  branch  of  industry.  We 
have  witnessed  that  chiUing  and  benumbing  effect,  which  is  always 
sure  to  be  felt,  when  no  genius  is  called  into  action,  and  when  we 
are  rendered  indifferent  to  exertion  by  the  indolent  security  of  a 
prohibitory  system.  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt,  that  if  the  same 
system  had  been  continued  with  respect  to  the  cotton  manufac- 
ture, it  would  at  this  moment  be  as  subordinate  in  amount  to  the 
woollen,  as  it  is  junior  in  its  introduction  into  this  country. 

I  am  afraid.  Sir,  I  have  already  trespassed  too  long  on  the 
patience  of  the  Committee ;  but  I  have  been  anxious  to  impress 
upon  the  House,  and  the  country  generally,  that  if  there  be  a 
chance  of  giving  new  life  and  vigour  to  any  branch  of  industry, 
which  has  either  been  in  a  state  of  stagnation  or  slow  in  its  pro- 
gress, there  are  at  present,  in  the  situation  of  the  world,  circum- 
stances calculated  to  afford  relief  which  never  before  existed  ; 
and  I  must  say,  that  those  who,  blindly  desirous  of  procuring  im- 
mediate relief  for  the  country  by  the  remission  of  direct  taxes, 
would  neglect  the  ample,  extended,  and  tempting  field  which  now 
Hes  open  before  us,  do  not  take  a  wise  or  a  statesman-like  view 
of  the  subject.  Now,  Sir,  it  is  not  merely  for  the  reasons  which 
I  have  attempted  to  explain,  that  I  support  the  proposition  of  my 
right  honourable  friend,  but  also  with  reference  to  the  general 
principle  that  all  prohibitory  duties  are  bad  on  articles  of  general 
consumption ;  and  I  w4sh  to  direct  the  serious  attention  of  the 
Committee  to  the  real  nature  of  the  prohibitory  system.  I  would 
ask,  if  there  be  any  evils  in  our  penal  code  which  can  be  at  all 
compared  with  that  system  of  prohibition  which  some  gentlemen 
are  so  desirous  to  uphold?  By  the  present  laws,  any  individual, 
no  matter  who,  the  commonest  ruffian  in  the  street,  may  snatch 
from  a  gentleman  any  article  which  he  suspects  to  be  of  foreign 
manufacture.  Can  any  thing  be  less  congenial  to  the  spirit  of 
English  law,  than  this — that  a  man  may  enter  the  dwelling-house 
of  his  neighbour,  and  make  a  diligent  search,  because  he  suspects 
that  some  prohibited  article  is  to  be  found  in  it  ?  Have  we  not 
heard  of  excise  officers  stopping  gentlemen's  carriages,  and  sub- 
jecting them  to  a  diligent  search,  upon  the  bare  suspicion  of  their 
containing  contraband  goods  ? 

But,  Sir,  are  these  the  only  considerations  which  ought  to  in- 
duce us  to  abandon  the  system  ?  See  to  what  an  extent  of  fraud 
and  perjury  they  give  encouragement  1     The  higher  classes  of 


RELATING  TO  THE  SILK  TRADE.  369 

society  will  have  these  prohibited  articles.  In  fact,  these  prohibi- 
tory regulations  are  like  the  game  laws.  If  you  continue  them 
you  must  expect  to  have  poachers.  It  is  the  higher  classes  of 
society  who  are  responsible  for  all  the  breaches  of  those  laws — 
laws  which  are  made,  not  for  the  protection  of  the  subject,  but  to 
produce  an  imaginary  benefit,  which  I  consider  a  real  detriment, 
to  the  very  manufacture  which  it  is  intended  to  serve.  I  profess 
to  be  very  unlearned  on  these  subjects,  but  I  understand,  that  any 
man  upon  applying  to  the  Court  of  Exchequer,  may  obtain  what 
is  called  "  a  writ  of  assistance,"  by  virtue  of  which  he  is  em- 
powered to  enter  any  gentleman's  dwelling,  which  is  thus  placed 
upon  the  footing  of  a  gambling-house,  and  subjected  to  the  search 
of  the  police. 

The  arguments  of  those  who  are  opposed  to  the  plan  of  my 
right  honourable  friend  appear  to  be  very  singular.  The  opera- 
tive classes,  and  the  master  manufacturers  who  have  petitioned 
against  the  removal  of  the  system,  have  done  so  upon  the  princi- 
ple, that  the  prohibition  is  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
trade ;  and  although  they  frankly  confess,  that  whatever  goods 
the  caprice  and  fashion  of  the  day  may  require  to  be  introduced 
into  this  country,  may  be  imported  at  an  insurance  of  15  per 
cent.,  and  sold  in  any  shop  in  the  kingdom,  yet  these  very  per- 
sons say  that  an  ad  valorem  duty  of  30  per  cent,  would  be  insuf- 
ficient to  afford  them  protection.  Upon  this  subject,  it  is  neces- 
sary that  I  should  refer  to  the  evidence  which  was  adduced  by 
these  very  persons  before  the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Parlia- 
ment. It  is  at  all  times  a  disagreeable  and  tedious  thing  to  do ; 
but  it  will  be  curious  for  the  Committee  to  examine  the  fact; 
since  they  will  find  that  all  the  witnesses  upon  that  occasion 
spoke  to  the  necessity  ofthe  proposed  alteration.  To  such  incon- 
sistencies are  men  sometimes  driven  in  the  pursuit  of  a  particular 
object ! 

We  are  now  told,  that  thirty  per  cent,  will  not  be  sufficient 
protection  for  the  British  manufacturer;  but  upon  this  subject  it 
will  only  be  necessary  to  refer  the  Committee  to  the  evidence  of 
two  American  merchants  who  visited  England  and  France,  in 
order  to  purchase  silks  to  sell  in  America.  One  of  them  (Mr. 
Farnsworth)  was  asked — "  In  what  respect  do  you  consider  the 
French  silk  goods  to  be  either  inferior  or  superior  to  ours  ?"  He 
answered,  "Their  goods  are  generally  afforded  at  a  less  rate 
than  the  English  of  similar  quality,  and  upon  that  account  they 
will  have  the  preference  of  sale."  He  was  then  asked,  "  At  what 
per  cent,  would  you  estimate  the  difference  of  value  of  goods  of 
nearly  the  same  quality  f"  He  replied,  "  Upon  examining  the 
goods  here,  I  have  made  up  my  mind  that  there  is  something  like 
twenty  or  twenty-five  per  cent,  difference  between  the  French 

?.W 


370  ALTERATION  OF  THE  LAWS 

and  English  goods  in  blacks,  and  rather  more  in  colours."  In  the 
article  of  ribands,  he  answered  unhesitatingly,  that  there  was  a 
difference  of  twenty-five  per  cent.  Here,  then,  is  an  Amei;ican 
merchant  who  comes  to  Europe  to  make  his  purchases,  and  finds 
this  to  be  the  difference  between  the  French  and  English  manu- 
factures— which  difference,  the  committee  will  perceive,  is  five 
per  cent,  lower  than  the  duty  which  is  intended  to  be  left  for  the 
protection  of  the  English  manufacturer. 

I  will  now  refer  the  Committee  to  the  evidence  of  Mr.  Hale — 
an  eminent  manufacturer  in  Spitalfields,  well  known  to  many 
members  of  this  House  for  his  probity,  his  active  benevolence, 
and  his  great  desire  to  promote  the  comforts  and  happiness  of 
those  who  are  in  his  employment.  This  gentleman's  evidence 
must  be  considered  extremely  valuable,  not  only  on  account  of 
his  personal  respectability,  but  his  perfect  competence  to  form  a 
correct  judgment  on  these  matters.  Mr.  Hale  says,  "  When  I 
was  at  Paris,  the  manufacturers  there,  having  no  idea  that  I  was 
a  Spitalsfield's  manufacturer,  offered,  upon  my  payment  of  an 
insurance  of  ten  per  cent.,  to  send  me  any  quantity  of  manufac- 
tured silks,  which  I  might  choose  to  select,  to  any  part  of  London 
I  pleased,  notwithstanding  their  liability  to  be  seized  as  French, 
wherever  they  might  be  found."  I  beg  the  attention  of  the  Com- 
mittee to  what  follows :  On  being  asked,  "  Do  not  a  great  many 
French  goods  find  their  way  into  this  country?"  Mr.  Hale 
replied,  "  Yes  ;  but  I  do  not  consider  that  an  evil ;  because  there 
was  a  disposition  in  this  country  to  wear  any  thing  that  comes 
from  France,  and  we  have  frequently  found  that  when  a  new^ 
pattern  has  been  introduced,  it  has  immediately  been  copied ;  and 
that  for  one  real  French  piece'  sold,  there  have  been  a  thousand 
imitations  sold."  But  Mr.  Hale  did  not' stop  here:  he  went  on  to 
state,  "  It  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  for  our  manufacturers  to 
copy  the  pattern  immediately,  and  send  these  goods  to  Brighton ; 
where,  by  the  aid  of  fishermen  and  smugglers,  the  silks  are  dis- 
posed of  as  French,  at  a  much  higher  price  than  would  have 
been  given  in  London." 

Now,  Sir,  do  not  these  facts  prove  to  a  demonstration,  that 
with  a  protecting  duty  of  thirty  per  cent.,  the  British  manufac- 
turer will  be  able  to  compete  with  foreign  manufactures?  In 
which  case,  the  revenue  will  be  benefited,  and  there  will  be  no 
ministering  to  the  perverted  taste  of  those  who  can  derive  no 
satisfaction  from  a  garment,  unless  it  be  worn  in  violation  of  the 
law  of  the  land,  and  aflfords  encouragement  to  the  smuggler.  It 
is,  therefore,  idle  to  suppose,  that  with  the  great  improvements 
which  have  taken  place  in  the  machinery  employed  in  the  Silk 
manufacture,  since  the  trade  escaped  from  the  trammels  of 
Spitalfields,  and  established  itself  in  Manchester  and  other  places, 


RELATING  TO  THE  SILK  TRADE.  371 

the  English  Silk  manufacture,  with  adequate  protecting  duties, 
will  not  be  able  to  compete  with  that  of  France.     Indeed,  I  have 
this  day  seen  the  deputation  from  Manchester,  and  they  do  not 
hesitate  distinctly  to  say,  that  if  time  be  granted  to  enable  them 
to  complete  their  arrangements,  they  can  meet  the  French  manu- 
facturer in  any  country  in  the  world,  and  will  not  be  afraid  of 
being  distanced.     [Hear  !  hear  !  from  Mr.  Philips.]     The  honour- 
able gentleman  will,  by-and-bye,  have  an  opportunity  of  contra- 
dicting this  statement,  if  it  be  not  correct ;  but  I  can  assure  the 
Committee,  that  since  this  subject  was  opened  by  my  right  hon- 
ourable friend,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  there  has  been 
no  want  of  due  diligence,  either  on  his  part  or  mine,  to  make 
ourselves  masters  of  this  difficult  question,  by  communication 
with  those  who  were  the  best  able  to  afford  us  information ;  and 
whilst,  on  the  one  hand,  we  are  accused  of  having  acted  too 
precipitately,  and,  on  the  other,  of  not  having  come  with  suf- 
ficient expedition  to  a  decided  result,  I  trust  we  shall  at  least  be 
acquitted  of  any  want  of  exertion  to  form  the  best  judgment  that 
we  could  upon  the  matter.     With  respect  to  the  charge  of  delay, 
it  was  impossible  for  us  to  come  to  a  final  determination,  until  we 
had  seen  how  all  the  parties  interested  were  likely  to  be  affected. 
I  shall  be  told,  I  am  well  aware,  that  the  persons  concerned  in 
the  trade  are  the  best  judges  of  their  own  particular  interests.    I 
entertain.  Sir,  as  great  a  deference  as  any  man  for  the  opinions 
which  persons  connected  with  any  branch  of  manufacture  may 
express  on  matters  of  detail ;  and  in  my  official  situation  it  is  my 
duty  to  consult  frequently  with  those  from  whom  I  can  obtain 
information ;  but  I  trust  it  will  not  be  considered  inconsistent  with 
the  respect  which  I  feel  for  those  persons  to  declare,  that,  with 
respect  to  general  propositions,  I  do  not  conceive  them  to  be  the 
best  judges  of  what  may  be  most  conducive  to  the  public  inter- 
est.    Without  meaning,  in  the  slightest  degree — on  the  contrary,  ^ 
disclaiming  the  intention — to  impute  to  those  engaged  in  any  par- 
ticular pursuit  a  disposition  to  uphold  themselves  to  the  detriment 
of  the  community,  I  must,  nevertheless,  say,  that  a  system  of 
monopoly  must  be  favourable  to  great  capitalists ;  although,  at 
the  same  time,  it  cramps  trade  generally,  and  does  a  great  injury 
to  the  community.     I  am   perfectly  aware,  that  the  proposed 
alterations  must  affect  particular  interests  materially.  The  reduc- 
tion of  the  duty  on  the  raw  material  will  doubtless  create  uneasi- 
ness with  the  broker,  who  at  present  receives  his  commission 
before  the  duty  is  paid.  But  there  always  will  be  partial  interests 
that  must  sufier  for  a  time;  and  all  that  Parliament  can  do,  and 
all  that  it  is  its  duty  to  do,  is  to  deal  with  those  interests  which 
are  affected  by  any  great  change,  as  tenderly  as  possible.     One 
of  the  most  numerous  parties  interested  in  the  system  of  monopo- 


372  ALTERATION  OF  THE  LAWS 

ly,  and  most  industrious  in  exciting  a  feeling  out  of  doors  against 
the  intended  change,  are  those  persons  who,  under  the  prohibitory 
system,  are  benefited  by  smuggling.  They  are  very  naturally 
afraid  that  their  illegal  trade  will  suffer,  and  that,  if  there  be  no 
prohibition,  no  lady  will  fancy  a  French  article  when  she  can 
obtain  an  English  one ;  so  that,  in  fact,  the  ladies'  maids  and 
their  mistresses  are  not  the  least  part  of  the  confederacy  against 
the  proposed  arrangement. 

Having  now.  Sir,  stated  the  general  grounds  on  which  we  call 
upon  Parliament  to  give  its  support  to  Government,  in  the  im- 
portant change  which  is  contemplated,  I  shall  proceed  to  explain 
the  mode  in  which  it  is  intended  to  be  carried  into  execution. 
The  difficulty  with  which  Government  has  had  to  contend  is  this : 
— It  is  obvious,  that  if  v^e  were  to  postpone  the  remission  of  the 
duties,  an  impression  would  be  created  in  the  mind  of  the  con- 
sumer, that  by  deferring  his  purchases,  he  would  be  able  to  obtain 
tke  article  at  a  much  lower  rate  than  the  proposed  remission 
would  justify  him  in  supposing;  and  the  obvious  effect  of  such  a 
feeling  on  the  part  of  the  consumer  would  be  to  throw  some 
manufacturers  out  of  employment ;  a  circumstance,  which  ought, 
if  possible,  to  be  avoided.  It  appeared,  therefore,  to  his  Majesty's 
Government,  on  the  best  consideration  we  could  give  the  subject, 
that  the  wisest  course  we  could  take,  with  a  view  of  putting  an 
end  to  all  the  disquiet  which  at  present  exists  among  those  who 
depend  for  subsistence  on  their  daily  labour  in  that  manufacture, 
would  be  to  make  the  remission  of  the  duty  as  entire  and  as 
speedy  as  possible.  I  shall  therefore  propose,  that  the  remission, 
instead  of  taking  place  on  the  5th  of  July,  as  w^as  originally 
intended,  shall  take  place  as  early  as  the  25th  of  the  present 
month. 

Having  taken  this  course  to  prevent  stagnation  in  this  branch 
of  our  commerce,  to  obtain  employment  for  those  who  cannot 
live  without  it,  and  to  give  a  stimulus  to  the  manufacturer  to 
continue  his  present  speculations  and  extend  his  future  enterprises, 
his  Majesty's  Government  found  themselves  placed  in  a  situation 
of  some  difficulty,  with  regard  to  those  who  had  a  stock  of  the 
raw  material  on  hand — a  stock  which  will,  I  am  afraid,  from  the 
recent  sales  at  the  East-India  House,  be  found  to  be  not  incon- 
siderable. Still,  however,  as  we  conceived,  it  was  not  impossible 
to  come  to  a  satisfactory  arrangement.  The  arrangement  which 
we  preferred  was  this^to  allow  all  persons  having  a  stock  of 
raw  silk  on  hand,  or  a^ock  of  thrown  silk  not  in  a  manufactur- 
ed state,  to  return  it  int(3^vthe  warehouse,  to  reclaim  the  duty  on 
the  quantity  so  warehoused,  and  afterwai-ds  to  take  it  out  again, 
on  the  25th  of  March,  subject  only  to  the  new  rate  of  duty.  The 
result  of  this  arrangement  will  be,  that  the  present  stock  will  only 


RELATING  TO  THE  SILK  TRADE.  373 

be  inapplicable  to  the  purposes  of  the  manufacturer,  during  the 
interval  between  the  present  day  and  the  25th  of  March — an 
interval  so  short  as  to  prevent  any  suspension  from  taking  place 
in  the  employment  of  the  looms;  for  I  am  confident  that  the 
throwsters  will  never  think  of  stopping  their  operatives  for  so 
trifling  a  difficulty  as  this  measure  seems  likely  to  place  in  their 
way.  It  is  perfectly  true,  that  to  that  part  of  the  stock  which 
has  been  worked  and  distributed,  we  cannot  extend  the  new 
arrangement.  There  some  hardship  must  be  felt;  but  if  there 
be  any  thing  in  this  objection,  it  is  one  which  applies  to  all  simi- 
lar cases,  and  can  be  urged  at  all  times  when  alterations  come  to 
be  made  in  the  existing  duties.  But  it  is  probable,  that  this  incon- 
venience will  be  less  felt  in  the  present  instance,  since,  owing  to 
the  course  of  monopoly,  the  fluctuations  in  the  price  of  the  article 
have  frequently  been  greater  than  the  duty  now  remitted.  But 
whether  it  be  so  or  not,  it  would  be  an  endless  and  impracticable 
task  to  go  about  to  every  haberdasher's  shop  throughout  the 
country,  to  ascertain  the  precise  quantity  of  the  manufactured 
material  on  hand.  In  the  course  of  the  last  year  the  article 
fluctuated  from  sixty,  which  was  the  highest,  to  forty  shillings, 
in  the  course  of  a  few  months ;  and  the  Committee  will  perceive 
that  this  was  a  diflference  exceeding  the  rate  of  the  duty. 

These,  Sir,  are  the  principal  points  which  I  have  to  submit  to 
the  Committee,  relative  to  the  duties  on  silk.  I  now  come  to  the 
other  part  of  the  proposition ;  namely,  that  which  relates  to  the 
prohibition.  It  does  appear  to  me — and  on  this  point  I  am  sup- 
ported by  the  opinion  of  several  eminent  manufacturers — that, 
owing  to  the  monopoly  with  which  this  trade  has,  for  some  time, 
been  cursed,  we  are  not  upon  a  level  in  machinery,  in  working, 
and  in  colours,  with  the  manufacturers  of  the  Continent.  That 
we  are  incapable  of  rising  to  an  equality  with  them  on  this,  as 
we  have  excelled  them  in  other  branches  of  manufacture,  it  would 
be  difficult,  upon  any  rational  ground,  to  assert.  It  is  the  opinion 
of  many  experienced  individuals,  that  if  the  prohibition  were  taken 
off*,  we  should  soon,  not  only  be  equal  with,  but  even  surpass  them 
in  every  branch  of  the  manufacture ;  but  while  we  are  in  this 
state,  and  while  the  feeling  exists,  which  is  calculated  to  aggra- 
vate the  fact  to  our  disadvantage,  it  is  the  duty  of  Parliament  to 
approach  the  subject  with  some  regard  even  for  the  prejudices  of 
the  parties  concerned.  Instead,  therefore,  of  making  the  repeal 
of  the  prohibition  contemporaneous  with  the  remission  of  the 
duties,  I  propose  that  it  shall  continue  up  to  July,  1826.*     I  do 

*  The  newspapers  state,  that  "  at  this  part  of  Mr.  Huskisson's  speech,  there 
was  a  clapping  of  hands  among  the  Silk  Manufacturers,  with  whom  the 
gallery  was  filled." 
32 


374  ALTERATION  OF  THE  LAWS 

this  under  the  impression,  that  something  is  due  to  the  general 
feeling  entertained  upon  the  subject;  and  because  I  am,  com- 
paratively, indifferent  as  to  the  period  when  the  principle  shall 
come  into  full  operation,  so  that  I  can  but  see  a  prospect  of  its 
being  ultimately  established. 

Such,  Sir,  are  the  measures  which  I  have  to  submit  to  the 
Committee  in  the  shape  of  a  resolution ;  and  I  have  now  to  thank 
it  for  the  attention  with  which  I  have  been  listened  to,  while  I 
have  explained  the  principles  on  which  that  resolution  is  founded. 
There  is  one  part  of  the  arrangement  which  I  omitted  to  state ; 
but  it  is  of  so  much  importance  that  it  ought  to  be  mentioned.  I 
allude  to  a  provision  which  we  have  in  view,  for  allowing  all 
manufactured  goods  intended  for  exportation  to  be  deposited  in 
warehouses,  and  for  admitting  the  depositors  to  the  full  benefit  of 
the  drawback  on  the  goods  deposited.  The  advantage  of  this 
arrangement  will  be,  that  any  manufacturer  who  may  happen  to 
have  a  stock  immensely  large,  will  be  enabled  to  receive  the 
drawback  on  it  before  he  exports  it ;  and  will  thus  be  placed,  up 
to  a  certain  point,  on  a  level  with  those  who  have  purchased  the 
raw  material,  under  the  proposed  remission  of  duty. 

It  is  not.  Sir,  from  an  overweening  attachment  to  any  particular 
theory  of  political  economy,  that  I  have  been  induced  to  urge  these 
principles  upon  the  attention  of  the  Committee ;  but  because  I 
believe  them  to  be  such  as  no  men  can  call  in  question,  and  be- 
cause 1  am  convinced,  that  the  application  of  them,  in  this  parti- 
cular instance,  cannot  fail  to  be  eminently  serviceable  to  the 
country.  I  have,  in  the  course  of  my  pubUc  life,  seen  too  much 
of  the  uncertainty  of  theories,  to  be  an  enthusiast  in  favour  of 
any.  If  I  am  accused  of  leaning  strongly  to  liberal  principles 
with  regard  to  trade,  I  at  once  plead  guilty  to  the  charge :  but 
they  are  principles  founded  in  experience,  and  sanctioned  by  the 
highest  authorities.  In  my  opinion,  to  be  liberal  in  matters  of 
commercial  policy  is  to  remove  the  difficulties  and  jealousies 
which  have  hitherto  prevented  a  free  intercourse  between  different 
nations,  to  extend  to  each  the  advantages  and  enjoyments  of  the 
other,  and  to  promote  arts,  sciences,  and  civilization :  and  when 
we  speak  with  reference  to  the  commercial  interests  of  this 
country,  the  argument  is  strengthened  instead  of  being  weakened. 
Her  wealth,  her  industry,  her  talent,  her  prosperity,  are  all  so 
many  inducements  for  us  to  liberalize  the  system.  In  short.  Sir, 
I  would  be  liberal  to  other  countries,  because,  amongst  other 
reasons,  I  feel  that  by  being  so,  I  best  consult  the  interest  of 
my  own. 

The  right  honourable  gentleman  concluded,  amidst  loud  cheers 

from  all  parts  of  the  House,  which  were  again  re-echoed  by  the 

^    silk  manufacturers  in  the  Gallery,  with  moving  his  first  Resolu- 


RELATING  TO  THE  SILK  TRADE.  375 

tion;  viz,  "That  from  and  after  the  25th  of  March,  1824,  the 
several  duties  and  drawbacks  on  the  importation  and  exportation 
of  the  several  sorts  of  Silk  hereinafter  mentioned,  shall  cease  and 
determine;  and  also  that  from  and  after  the  5th  of  July,  1826, 
the  prohibitions  on  the  importation  of  Silk  Manufactures  shall 
cease  and  determine." 

Mr.  Baring  confessed,  that  the  impression  made  on  the  House  by  the  speech 
of  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  was  such  as  to  render  it  a  vain  hope, 
that  any  thing  which  he  could  himself  offer  would  remove  it.  He  was,  how- 
ever, satisfied,  that  the  proposed  measure  was  a  dangerous  experiment  for 
the  country,  and  that  those  who  proposed  it  were  completely  ruining  the  Silk 
Manufacture  of  England.  They  would  find  this  out,  when  they  had  deprived 
thousands  of  poor  manufacturers  of  their  bread.  All  the  shops  of  London 
would  be  full  of  silk  goods.  The  moment  this  plan  was  promulgated,  the 
object  of  all  who  had  capitals  embarked  in  the  manufacture  would  be  to 
disentangle  those  capitals ;  and  those  who  had  no  capital,  except  their  labour, 
would  be  left  to  struggle  for  themselv^and  perhaps  to  perish  for  want. 
Mr.  Hume  denied  that  the  measure  in  question  was  a  mere  experiment.  It 
proceeded  upon  such  sound  principles,  that  there  could  be  no  reasonable 
doubt  of  its  success.  The  several  Resolutions  were  agreed  to,  and  a  Bill 
was  brought  in  founded  thereupon ;  which  passed  on  the  25th. 


(     376     ) 


EXPOSITION  OF  THE  FOREIGN  COMMERCIAL 
POLICY  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

MARCH  25,  1825. 

The  House  having  resolved  itself  into  a  committee  of  the  whole  House,  to 
which  several  of  the  Customs  and  Excise  Consolidation  Acts  were  referred, 

Mr.  HusKissoiv  rose  and  spoke,  in  substance,  as  follows : — 
Sir: — In  requesting  the  attention  of  the  Committee,  whilst  I 
state  (in  continuation  of  the  subject  which  I  had  the  honour  to 
open  on  Monday  last)  the  alterations  which  I  propose  to  recom- 
mend in  the  Duties  levied  upon  the  importation  of  materials  em- 
ployed in  some  of  our  principal  manufactures,  and  also  in  the 
Prohibitory  Duties  now  imposed  upon  the  manufactured  produc- 
tions of  other  countries,  I  need  scarcely  bespeak  the  disposition 
of  the  Committee  to  countenance  the  principle  of  these  proposals, 
so  far  as  they  shall  be  found  not  inconsistent  with  the  protection 
of  our  own  industry.  I  feel  the  more  assured  of  this  general 
disposition  in  the  Committee,  not  only  as  it  was  manifested  on 
the  former  evening,  but  also  from  the  experience  which  the 
House  and  the  Country  now  have  of  the  benefits  to  be  derived 
from  the  removal  of  vexatious  restraints,  and  meddling  interfer- 
ence, in  the  concerns  of  internal  industry  or  foreign  commerce. 

However  confident  either  my  right  honourable  friend,  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  or  I  myself,  may  have  been,  that 
the  changes  which,  since  the  restoration  of  peace,  it  has  been  our 
duty  to  propose  in  our  commercial  policy,  would  be  attended 
with  the  most  salutary  consequences,  it  was  impossible  for  us — 
at  least  it  was  impossible  for  me — not  to  feel  that,  in  the  applica- 
tion of  the  soundest  principles,  the  result,  from  unforeseen  causes, 
may  sometimes  disappoint  our  expectations.  It  became  us,  there- 
fore, to  watch  the  issue  of  each  experiment,  and  not  to  attempt 
too  much  at  once,  until  we  had  felt  our  way,  and  until  the  public 
were  prepared  to  accompany  us  in  our  further  progress.  But  I 
think  I  am  not  too  bold  in  stating  that,  in  every  instance,  as  far 
as  we  have  hitherto  gone,  not  only  have  the  fears  and  forebodings 
of  the  particular  interests  by  which  we  were  opposed  proved  to 
be  visionary  and  unfounded,  but  the  expectations  of  our  most 
sanguine  supporters  have  been  more  than  realized.  In  these 
advantages,  therefore,  the  opponents  of  the  measures  by  which 
they  were  produced,  must,  on  the  one  hand,  find  a  matter  of  con- 


COMMERCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  377 

solation,  that  their  admonitions  did  not. persuade — that  their  argu- 
ments did  not  convince — that  their  predictions  did  not  intimidate ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  past  success  is,  to  the  supporters  of  those 
measures,  a  source  of  encouragement  to  follow  up  the  same  path, 
as  Hkely  to  lead  us  still  further  in  the  career  of  public  prosperity. 

The  Committee  will  recollect,  that,  when  the  change  was 
made  last  year  in  the  system  of  our  Silk  trade,  one  great  altera- 
tion was  the  substitution  of  an  ad  valorem  duty  of  30/.  per  cent., 
instead  of  an  absolute  prohibition  of  all  articles  manufactured  of 
silk.  A  doubt  was  suggested  at  the  time,  and  in  that  doubt  I 
participated,  whether  30/.  per  cent,  was  not  too  high  a  duty ; —  ^ 
not  too  high,  indeed,  according  to  the  apprehensions  of  the  British  ^ 
manufacturer  (for  he  stated  it  would  be  quite  inadequate  to  his  ■ 
protection),  but  whether  its  amount  would  not  still  leave  some 
latitude  to  the  smuggler.  This  latter  ground  of  doubt  still 
remains — the  former,  I  believe,  is  already  pretty  well  removed. 
If  alarm  now  exist  anywhere,  and  I  know  it  does  exist,  it  is 
transferred  to  the  other  side  of  the  Channel,  and  is  to  be  found 
ooly  among  the  manufacturers  of  France,  in  consequence  of  the 
great  progress  and  improvement,  since  made  in  this  country,  in 
every  branch  of  the  Silk  trade. 

Having  thus  ruled,  that  30/.  per  cent,  is  the  highest  duty  which 
could  be  maintained  for  the  protection  of  a  manufacture,  in  every 
part  of  which  we  were  most  behind  foreign  countries — the  only 
extensive  manufacture,  which,  on  the  score  of  general  inferiority, 
stood  in  need  of  special  protection, — surely  it  was  time  to  inquire 
in  what  degree  our  other  great  manufactures  were  protected,  and 
to  consider  if  there  be  no  inconvenience,  no  unfitness,  no  positive 
injury  caused  to  ourselves,  no  suspicion  and- odium  excited  in 
foreign  countries,  by  duties  which  are  either  absolutely  prohibi- 
tory,— or,  if  the  articles  to  which  they  attach  admit  of  being 
smuggled,  which  have  no  other  effect  than  to  throw  the  business 
of  importing  them  into  the  hands  of  the  smuggler. 

To  bring  this  subject  more  particularly  before  the  House,  I 
will  begin  with  our  greatest  manufacture,  that  of  Cotton.  It  will 
not  be  denied,  that,  in  this  manufacture,  we  are"  superior  to  all 
other  countries ;  and  that,  by  the  cheapness  and  quality  of  our 
goods,  we  undersell  our  competitors  in  all  the  markets  of  the 
world,  which  are  open  alike  to  us  and  to  them.  I  do  not  except 
the  market  of  the  East  Indies  (the  first  seat  of  the  manufacture), 
of  which  it  may  be  said  to  be  the  staple,  where  the  raw  material 
is  grown,  where  labour  is  cheaper  than  in  any  other  country,  and 
from  which  England  and  Europe  were,  for  a  long  time,  supplied 
with  cotton  goods.  Now,  however,  large  quantities  of  British 
cottons  are  sold  in  India  at  prices  lower  than  they  can  be  pro- 
duced by  the  native  manufacturers.  If  any  possible  doubt  could 
32*  2X 


378  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  FOREIGN 

remain,  that  this  manufacture  has  nothing  to  apprehend  from 
competition  anywhere,  and,  least  of  all,  from  a  competition  in 
our  own  home  market,  it  must  vanish  when  I  state  to  the  Com- 
mittee, that  the  official  value  of  cotton  goods,  exported  last  year, 
amounted  to  the  astonishing  sum  of  30,795,000/. ;  and  yet,  such 
is  the  influence  of  old  prejudices,  that  in  our  books  of  rates,  the 
duties, — will  the  Committee  believe  it? — stand  at  this  moment  as 
follows : — on  certain  descriptions  of  cotton  goods,  75/.  per  cent., 
on  others  67/.  105.  per  cent,  on  a  third  class  50/.  per  cent. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  smile  at  the  discriminating  shrewdness 
which  made  these  distinctions,  and  which  could  discover  that, 
with  a  protection  of  67/.  per  cent.,  ten  shillings  more  were  want- 
ing, to  make  the  balance  incline  on  the  side  of  the  British  manu- 
facturer, in  the  market  of  his  own  country.  These  absurd  duties, 
and  equally  absurd  distinctions,  attach  alike  upon  the  productions 
of  our  own  subjects  in  the  East  Indies,  as  upon  those  of  foreign 
countries;  whilst  our  manufactures  are  admitted,  almost  duty 
free,  into  all  the  territories  of  the  East  India  Company.  Instead 
of  this  graduated,  but  monstrous  scale,  I  propose  to  admit  all 
foreign  articles  manufactured  wholly  of  cotton,  whether  from  the 
East  Indies  or  elsewhere,  at  one  uniform  duty  of  10/.  per  cent.; 
which,  I  conceive,  is  sufficient  to  countervail  the  small  duty 
levied  upon  the  importation  of  the  raw  material  into  this  country, 
and  the  duty  upon  any  other  articles  used  in  the  manufacture. 
Any  protection,  beyond  this,  I  hold  to  be  not  only  unnecessary 
but  mischievous. 

From  cotton,  I  proceed  to  Woollens,  one  of  our  oldest  manu- 
factures— that  which  has  been  most  nursed  and  dandled  by  the 
legislature — a  favourite  child,  which,  like  other  favourites,  has,  I 
suspect,  suffered,  rather  than  profited,  by  being  spoiled  and  petted 
in  rearing ;  whilst  its  younger  brother  of  cotton,  coming  into  the 
world  much  later,  has  thriven  better  by  being  much  more  left  to 
rough  it,  and  make  its  own  way  in  life.  Some  detailed  and 
authentic  history  of  the  paternal  and  zealous  soHcitude  with  which 
our  ancestors  in  this  House  interposed  to  protect  the  woollen 
manufacture  (should  such  a  history  ever  be  written),  will  alone 
preserve  future  generations  from  incredulity,  in  respect  to  the 
extent  to  w^hich  legislative  interference  was  once  carried  in  this 
branch  of  internal  industry.  Within  my  own  time,  regulating 
Acts,  dealing  with  every  minute  process  of  the  manufacture,  have 
been  repealed  by  the  score ;  as  have  also  heaps  of  other  laws, 
equally  salutary  and  wise,  prescribing  the  mode  of  clipping  wool, 
its  package,  the  time  to  be  allowed,  and  the  forms  to  be  observed, 
in  removing  it  from  one  place  to  another — laws,  the  ,violation  of 
which,  in  some  instances,  amounted  to  felony,  but  which  now  no 
longer  disgrace  the  Statute-book.     Fortunately  for  the  cotton 


COMMERCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  379 

manufacture,  it  was  never  favoured  with  this  species  of  protec- 
tion, so  abundantly  lavished  upon  woollen,  and  which  was  only 
withdrawn  last  year  from  silk,  by  the  repeal  of  the  Spitalfields* 
Acts. 

I  am  well  aware  that  this  retrospect  to  former  systems  may  be 
wearisome  to  the  Committee,  but  it  is  not  without  its  importance, 
if  it  were  only  to  strengthen  us  against  falling  again  into  errone- 
ous courses.  I  trust,  therefore,  that  I  may  be  allowed  to  state, 
from  official  documents,  what  has  been  the  relative  progress  of 
our  cotton  and  woollen  manufactures,  since  the  year  1765,  being 
a  period  of  sixty  years  : 

The  quantity  of  cotton  wool  imported  into  Great  Britain,  in  the 
year  ended  the  5th,  of  January  1765,  was  about  3,360,000  lbs. 
The  value  of  cotton  goods  exported  200,000/. 

The  quantity  of  cotton  wool  imported  in  the  year  ended  the 
5th  of  January  1825,  was  147,174,000  lbs.  The  value  of  cotton 
goods  exported  30,795,000/. 

The  quantity  of  lamb  and  sheeps'  wool  imported  in  the  year 
1765,  was  1,926,000  lbs.  The  value  of  woollen  goods  exported 
5,159,000/. 

The  quantity  of  lamb  and  sheeps'  wool  imported  in  the  year 
1825,  was  23,858,000  lbs.  The  value  of  woollen  goods  exported 
6,926,000/. 

Perhaps  I  may  just  add,  that  the  quantity  of  raw  silk  imported 
in  1765,  was  418,000  lbs.;  and  in  1825,  3,047,000 lbs. 

In  submitting  these  satisfactory  statements,  I  cannot  refrain 
from  calling  the  attention  of  the  Committee  to  one  observation 
which  they  suggest  to  my  mind.  It  must,  I  think,  be  admitted, 
that,  in  the  year  1765,  the  whole  quantity  of  sheeps'  wool  grown 
in  this  country  could  not  be  nearly  so  great  as  at  present,  when, 
owing  to  the  many  improvements  in  husbandry,  and  particularly 
in  the  art  of  raising  winter  food  for  the  flocks,  the  number  of 
sheep  must  be  greatly  increased ;  and  yet  the  quantity  of  wool 
imported  in  that  year  was  not  one-twelfth  of  the  quantity  imported 
in  1825.  Out  of  this  aggregate  supply  from  home  growth,  and 
foreign  import,  the  whole  wants  of  our  own  population  were  sup- 
plied in  1765,  leaving  to  the  amount  of  "5,159,000/.  of  manufac- 
tured woollens  for  exportation.  In  the  year  1825,  out  of  the 
aggregate  of  the  home  growth,  and  of  an  import  of  wool  so 
greatly  exceeding  that  of  1765,  the  whole  manufactured  export 
is  6,926,000/.,  being  an  increase  over  that  of  1765,  of  only 
1,765,000/.  Now,  let  me  ask  the  Committee,  how  often,  in  these 
sixty  years,  has  the  increase  of  consumption  in  cotton  and  silk 
clothing  been  contemplated  with  alarm  and  jealousy,  by  the  wool- 
grower,  and  the  woollen  manufacturer ;  by  the  descendants  of 
those  who  passed  laws  (repealed  only  within  these  last  ten  years), 


380  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  FOREIGN 

compelling  us  to  be  buried  in  woollens?  And  yet,  what  was  our 
consumption  of  cotton — that  other  great  article  of  clothing? — in 
1765,  next  to  nothing;  and  what  is  it  now?  greater  probably 
than  the  whole  amount  of  our  woollens,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
consumption  of  silk,  which  has  also  increased  eight-fold.  Can 
any  statements  show  more  decidedly  the  wonderful  increase  in 
the  power  of  consumption  by  this  country  ?  Can  any  thing  more 
forcibly  illustrate  that  general  position  to  which  I  have  already 
adverted,  and  which  cannot  be  too  strongly  impressed  on  those 
who  legislate  for  the  interests  of  commerce  and  industry — that 
the  means  which  lead  to  increased  consumption,  and  which  are 
the  foundation,  as  that  consumption  is  the  proof,  of  our  prosperity 
will  be  most  effectually  promoted  by  an  unrestrained  competition, 
not  only  between  the  capital  and  industry  of  different  classes  in 
the  same  country,  but  also  by  extending  that  competition  as  much 
as  possible  to  all  other  countries. 

The  present  rates  of  duty  on  foreign  woollens  vary  from  50/. 
to  67Z.  105.  per  cent.  I  am  satisfied  that  15/.  per  cent,  will  answer 
every  purpose  of  reasonable  and  fair  protection ;  and  this  is  the 
reduction,  therefore,  which  I  intend  to  submit  to  the  Committee. 

The  next  great  branch  of  manufacture  is  that  of  Linens.  This 
also  has  been  the  object  of  more  nursing  and  interference  than 
were  good  for  its  healthy  and  vigorous  growth.  But  not  to  weary 
the  Committee  with  details,  I  will  proceed  at  once  to  state,  that 
the  present  duties,  which  are  very  complicated,  fluctuate  from  40/. 
to  180/.  per  cent,  and  that  I  propose  to  simplify  and  reduce  them, 
by  putting  them  all  at  25/.  per  cent. 

In  like  manner  the  duties  on  Paper,  which  are  now  altogether 
prohibitory,  I  propose  to  reduce,  so  that  they  shall  not  exceed 
double  the  amount  of  the  excise  duty  payable  upon  that  article 
manufactured  in  this  country.  This  reduction  will  extend  to 
printed  books,  which  now  pay,  if  in  any  way  bound,  6/.  10s.  and 
if  unbound  5/.  the  cwt.  The  amount  of  these  duties  is  sufficient, 
as  I  have  been  assured,  to  lead  to  the  smuggling  of  books  printed 
abroad  ;  and  I  am  sure  that,  for  the  character  of  this  country, — 
for  the  interest  of  science  and  literature — the  importation  of 
foreign  works,  which  do  not  interfere  with  any  copyright  in 
England,  ought  not  to  be  discouraged.  I  should,  therefore,  pro- 
pose to  lower  these  duties,  regard  being  had  to  copyrights,  which 
may  require  specific  provisions,  to  3/.  105.  and  3/.  respectively. 

Upon  Glass,  the  present  duty,  which  is  80/.  I  propose  to  lower 
to  20/.  per  cent. ;  and,  instead  of  the  heavy  duty,  so  justly  com- 
plained of,  upon  common  glass  bottles,  amounting  to  I6s.  2d.  a. 
dozen  (which,  now  that  wine  is  reduced  in  price,  amounts  in 
many  cases  to  more  than  half  its  value),  I  intend  to  recommend 
a  duty  of  35.  only. 


COMMERCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  ggl 

Upon  all  descriptions  of  foreign  Earthenware,  an  article  with 
which  we  supply  so  many  other  countries,  the  present  duty  is 
75/.  per  cent. ;  the  effect  of  which  is,  that  ornamented  porcelain  is 
abundantly  smuggled  from  the  continent.  I  propose  to  reduce 
the  duty  on  earthenware,  and  plain  porcelain  goods  to  15/.,  and 
upon  porcelain,  gilt,  or  ornamented,  to  30/.  per  cent. ;  which  is 
quite  as  much  as  can  be  demanded,  without  throwing  this  branch 
of  import  into  the  hands  of  the  smuggler. 

To  foreign  Gloves,  another  manufacture,  now  altogether  pro- 
hibited, but  which  are  to  be  bought  in  every  shop,  I  apply  the 
same  observation,  and  the  same  measure  of  duty,  30/.  per  cent. 

I  now  come  to  the  metallic  substances. — The  amount  of  the 
reduction  which  I  propose  upon  Iron,,  from  6/.  105.  to  1/.  10s.  a 
ton,  has  already  been  stated  by  my  right  honourable  friend,  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  It  afforded  me  great  satisfaction, 
on  that  occasion,  to  hear  the  liberal  sentiments  avowed  by  a 
worthy  alderman,*  who  is  very  extensively  concerned  in  the  Iron 
Works  of  this  country.  His  unqualified  approbation  of  this  im- 
portant change,  I  had  flattered  myself,  would  have  been  echoed 
by  all  the  other  Iron  masters;  but  in  this  expectation  I  have  been 
disappointed.  Deputations  from  the  mining  districts  have  since 
been  at  the  Board  of  Trade.  I  have  heard  their  representations, 
— but  I  have  not  been  convinced  by  them.  I  am  bound  to  say, 
that  they  fully  partake  of  the  character  of  nearly  all  the  com- 
munications (and  they  are  many)  which  I  have  received  from 
those  whose  interests  in  manufacture  or  trade  are  aflfected,  or 
likely,  in  their  apprehensions,  to  be  affected,  by  the  changes  which 
I  am  now  submitting  to  the  Committee.  They  are  all  great 
^  advocates  for  free  trade  generally,. all  alike  forward  in  their  ap- 
probation of  the  principles  on  which  the  Government  is  now  act- 
ing ;  but  each  has  some  reason  to  assign,  quite  conclusive,  I  have 
no  doubt,  in  his  own  mind,  why  his  peculiar  calling  should  be 
made  an  exception.  All  these  special  reasons,  I  own,  have  only 
satisfied  me,  that  the  general  rule  of  free  competition  is  the  best 
for  all  trades,  as  it  is  certainly  the  best  for  the  public ;  though  I 
can  quite  understand,  that  a  privilege  or  monopoly  given  to  any 
one  branch,  whilst  it  is  denied  to  all  others,  might  be  an  advan- 
tage to  that  particular  trade.  But  is  it  fit  that  in  an  article  like 
iron,  of  univei'sal  use  in  all  our  manufactures,  in  all  the  arts  and 
conveniences  of  life,  in  agriculture,  in  houses,  in  ships,  we  should 
now  be  suffering  from  a  scarcity  of  that  metal  ? — that  we  should 
submit  to  have  every  article,  in  which  it  is  used,  greatly  increas- 
ed in  price,  as  well  as  deteriorated,  perhaps,  in  quality,  on  ac- 
count of  the  enormous  duty  imposed  upon  foreign  iron,  not  for 

*  Mr.  Alderman  Thompson. 


JL,P. 


382  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  FOREIGN 

the  purpose  of  revenue,  but  for  that  of  protection, — a  duty  which 
amounts  nearly  to  a  monopoly  in  favour  of  the  British  Iron  mas- 
ters'?     Has  not  the  price  of  British  iron,  of  late,  been  almost 
doubled?     Have   not   all   the  Iron  masters  demands   for   iron 
beyond  what  they  can  supply  1    Is  there  no  risk  or  danger  to  our  • 
hardware  manufactures  at  Birmingham  and  Sheffield  from  this 
state  of  things  1    Can  they  execute  the  orders  which  they  receive 
from  abroad,  if  iron  continues  at  its  present  price,  or  is  to  rise 
still  higher?     How  many  thousand  workmen  will  be  thrown  out 
of  employ,  if  this  branch  of  trade  be  lost  to  this  country?     Is 
there  no  reason  to  apprehend  its  being  transferred  to  Germany, 
the  Netherlands,  and  other  parts  of  the  Continent  ?     I  have  been 
assured,  upon  authority  not  likely  to  mislead  me,  that  very  exten- 
sive orders,  which  have  lately  been  received  at  Birmingham  from 
the  United  States,  and  other  parts,  have  been  refused,  because  the 
great  rise  in  the  price  of  iron  does  not  admit  of  the  articles  being 
made  within  the  limits  specified  in  those  orders.     And  what  is 
the  consequence  ?     They  are  transferred  to  the  Continent ;  and 
the  share  of  this  country  in  their  execution,  is  confined  to  making 
the  models  and  drawings,  which  are  prepared  here,  for  the  guid- 
ance of  the  foreign  artificers.     It  is,  therefore,  of  the  greatest 
importance,  that  the  duties  on  foreign  iron  should  be  reduced,  in 
reference,  not  only  to  the  interests  of  the  consumer  in  this  coun- 
try, but  also  to  the  well-being  of  those  numerous  classes  who  are 
employed  in  all  the  manufactures  of  this  metal  for  foreign  coun- 
tries.    The  necessity  of  this  reduction  becomes  the  more  urgent 
from  the  fact,  that,  at  this  time,  the  whole  produce  of  the  British 
mines  is  not  adequate  to  supply  the  present  demand.     But,  quite 
independent  of  thrs  evil,  which  may  be  temporary,  I  own  it  ap- 
pears to  me,  that  it  would  be  of  great  advantage  to  the  manufac- 
tures of  this  country  to  be  able  to  procure  foreign  iron,  particu- 
larly that  of  Sweden,  on  easy  terms.     Swedish  iron  is  known  to 
be  superior  to  our  own;  its  admixture  with  British  iron  w^ould 
improve  the  quality  of  our  manufactures ;  they  would  be  held  in 
higher  estimation,  and  not  only  be  able  to  command  a  more 
decided  preference  in  foreign  markets,  but  become  more  valuable 
for  all  the  purposes  to  which  iron  is  applied  in  our  domestic  con- 
sumption.    Take,   for   instance,    the   important   article  of  iron 
cables,  now  so  generally  used  by  our  shipping;  it, will  not  be 
denied,  that,  by  a  due  proportion  of  Swedish  iron  in  their  com- 
position, their  strength  and  tenacity  would  be  improved.     Here, 
then,  an  important  advantage  to  our  naval  interests,  connected 
too  with  the  safety  of  every  ship  using  iron  cables,  is  directly 
counteracted  by  the  present  high  duties  on  foreign  iron.     The 
result  of  its  more  free  admission,  I  am  persuaded,  will  be,  not 
only  to  check  those  extreme  fluctuations,  which,  of  late  years, 


COMMERCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  383 

we  have  witnessed  in  the  price  of  iron — at  one  time  so  low  as  to 
be  ruinous  to  the  producer,  at  another  so  high,  as  to  be  greatly- 
distressing  to  all  the  other  interests  of  the  country — but  also  by 
the  improvements  to  which  it  will  lead,  to  extend  the  use  and 
consumption  gf  manufactured  iron  (the  bulk  of  which  will  always 
be  our  own)  both  at  home  and  abroad.  This  increased  demand, 
joined  to  a  more  steady  price,  will,  ere  long,  more  than  compen- 
sate to  the  British  iron-masters  the  temporary  inconvenience,  if 
any,  which  some  of  them  apprehend  from  the  extent  to  which  it 
is  proposed  to  carry  the  reduction  of  this  duty. 

The  next  metal  upon  which  I  have  to  propose  a  reduction  is 
Copper.     The  duty,  which  in  1790  did  not   exceed   10/.,  now 
amounts  to  54/.  a  ton.     This  high  duty  is  not  less  injurious  to  the 
manufacturer  than  the  high  duty  on  iron.     Now,  if  the  price  of 
our  copper  manufactures  is  to  exceed  that  of  the  hke  articles  of 
foreign  manufacture,  in  any  thing  like  a  proportion  to  this  enor- 
mous duty,  it  is  evident,  that,  even  assuming  some  superiority  in 
the  skill  of  our  workmen,  we  must  ultimately  be  driven  from  the 
markets  of  other  countries.     The  quantity  of  copper  produced  by 
the  English  mines  amounts  to  about  10,000  tons  annually,  of 
which  something  less  than  one-half  suffices  for  the  home  con- 
sumption.    This  being  the  proportion,  do  not  the  owners  of  cop- 
per mines  see,  that  if,  by  the  high  price  at  which  the  manufactu- 
rer buys  copper,  he  should  lose  his  hold  upon  the  foreign  market, 
they  must  be  injured  by  the  effects  of  their  own  monopoly  ?    The 
annual  supply  required  would  then  be  diminished  to  less  than 
5,000  tons  ;  and  they  would,  therefore,  run  the  risk  of  losing  more 
by  the  continuance  of  the  present  high  duties,  than  by  the  repeal 
of  them.    These  prohibitory  duties  have  already,  in  my  judgment, 
been  attended  with  serious  injury.     They  have  prevented  copper, 
not  only  in  an  unmanufactured,  but  in  an  imperfectly  smelted 
state,  from  coming  into  this  country.     This  metal  exists  in  great 
abundance,  not  only  in  several  parts  of  Europe,  but  also  in  some 
of  the  new  States  of  America.     It  would  have  been  sent  here,  as 
it  used  to  be,  in  an  imperfect  state,  in  payment  for  British  manu- 
factures.    Here  it  would  have  undergone  the  process  of  purify- 
ing, of  rolling,  or  of  being  otherwise  prepared  for  consumption,  by 
the  means  of  our  superior  machinery,  had  it  not  been  kept  away 
by  impolitic  restrictions.     They  operated  as  a  bounty  upon  the 
transfer  of  our  capital  to  other  countries,  and  as  a  premium  to 
encourage  the  inhabitants  of  those  countries  to  do  for  themselves 
that  which,  greatly  to  our  own  advantage,  we  should  otherwise 
have  continued  to  do  for  them.     At  the  same  time  I  am  aware, 
that  considerable  capitals  have  been  invested  in  our  copper  mines, 
under  the  encouragement  given  by  the  present  monopoly,  and 
how  difficult  it  is  to  do  all  that  the  public  interest  would  require. 


384  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  FOREIGN 

without  injury  to  those  particular  interests.  This,  in  almost  every 
instance,  is  the  most  arduous  part  of  the  task  which  a  sense  of 
public  duty  has  imposed  upon  me.  In  the  present  case,  however, 
I  believe  that  I  may  safely,  and  I  hope  with  advantage  to  both 
parties,  propose  to  reduce  the  duty  on  copper  from  54/.  to  27/.  a 
ton ;  without  committing  myself,  not  to  recommend,  at  a  future 
period,  even  a  further  reduction,  if  it  should  appear  that  the  pre- 
sent limit  is  not  sufficient  to  enable  our  manufacturers  to  preserve 
their  foreign  market,  and  that,  at  a  lower  rate  of  duty,  no  great 
or  sudden  check  would  be  given  to  the  British  mines. 

There  is  another  metallic  substance,  in  some  degree  connected 
with  the  copper  manufacture,  the  duty  upon  which  ought  to  be 
considerably  lowered. — I  mean  Zinc,  commonly  known  in  trade 
under  the  name  of  Spelter.  This  semi-metal  enters,  in  the  pro- 
portion of  about  one-third,  I  understand,  into  the  composition  of 
brass.  The  selling  price  of  spelter,  on  the  Continent,  is  about  20/. 
a  ton,  here  about  45/.,  and  the  duty  is  28/.  Now,  with  a  duty 
upon  copper  of  54/.  a  ton,  and  upon  spelter  of  28/.,  what  chance 
can  we  have  of  maintaining  a  footing  in  the  foreign  market  for 
any  description  of  brass  wares  ?  None ; — and  accordingly  I  am 
assured  that,  at  this  moment,  our  briskest  demand  in  this  trade  is 
in  the  preparation  of  moulds  and  patterns  for  the  foreign  manu- 
facturer. Upon  spelter,  I  shall  propose  to  reduce  the  duty  about 
one  half.  I  feel  that  I  ought  to  go  still  lower,  and  perhaps  I  shall, 
after  ^making  further  inquiry,  in  some  future  stage;  for  I  am  con- 
vinced that  the  mines  of  this  country  cannot  successfully  com- 
pete with  those  of  Silesia,  in  which  spelter  is  principally  pro- 
duced. 

Upon  Tin,  the  present  duty  is  excessive.  It  is  an  article  of 
which  we  have  more  the  command,  and  is  of  less  extensive  con- 
sumption. I  propose,  however,  to  reduce  the  duty  more  than  one 
half— from  5/.  95.  Sd.  to  2/.  10^.  the  cwt. 

The  duty  on  Lead  is  now  20/.  per  cent,  ad  valorem;  this  I 
propose  to  lower  to  15/.,  which,  I  hope,  will  be  sufficient  to  admit 
of  a  foreign  import,  and  to  check  the  present  exorbitant  price  of 
that  metal.  If  I  shall  find,  upon  further  investigation,  that  this  is 
not  likely  to  be  the  case,  I  shall  reserve  to  myself  to  suggest,  on 
some  future  stage,  a  further  reduction  in  this  duty  also. 

There  are  several  other  enumerated  articles  in  the  Book  of 
Rates,  upon  which  I  propose  to  reduce  the  duties  upon  the  same 
principle.  I  should  only  weary  the  Committee  by  going  through 
the  detail  of  these  alterations — they  will  be  found  in  the  schedule 
annexed  to  one  of  the  resolutions  which  I  shall  submit  for  their 
consideration.  Perhaps,  however,  I  ought  to  state  that,  although 
every  thing  which  can,  by  any  accident,  be  considered  as  an 
object  of  jealousy  to  any  of  our  manufactures,  is  enumerated*  by 


COMMERCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  385 

name  in  the  Book  of  Rates,  there  are  other  things  not  directly 
connected  with  trade  or  merchandize,  but  with  art,  science,  and 
literature,  and  deriving  their  value  solely  from  such  connexion, 
which,  whenever  they  are  brought  into  this  country,  cost  the  per- 
son who  imports  them  60/.  per  cent,  on  their  estimated  value, 
under  a  sweeping  clause,  at  the  end  of  that  book,  which  provides, 
that  upon  all  goods,  wares,  and  merchandize,  being,  either  in  part 
or  wholly,  manufactured,  and  not  enumerated,  a  duty  of  50/.  per 
cent,  shall  be  payable,  and  a  duty  of  20/.  per  cent,  upon  all  non- 
enumerated  goods,  not  being  either  in  part  or  wholly  manufac- 
tured. Now  this  duty  of  50/.  per  cent.,  of  little  value  to  the  Ex- 
chequer, and  attaching  principally  upon  such  objects  as  I  have 
adverted  to,  is,  I  am  sure,  one  which  the  Committee  will  concur 
with  me  in  thinking  ought  to  be  reduced.  The  instances  in  which 
this  high  duty  attaches  on  articles  of  curiosity  and  interest,  are 
not  very  numerous  ;  they  are  sometimes  ludicrous,  perhaps,  but 
not  very  creditable  to  the  good  taste  and  character  of  this  coun- 
try. One  instance,  which  I  recollect  to  have  heard,  I  will  men- 
tion. A  gentleman  imported  a  mummy  from  Egypt.  The  offi- 
cers of  the  customs  were  not  a  little  puzzled  by  this  non-enumera- 
ted article.  These  remains  of  mortality,  muscles  and  sinews, 
pickled  and  preserved  three  thousand  years  ago,  could  not  be 
deemed  a  raw  material ;  and  therefore,  upon  deliberation,  it  was 
determined  to  tax  them  as  a  manufactured  article.  The  importer, 
anxious  that  his  mummy  should  not  be  seized,  stated  its  value  at 
400/.  The  declaration  cost  him  200/.,  being  at  the  rate  of  50/. 
per  cent,  on  the  manufactured  merchandize  which  he  was  about 
to  import  I  propose  to  reduce  the  duty  on  manufactured  arti- 
cles, not  enumerated,  from  50/.  to  20/.,  and  on  articles  unmanu- 
factured, from  20/.  to  10/.  per  cent 

The  result  of  the  alterations,  which  I  have  now  stated  to  the 
Committee,  will  be  this — that  upon  foreign  manufactured  articles 
generally,  where  the  duty  is  imposed  for  the  protection  of 
our  own  manufactures,  and  not  for  the  purpose  of  collecting 
revenue,  that  duty  will,  in  no  instance,  exceed  30/.  per  cent  If 
the  article  be  not  manufactured  much  cheaper  or  much  better 
abroad  than  at  home,  such  a  duty  is  ample  for  protection.  If  it 
be  manufactured  so  much  cheaper,  or  so  much  better  abroad,  as 
to  render  30/.  per  cent  insufficient,  my  answer  is,  first,  that  a 
greater  protection  is  only  a  premium  to  the  smuggler;  and, 
secondly,  that  there  is  no  wisdom  in  attempting  to  bolster  up  a 
competition,  which  this  degree  of  protection  will  not  sustain.  Let 
the  state  have  the  tax,  which  is  now  the  reward  of  the  smuggler, 
and  let  the  consumer  have  the  better  and  cheaper  article,  without 
the  painful  consciousness  that  he  is  consulting  his  own  conve- 
nience at  the  expense  of  daily  violating  the  laws  of  his  country. 
33  2Y 


T 


386  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  FOREIGN 

When  my  right  honourable  friend,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exche- 
quer, is  labouring  to  put  an  end,  as  fast  as  he  can,  to  the  evils  of 
smuggling,  by  lowering  the  duties,  increased  during  the  pressure 
of  the  war,  and  for  the  purposes  of  revenue,  upon  articles  of  con- 
sumption, the  last  thing  which  we  ought  to  countenance,  is  the 
continuance  of  high  duties,  not  for  the  benefit  of  the  Exchequer, 
but  for  the  supposed  protection  of  certain  branches  of  manufac- 
ture. Is  the  illicit  importation  of  foreign  spirits  to  be  checked, 
merely  to  give  fresh  life  to  the  smuggling  of  cambrics  and  lace 
from  Flanders,  or  of  gloves  and  porcelain  from  France  1  I  can- 
not think  that  gentlemen  are  aware  to  what  an  extent  all  the 
moral  evils  of  smuggling  are  encouraged  by  the  prohibition  of 
these  comparatively  petty  articles.  Let  any  one  go  down  to 
Brighton,  and  wander  along  the  coast  from  thence  to  Hastings; 
I  will  undertake  to  say,  that  he  shall  most  easily  find,  at  every 
place  he  comes  to,  persons  who  will  engage  to  deliver  to  him, 
within  ten  days  or  a  fortnight,  any  prohibited  article  of  manufac- 
ture, which  he  can  name,  and  almost  in  any  quantity,  upon  an 
advance  of  30/.  per  cent,  beyond  the  prime  cost  at  Paris.  What 
is  the  consequence  of  such  a  system  ?  A  number  of  families,  that 
would  otherwise  be  valuable  and  industrious  members  of  society^ 
exist,  and  train  up  their  children,  in  a  state  of  perpetual  warfare 
with  the  law,  till  they  insensibly  acquire  the  habits  and  feelings 
of  outlaws,  standing  rather  in  the  relation  of  pirates,  than  of 
fellow-subjects,  to  the  rest  of  the  community.  And  is  this  abomina- 
\ble  system  to  be  tolerated,  not  from  any  over-ruling  necessity  of 
mpholding  the  revenue,  nay,  possibly,  to  the  injury  of  the  Exche- 
/quer,  but  merely  because,  in  a  few  secondary  branches  of  manu- 
jfacture,  we  do  not  possess  the  same  natural  advantages,  or  the 
'same  degree  of  skill,  as  our  neighbours?  If  cambrics  are  made 
better  at  Valenciennes,  is  that  a  sufficient  reason  for  imposing  a 
prohibitory  duty  on  all  linens ;  a  duty  from  which  the  revenue 
gets  next  to  nothing,  whilst  the  country  is  full  of  the  proscribed 
article?  If  certain  descriptions  of  paper  for  engraving  are  made 
more  perfect  in  France,  are  we  always  to  be  condemned  to  the 
use  of  an  inferior  and  dearer  article  of  home  manufacture?  The 
time  has  been,  when  it  was  found  quite  a  sufficient  reason  for  im- 
posing a  prohibitory  duty  upon  a  foreign  article,  that  it  was  better 
than  we  could  make  at  home ;  but,  I  trust,  when  such  calls  are 
made  upon  this  House  hereafter,  our  first  answer  at  least  will  be, 
let  us  see  what  can  be  done  by  competition ;  first  try  to  imitate, 
and  by-and-bye,  perhaps,  you  will  surpass  your  foreign  rival. 
This  is  the  feeling,  this  is  the  hope  and  the  emulation  which  we 
have  now  created  in  the  silk  trade ;  and,  I  believe,  with  a  very 
reasonable  prospect  of  the  most  complete  success.  But  this  feel- 
ing never  would  have  been  called  forth  under  the  old  and  helpless 


COMMERCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  387 

system  of  prohibitory  protection.  Prohibitions,  in  fact,  are  a 
prennium  to  mediocrity.  They  destroy  the  best  incentive  to  ex- 
cellence, the  best  stimulus  to  invention  and  improvement.  They 
condemn  the  community  to  sutler,  both  in  price  and  quality,  all 
the  evils  of  monopoly,  except  in  as  far  as  a  remedy  can  be  found 
in  the  baneful  arts  of  the  smuggler.  They  have  also  another  of 
the  great  evils  of  monopoly,  that  of  exposing  the  consumer,  as 
well  as  the  dealer,  to  rapid  and  inconvenient  fluctuations  in  price. 
With  the  knowledge  of  this  fact,  that  we  furnish  in  a  propor- 
tion far  exceeding  the  supply  from  any  other  country,  the  general 
markets  of  the  world,  with  all  the  leading  articles  of  manufacture,, 
upon  which  I  have  now  proposed  greatly  to  lower  the  duties,  I 
own  that  I  am  not  afraid  of  this  country  being  overwhelmed  with 
foreign  goods.  Some,  I  know,  will  come  in,  which  are  now  ex- 
cluded ;  I  shall  be  glad  of  it.  In  various  ways,  their  admission 
will  be  beneficial  to  the  general  interests  of  the  country.  That  it 
cannot  be  extensively  injurious  to  any  of  those  interests,  may  be 
inferred,  not  only  from  the  arguments  with  which  I  have  already 
troubled  the  Committee,  but  from  actual  experience.  In  the  year 
1786,  we  entered  into  a  commercial  treaty  with  France.  Under 
the  stipulations  of  that  treaty,  the  cottons  and  woollens  of  France 
were  admitted  into  this  country,  upon  a  duty  of  12/.  per  cent. — 
I  now  propose  for  the  latter  15/.  Hardware,  cutlery,  turnery, 
&c.  upon  a  duty  of  10/., — I  now  propose  20/.  per  cent.  Pottery 
and  glass,  &c.  under  a  duty  of  12/. — I  now  propose  15/.  upon  the 
former,  and  20/.  upon  the  latter.  What  was  the  result  of  this 
treaty?  We  sent  goods  of  various  descriptions  to  the  French 
market,  and  England  was  supplied  with  other  goods  of  French 
production;  but  no  injury  accrued — no  check  was  given  to  any 
particular  branch  of  our  staple  manufactures,  in  consequence  of 
this  interchange.  One  advantage  arising  from  it  was,  to  create 
a  spirit  of  emulation,  an  instance  of  which  occurred  in  the  woollen 
trade.  Soon  after  the  opening  of  the  intercourse  between  the  two 
countries,  French  cloths  of  a  fine  quality  were  imported  in  con- 
siderable quantity.  They  were  preferred  to  our  own.  No  fashion- 
able man  was  to  be  seen  without  a  coat  of  French  cloth.  What 
followed  ?  In  less  than  two  years,  the  cloth  of  our  own  manufac- 
tures became  equal  to  that  imported  from  France ;  the  one  could 
not  be  distinguished  from  the  other ;  and  coats  of  French  cloth 
were  still  the  fashion,  whilst  the  cloth  of  which  they  were  made 
was  manufactured  in  this  country.  In  like  manner,  we  shall  now, 
in  all  probability,  import  some  printed  cottons  from  Alsace  and 
Switzerland,  of  richer  and  brighter  colours  than  our  own ;  some 
fancy  muslins  from  India ;  some  silk  stuffs,  some  porcelain  from 
France,  objects  for  which  curiosity  or  fashion  may  ^create  a 
demand  in  this  metropolis ;  but  they  will  not  interfere  with  those 


388  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  FOREIGN 

articles  of  more  wide  and  universal  consumption,  which  our  own 
manufactures  supply  cheaper  and  better ;  whilst  they  will  excite 
the  ingenuity  of  our  artists  and  workmen,  to  attempt  improve- 
ments, which  may  enable  them  to  enter  the  lists  with  the  foreigner, 
in  those  very  articles  in  which  he  has  now  an  acknowledged  su- 
periority. 

I  know  it  may  be  objected,  that  a  great  change  has  taken  place 
in  the  situation  of  the  British  manufactures,  since  the  French 
treaty  of  1786 — ^that  we  have  been  engaged  in  a  long  and  ex- 
pensive war,  and  that  we  have  now  to  support  the  weight  of  a 
great  many  new  and  heavy  taxes.  I  admit  that  such  is  the  case : 
other  countries,  however,  have  not  been  exempted  from  the 
calamities  of  war;  their  taxes,  too,  have  been  increased;  their 
burthens  made  to  press  more  heavily.  What  is  still  more  mis- 
chievous, in  most  of  these  countries,  their  commercial  and  manu- 
facturing establishments  have  felt  more  directly  the  ravages  and 
interruption  of  war;  many  of  them  have  been  violently  swept 
away,  whilst  the  capitals  which  they  had  called  forth,  if  not  con- 
fiscated, have  been  impaired  or  diminished,  by  the  exactions  of 
military  power.  In  this  country  no  such  calamity  has  been  ex- 
perienced. The  trading  capital  of  England  remains  entire ;  even 
during  the  war,  it  continued  constantly  increasing ;  and  in  respect 
to  the  comparative  cheapness  of  labour  in  foreign  countries, 
although  by  no  means  an  immaterial  part  of  the  present  con- 
sideration, it  is  not  alone  sufficient,  as  experience  has  shown,  to 
make  the  balance  preponderate  in  their  favour.  Since  the  inven- 
tion of  the  steam-engine,  coupled  with  the  application  of  so  many 
other  discoveries,  both  in  mechanical  and  chemical  science,  to  all 
the  arts  of  life,  the  mere  estimate  of  manual  labour  is  lost  sight 
of,  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  creative  powers  of  mind.  It  is 
the  union  of  those  powers,  and  of  the  great  capitals  which  call 
them  into  action,  which  distinguishes  ]3ritish  industry,  and  has 
placed  it  in  the  commanding  situation  which  it  now  holds  in  the 
world.  To  these  advantages,  are  joined  that  energy  and  con- 
tinuity of  enterprise,  that  perseverance  and  steadiness  of  exertion, 
which,  even  by  our  rivals,  are  admitted  to  belong  to  the  English 
character.  It  is  upon  these  qualities,  and  these  advantages,  much 
more  than  upon  any  system  of  bounties  and  protecting  duties,  that 
I  rely  with  confidence  for  the  maintenance  and  improvement  of 
the  station  which  we  now  occupy  among  the  trading  communities 
of  the  world. 

I  expect  further  to  be  told,  as  a  general  objection  to  the  course 
which  I  now  recommend, — indeed  I  have  already  been  told  in 
the  correspondence  which  I  have  felt  it  right  to  hold  with  some 
of  our  most  intelligent  and  accomplished  merchants  and  manu- 
facturers on  this  subject,  before  I  brought  it  before  this  Committee, 


COMMERCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  389 

— that  in  1786,  we  had  insured  from  France,  by  treaty,  a  reci- 
procity of  commercial  advantages;  but  that,  at  present,  we  have 
made  no  such  arrangement.  This  objection  I  admit,  in  one 
respect,  deserves  consideration.  I  mean  in  its  relation  to  the 
foreign  market ; — with  regard  to  the  danger  of  our  being  under- 
sold in  our  own  market,  it  does  not  hold  at  all.  Now,  in  respect 
to  our  deferring  any  improvement  in  our  own  commercial  system, 
until  we  can  persuade  foreign  states  to  view  it  as  a  concession  to 
them,  which  we  are  ready  to  make  in  return  for  similar  conces- 
sions on  their  part,  I  cannot,  I  own,  discover  much  wisdom  in 
such  a  line  of  policy ;  but,  as  I  have  already  stated  that  I  had 
corresponded  with  others  on  this  part  of  the  subject,  I  am  sure  it 
will  be  an  acceptable  relief  to  the  Committee  (wearied  as  they 
must  be  with  hearing  me),  if  I  substitute  for  my  own  arguments, 
the  more  forcible  reasoning  of  one  of  my  correspondents,  a  gentle- 
man deeply  concerned  as  a  manufacturer  and  a  merchant,  who 
unites  to  great  practical  knowledge  a  vigorous  understanding,  of 
which  he  has  formerly  given  proofs  in  this  House,  which  must 
make  us  all  regret  that  he  is  no  longer  a  member  of  it ; — I  mean 
Mr.  Kirkman  Finlay.  I  received  from  him  a  letter,  dated  the 
18th  of  February,  of  which  the  following  is  an  extract: — 

"  Subscribing,  as  I  do,  to  every  one  of  the  advantages  stated  in 
your  letter,  I  will  not  occupy  your  time  by  going  further  into  the  ' 
subject;  at  the  same  time,  I  must  not  lead  you  to  suppose  that  such 
a  measure  is  likely 'to  be  adopted  without  some  opposition  from 
manufacturers,  who  have  all  their  old  prejudices  to  remove  be- 
fore they  can  subscribe,  in  their  own  case,  to  the  sound  principles 
of  free  commercial  intercourse,  which  you  are,  so  much  to  the 
public  advantage,  endeavouring  to  establish.  Believe  me,  that  no 
one  takes  a  deeper  interest  than  I  do  in  the  success  of  all  such 
measures ;  and  I  am  certain  that  the  adoption  of  such  a  plan  as 
we  are  now  talking  of,  will  go  far  in  its  consequences  to  satisfy 
persons,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  of  the  benefits  that  will  arise 
to  all  countries  from  the  general  establishment  of  such  measures. 
It  is  no  doubt  true,  that  it  will  be  argued  that  such  concessions 
ought  not  to  be  granted  to  foreign  states,  without  being  accom- 
panied by  some  stipulation  for  the  admission  into  their  consump- 
tion of  some  of  our  produce  or  manufactures,  on  the  payment  of 
a  moderate  duty.  But  in  my  view  of  the  case,  we  ought  not  to 
suffer  ourselves  to  be  influenced  by  such  reasoning,  since  our 
whole  object  being  to  benefit  ourselves,  our  inquiry  is  naturally 
confined  to  the  consideration  of  whether  such  a  mode  of  acting 
be  really  advantageous,  independent  altogether  of  what  may  be 
done  by  the  governments  of  other  countries.  Now,  if  the  measure 
be  really  beneficial  to  us,  why  shall  we  withhold  from  ourselves 
an  advantage,  because  other  States  are  not  yet  advanced  so  far  • 
33* 


390  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  FOREIGN 

as  we  are  in  the  knowledge  of  their  own  interests,  or  have  not 
attained  the  power  of  carrying  their  own  views  into  practice?* 

In  the  last  sentence  of  this  letter,  the  writer  has,  I  believe, 
stated  the  real  grounds  which  may  still,  for  some  time,  prevent 
foreign  States  from  following  our  example,  namely,  "  their  igno- 
rance of  their  own  true  interests,  or  their  incompetence  to  carry 
their  own  views  into  effect."  But,  let  my  right  honourable  friend, 
the  chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  continue  his  good  practice  of 
coming  down  to  this  House,  session  after  session,  to  accumulate 
fresh  proofs,  that  the  removal  of  restrictive  impositions  and  ex- 
cessive duties  is  not  diminution,  but,  frequently,  increase  of 
revenue : — Let  foreign  countries  see  him,  year  after  year  (and  I 
hope  he  will  long  be  able  to  do  so),  largely  remitting  public 
burthens,  and,  at  the  same  time,  exhibiting  a  prosperous  Exche- 
quer, still  flowing  to  the  same  perennial  level ;  and,  I  have  no 
doubt,  when  the  Governments  of  the  Continent  shall  have  con- 
templated, for  a  few  years  longer,  the  happy  consequences  of  the 
system  in  which  we  are  now  proceeding,  that  their  eyes  will  be 
opened.  They  will,  then,  believe — but,  at  present  they  do  not, — 
that  we  are  sincere  and  consistent  in  our  principles ;  and,  for  their 
own  advantage,  they  will  then  imitate  us  in  our  present  course, 
as  they  have,  of  late,  been  adopting  our  cast-off  system  of  restric- 
tions and  prohibitions.  That  they  have,  hitherto,  suspected  our 
sincerity,  and  looked  upon  our  professions  as  lures  to  ensnare 
them,  is  not  very  surprising,  when  they  compared  those  profes- 
sions with  that  code  of  prohibition  which  I  am  now  endeavouring 
to  pare  down  and  modify  to  a  scale  of  moderate  duties.  At  the 
same  time,  as  a  stimulus  to  other  countries  to  adopt  principles  of 
reciprocity,  I  shall  think  it  right,  to  reserve  a  power  of  making 
an  addition  of  one-fifth  to  the  proposed  duties,  upon  the  produc- 
tions of  those  countries  which  may  refuse,  upon  a  tender  by^  us 
of  the  like  advantages,  to  place  our  commerce  and  navigation 
upon  the  footing  of  the  most  favoured  nation.  I  need  scarcely 
add,  that  no  part  of  these  arrangements  will  interfere  with  the 
power  of  the  Crown,  to  enter  into  specific  treaties  of  commerce 
with  particular  States,  by  which  treaties  the  duties  now  proposed 
may  be  still  further  varied  or  modified,  subject  always  to  the  ap- 
probation of  Parliament. 

Having  now  stated  the  alterations  which  I  intend  to  propose, 
with  regard  to  the  protecting  and  prohibitory  duties,  I  have  only 
to  add  that,  with  a  view  to  give  the  British  manufacturer  every 
fair  advantage  in  the  competition  with  which  he  has  to  contend 
in  the  foreign  market,  it  is  desirable  to  consider  how  far  this  ob- 
ject can  be  promoted,  by  a  reduction  of  some  of  the  duties  now 
levied  upon  the  raw  materials,  which  he  is  obliged  to  use  in  his 
manufacture. 


COMMERCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  HOI 

During  the  exigencies  of  the  late  war,  duties  were  laid,  or  in- 
creased, upon  various  articles  used  in  dyeing.  The  revenue  de- 
rived from  these  duties  is  not  considerable :  but,  in  proportion  to 
the  amount  of  the  charge,  must  be  the  increased  price  of  the 
manufactured  commodity.  Be  that  charge,  upon  our  woollen 
cloths,  for  instance,  only  one  or  two  per  cent.,  even  this  small  ad- 
dition in  the  present  open  competition  of  the  foreign  market,  may 
turn  the  scale  against  us,  and  ought  therefore  to  be  withdrawn. 
On  most  of  the  articles  in  question,  I  shall  propose  a  large  reduc- 
tion in  the  existing  rate  of  duty.  They  are  so  numerous  that  I 
shall  not  weary  the  patience  of  the  Committee,  by  mentioning 
them  specifically ;  they  will  all  be  found  in  the  Schedule,  which 
will  form  part  of  the  intended  Resolutions.  To  one  or  two 
articles,  however,  not  included  under  the  class  of  dyeing  drugs,  I 
must  beg  leave  shortly  to  refer.  Olive  oil  is  very  much  used  in 
the  manufacture  of  the  finer  woollen  cloths.  The  duty  upon  it 
was  somewhat  more  than  doubled  during  the  war.  I  propose  to 
reduce  it  to  a  rate  rather  below  that  of  the  year  1790 ;  from  15/. 
135.,  the  present  duty,  to  11  a  tun.  This  will  be  a  great  relief  to 
the  manufacturer.  There  is  another  species  of  oil,  extracted 
from  rape  seed,  largely  used  in  the  preparation  of  the  coarse 
woollens,  upon  which  I  also  propose  to  give  relief.  The  Com- 
mittee may  perhaps  recollect,  that,  a  few  years  ago,  when  the 
panic  of  agricultural  distress  was  in  full  force, — when  fears  were 
openly  expressed  in  this  House,  that  England  must  cease  to  grow 
corn  (and  fear,  it  is  said,  is  seldom  a  wise  counsellor),  it  was  sug- 
gested, that  the  raising  of  rape  seed  might  become  a  profitable 
substitute ;  and,  upon  this  suggestion,  a  duty,  almost  prohibitory, 
was  laid  on  foreign  seed,  which  till  then  had  been  imported  free 
from  any  charge.  This  measure,  of  which  the  benefit,  if  bene- 
ficial at  all,  was  confined  to  a  very  few  districts  of  the  kingdom, 
has  certainly  contributed  nothing  to  the  revival  of  our  agricul- 
ture, but  it  has,  in  various  ways,  been  attended  with  detriment  to 
our  manufactures.  It  has  greatly  injured  the  manufacture  of 
rape  oil  and  rape  cake  in  this  country,  and  it  has  increased  the 
price  of  the  former  to  the  woollen  trade.  The  cake,  indeed, 
being  wanted  for  agricultural  purposes,  is  allowed  to  come  in 
from  abroad  nearly  duty  free ;  so  that,  in  this  instance,  and  to 
this  extent,  our  recent  policy  has  been  to  prohibit  the  raw 
material,  and  to  encourage  its  importation  in^  a  manufactured 
state.  I  propose  to  revert  to  our  ancient  policy  in  respect  to  this 
article ;  and,  after  giving  a  certain  time  to  the  dealers  to  get  rid 
of  their  stock  in  hand,  to  allow  the  free  importation  of  rape  seed, 
upon  a  duty  which  will  be  merely  nominal.  The  only  other 
article,  which  I  think  it  necessary  to  mention,  is  wool.  The  duty 
is  now  one  penny  a  pound  upon  all  foreign  wool.     It  has  been 


392  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  FOREIGN 

stated  to  me,  that  even  this  rate  of  duty  presses  severely  upon 
the  manufacturers  of  coarse  woollens,  in  which  we  have  most  to 
fear  from  foreign  competition,  and  that  considerable  relief  would 
be  afforded  by  reducing  it  to  one-half,  upon  all  wool,  not  exceed- 
ing the  value  of  one  shilling  a  pound.  I  therefore  propose  to 
make  this  alteration,  by  which,  I  am  assured,  the  quantity  of 
coarse  wool  imported  into  this  country,  to  be  mixed  in  the  manu- 
facture with  our  own  long  wool,  is  likely  to  be  greatly  increased. 

All  these  reductions  I  consider  to  be  right  and  proper  in  prin- 
ciple ;  but,  as  measures  calculated  to  afford  encouragement  and 
assistance  to  our  manufacturers,  I  am  particularly  anxious  to 
propose  them  at  the  same  time  when  I  am  bringing  forward  other 
measures,  not  unlikely,  till  better  understood,  to  excite  alarm  in 
particular  quarters.  Some  of  the  duties  which  I  am  now  dealing 
with,  I  am  aware,  were  imposed  for  the  purposes  of  revenue ;  it 
may,  therefore,  be  thought,  that  in  repealing  them,  I  am  travel- 
Hng  out  of  my  own  department,  and  encroaching,  in  some  degree, 
upon  that  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  But  my  right 
honourable  friend,  I  have  no  doubt,  will  forgive  me  where  the 
pecuniary  sacrifice  is  trifling,  and  the  relief  to  our  manufactures 
the  more  important  consideration.  He,  I  am  sure,  will  allow  me 
to  consider  myself,  however  humble,  as  a  fellow-labourer  with 
him  in  the  same  vineyard.  Whilst  I  am  pruning  away  the  use- 
less and  unsound  branches,  which  bear,  at  best,  but  a  scanty  and 
bad  crop,  my  object  is  to  draw  forth  new  and  vigorous  shoots, 
likely  to  afford  better  and  more  abundant  fruit ;  the  harvest  of 
which,  I  trust,  it  will  be  his  lot,  hereafter,  to  present  to  his  ap- 
plauding country,  in  the  shape  of  further  relief  from  taxation. 

I  now  come  to  the  last  of  the  three  heads,  into  which  I  have 
divided  the  subject,  to  be  submitted  to  the  Committee, — the  means 
of  affording  some  further  encouragement  to  the  Shipping  and 
Navigation  of  the  empire.  There  is  already  a  bill  on  the  table 
which  will  contribute  very  essentially  to  the  relief  of  that  impor- 
tant interest.  I  mean  the  bill  which  repeals  all  the  quarantine 
duties.  They  operated  as  a  very  considerable  burthen,  unfairly 
placed  on  the  particular  ships  and  goods  which  were  compelled 
to  perform  quarantine.  This  was  a  precaution  adopted,  not  for 
the  special  advantage  of  those  engaged  in  any  particular  trade, — 
on  the  contrary,  to  them  the  detention  and  loss  of  time  were 
great  inconveniences,  however  unavoidable, — but  for  the  general 
protection  and  safety  of  the  community.  The  Committee  of 
Foreign  Trade  was,  therefore,  perfectly  justified  in  recommend- 
ing that  the  expense  of  quarantine  should  be  borne  by  the  coun- 
try at  large,  and  not  by  any  particular  class  in  it ;  and  a  Bill  has 
been  brought  in,  accordingly,  by  my  right  honourable  friend,  the 
Vice-President  of  the  Board  of  Trade.     Another  measure   of 


COMMERCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  393 

substantial  relief,  now  in  contemplation,  I  have  already  mention- 
ed to  the  House,  but  I  am  convinced,  from  the  communications 
which  I  have  since  received,  that  I,  then,  underrated  its  impor- 
tance. That  measure  is  the  abolition  of  Fees  upon  Shipping  and 
Trade  in  our  colonies.  Besides  the  vexation  and  liability  to 
abuse,  inseparable  from  the  present  system,  I  know  that,  in  many 
instances,  the  fees  alone,  upon  a  ship  and  cargo,  amount  to  much 
more  than  all  the  public  duties  collected  upon  the  same. 

The  next  measure,  which  I  have  to  propose,  is  the  repeal  of 
the  Stamp  Duty  now  payable  upon  the  transfer  of  a  whole  ship, 
or  of  any  share  in  a  ship,  from  one  person  to  another.  A  ship, 
I  believe,  is  the  only  chattel  upon  which  a  duty  of  this  sort 
attaches,  as  often  as  it  changes  hands.  I  can  trace  no  reason  for 
this  anomaly,  except  one,  which  ought  rather  to  be  a  plea  for 
exemption.  From  motives  of  State  policy,  we  compel  the  owner, 
or  part-owner  of  any  ship,  to  register  his  interest  or  share  therein. 
From  this  registry  the  ship-owner  derives  no  advantage — on  the 
contrary,  however  improved  the  forms  and  regulations  now 
observed,  it  is  at  best  to  him  troublesome,  and  more  or  less 
obnoxious  to  litigation.  .  By  consolidating  and  amending  the 
registry  laws,  I  have  done  every  thing  in  my  power  to  mitigate 
those  inconveniences,  but  still  every  transfer  must  be  registered. 
Now,  to  take  advantage  of  a  law,  which  compels  the  names  of 
all  owners  to  be  registered,  in  order  to  attach  a  heavy  stamp 
duty  on  every  transfer  that  may  be  made  in  the  ownership,  is  an 
unnecessary  aggravation  of  a  necessary  inconvenience,  and  in 
itself  a  great  injustice.  I  shall,  therefore,  submit  a  resolution  for 
abolishing  the  whole  of  this  transfer  duty  upon  shipping,  by  which 
I  shall,  at  once,  relieve  the  owners  of  this  description  of  property 
from  a  partial  tax,  and  from  some  degree  of  annoyance. 

There  is  also  another  stamp  duty,  in  respect  to  which  I  am 
anxious  to  afford  relief.  I  mean  the  duty  on  Debentures  for  the 
payment  of  Drawbacks,  and  on  Bonds,  given  by  the  merchants, 
for  the  due  delivery  of  the  goods  which  they  have  declared  for 
exportation.  I  propose  this  relief,  partly,  upon  the  same  principle 
as  that  which  I  have  stated  in  respect  to  the  transfer  of  ships. 
These  bonds  are  not  entered  into  for  the  benefit  of  the  merchant, 
but  for  the  security  of  the  Revenue ;  besides,  from  their  being 
ad  valorem  stamps,  they  frequently  lead  to  great  abuses  and  per- 
jury. I  will  not  trouble  the  Committee  with  details  upon  this 
subject.  I  propose  to  reduce  these  stamps  to  a  fixed  duty  of 
only  bs.  upon  each  instrument. 

As  connected  with  the  same  subject, — the  relief  of  our  com- 
merce and  shipping  from  direct  pecuniary  charges, — I  beg  leave 
now  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Committee  to  the  change  which 
I  shall  propose  in  the  system  of  our  Consular  establishments  in 

2Z 


394  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  FOREIGN 

foreign  ports.  These  establishments  are  regulated  by  no  fixed 
principle,  in  respect  to  the  nnode  of  remunerating  the  individuals 
employed  in  this  branch  of  the  public  service.  In  one  port,  the 
consul  receives  a  salary, — in  another  he  is  paid  exclusively  by 
fees, — in  a  third,  he  receives  both  a  salary  and  fees.  There  is 
no  general  rule  in  this  respect,  appHcable  even  to  the  whole  of 
the  same  country.  The  consuls  at  Havre  and  Marseilles  have 
no  salaries.  The  consul  at  Bourdeaux  has  a  salary,  and  is  allow- 
ed fees.  The  consul  at  Antwerp  has  a  salary.  The  consul  at 
Rotterdam  has  none.  The  consul  at  Stettin  has  a  salary.  The 
consul  at  Dantzig  none.  At  Madeira,  the  consul  has  a  salary, — 
at  the  Azores  none.  The  scale  of  fees,  the  principle  upon  which 
they  are  levied,  the  authority  for  enforcing  their  payment,  and 
the  mode  of  levying  them,  appear  to  be  quite  as  various  and  un- 
settled as  the  mode  of  remuneration.  In  some  ports,  the  fees 
attach  upon  the  vessel, — in  others,  upon  the  merchandize.  In 
some  ports,  vessels  pay  all  alike,  without  regard  to  their  tonnage, 
— in  others,  the  fees  are  rated  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the 
vessel.  In  some  ports,  again,  the  fees  are  an  ad  valorem  charge 
upon  the  cargo, — in  others,  so  much  per  ton  upon  the  freight, 
without  regard  to  its  value.  Now,  not  only  all  this  discrepancy 
in  the  details  of  the  same  establishment  cannot  be  right,  and 
would  require  revision  ;  but  I  am  of  opinion,  that  the  whole  prin- 
ciple of  providing  for  our  consuls,  by  authorising  them  to  levy  a 
tax  upon  the  shipping  and  commerce  of  the  country,  is  wrong. 
In  the  first  place,  the  foreign  trade  of  the  country  is  one  of  its 
great  public  interests,  and  as  much  entitled  to  be  protected  at  the 
public  expense,  as  far  as  it  wants  protection  in  foreign  countries, 
as  any  other  great  interest.  In  the  next  place,  in  the  performance 
of  many  of  the  duties  for  which  consuls  are  appointed,  the  ship- 
owner and  merchant  have  no  direct  or  exclusive  interest.  The 
navigation  laws,  the  quarantine  laws,  instead  of  being  advantage- 
ous, are  inconveniently  restrictive  to  trade ;  yet  to  these  it  is  the 
peculiar  duty  of  the  consuls  to  attend.  They  have  other  essential 
duties  to  discharge,  in  which  the  merchant  and  the  ship-owner 
have  no  interest,  distinct  from  that  of  the  whole  community.  It, 
therefore,  appears  to  me,  that  it  would  be  just  as  reasonable  to 
tax  English  travellers,  in  foreign  countries,  for  the  support  of  our 
political  missions,  by  which  they  are  protected,  as  it  is  to  tax  the 
shipping  or  the  trade,  for  the  payment  of  our  consular  establish- 
ments. My  object  is,  to  grant  to  all  our  consuls  fixed  and  moder- 
ate salaries,  to  be  paid  out  of  the  public  purse ;  such  salaries  to 
vary,  of  course,  according  to  the  importance  and  responsibility 
of  the  station,  to  the  country  in  which  the  consul  may  reside,  and 
to  other  circumstances,  which  must,  from  time  to  time,  come 
under  the  consideration  of  the  Government    In  the  civil  list, 


COMMERCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  395 

which  is  granted  for  the  life  of  the  Sovereign,  a  sum  of  40,000/. 
is  allotted  for  the  payment  of  consular  expenses.  A  considerable 
part  of  this  sum  is  required  for  the  salaries  of  certain  officers, 
designated  as  consuls,  but  who  are,  at  the  same  time,  diplomatic 
agents :  I  mean  our  residents  at  Algiers,  and  the  other  courts  on 
the  coast  of  Africa,  in  the  Mediterranean.  As  the  remainder  of 
this  sum  will  fall  far  short  of  what  will  be  necessary  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  whole  consular  charge,  I  propose  that  the  ditference 
should  be  voted  annually  by  this  House,  upon  estimates  to  be  laid 
before  us  by  the  proper  department. 

If  this  change  should  be  approved  of  by  the  House,  the  effect 
will  be  the  abolition,  generally,  of  all  the  present  fees  payable  to 
our  consuls,  either  upon  ships  or  goods,  in  foreign  ports.  Certain 
small  fees  would  still  remain  for  personal  acts  that  a  consul  may 
be  called  upon  to  perform,  such  as  notarial  instruments,  and  other 
documents  to  which  his  attestation  or  signature  may  be  required. 
Those  fees  will  be  specified  in  the  Bill,  and  will  be  reduced  to  the 
most  moderate  amount.  In  regard  to  another  expense,  provided 
for,  in  certain  ports,  by  a  tax  upon  shipping, — I  mean  the  main- 
tenance of  a  place  of  worship,  the  payment  of  a  chaplain,  and 
other  charges  of  that  description, — I  trust,  that  the  British  merch- 
ants and  inhabitants,  residing  at,  or  resorting  to,  those  ports,  will 
find  no  difficulty  in  raising,  by  a  small  voluntary  rate  among 
themselves,  a  sufficient  sum  for  these  purposes.  But,  as  an  en- 
couragement to  them  to  provide  the  means  of  performing  the  im- 
portant duties  of  religion,  I  shall  propose,  in  the  Bill,  to  give  a 
power  to  the  Government,  to  advance  a  sum  equal  to  the  amount 
of  any  subscription  which  may  be  so  raised,  either  for  erecting  a 
place  of  worship,  providing  a  burial  ground,  or  allotting  a  suit- 
able salary  to  a  chaplain,  in  any  foreign  port,  where  a  British 
consul  may  reside. 

Having  now  stated  the  outlines  of  the  plan,  which  I  have  to 
propose,  for  the  improvement  of  our  consular  system,  it  only  re- 
mains for  me  to  mention  one  other  subject,  in  immediate  con- 
nexion with  it,  and  certainly  of  great  importance  to  a  very  valu- 
able branch  of  our  foreign  trade; — I  mean  our  trade  to  those 
countries,  whicii  are  known  under  the  name  of  the  Levant.  This 
trade  was  placed  under  the  direction  of  a  chartered  company,  so 
far  back  as  the  reign  of  James  I.  Great  privileges  were  confer- 
red upon  that  company;  and  they  had  also  important  duties  to 
perform.  Among  their  privileges,  they  were  allowed  to  appoint 
all  the  consuls  to  the  Levant,  and  to  levy  considerable  duties  on 
all  British  ships  resorting  to  those  countries,  for  the  maintenance 
of  those  consuls,  and  the  other  expenses  of  their  establishment. 
They  also  obtained,  partly  by  Acts  of  Parliament,  and  partly  bjr 
treaty  and  concession  from  the  Porte,  the  right  of  exercising,  by 


396  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  FOREIGN 

the:f  agents, and  consuls,  a  very  extensive  jurisdiction  over  all 
British  subjects  in  the  Turkish  dominions.  These  powers  and 
trusts  have  been  exercised  by  the  servants  of  the  Company  for 
two  centuries,  often  under  very  difficult  circumstances  ;*and, 
generally  speaking,  with  great  correctness,  fidelity,  and  discre- 
tion»  In  the  present  state,  however,  of  a  great  part  of  the  coun- 
tries in  which  these  consuls  reside,  and  looking,  moreover,  to  our 
relations  with  Turkey,  as  well  as  with  other  powers,  to  the  deli- 
cate and  important  questions  of  international  law,  which  must 
constantly  arise  out  of  the  intercourse  of  commerce  with  a  coun- 
try in  a  state  of  civil  war, — questions  involving  discussions,  not 
only  with  the  contending  parties  in  that  country,  but  with  other 
trading  and  neutral  powers, — it  is  impossible  not  to  feel  that,  upon 
poHtical  considerations  alone,  it  is  highly  expedient  that  the  pubhc 
servants  of  this  country,  in  Turkey,  should  hold  their  appoint- 
ments from  the  Crown.  It  is  to  the  Crown  that  foreign  powers 
will  naturally  look  for  regulating  and  controlling  the  conduct  of 
those  officers,  in  the  exercise  of  their  authority;  and  it  is  certain- 
ly most  fit,  not  only  on  this  account,  but  for  the  due  maintenance 
of  that  authority,  that  they  should  be  named,  not  by  a  trading 
company,  however  respectable,  but,  like  other  consuls,  directly 
by  the  Crown,  advised,  as  it  must  be  in  their  selection,  by  its  re- 
sponsible servants. 

If  this  change  in  the  mode  of  appointing  the  consuls  in  the 
Levant  be  called  for  upon  political  grounds,  it  would  be  highly 
absurd  not  to  take  advantage  of  the  occasion  to  bring  them,  in 
all  other  respects,  under  the  regulations  of  the  new  consular 
establishment.  It  becomes  the  more  important  not  to  neglect  this 
opportunity  of  affording  relief  to  the  Levant  trade,  as  the  dues, 
which  the  company  is  authorized  to  levy,  are  very  considerable, 
amounting  to  a  tax  not  much  short  of  two  per  cent  upon  the 
whole  of  that  trade ;  a  charge  quite  sufficient,  in  these  times,  to 
divert  a  considerable  part  of  it  from  the  shipping  of  this  country 
to  that  of  other  States.  It  is  due  to  the  noble  lord*  who  is  at  the 
head  of  the  Levant  company,  to  state,  that,  as  soon  as  this  sub- 
ject was  brought  under  his  consideration,  he  manifested  the 
greatest  readiness  to  assist  the  views  of  Government  in  respect 
to  the  proposed  changes.  Nothing  less  was  to  be  expected  from 
this  distinguished  individual,  who,  in  his  dignified  retirement,  still 
interests  himself,  with  the  feelings  of  a  statesman,  and  the  wis- 
dom of  a  philosopher,  in  the  progress  of  those  sound  commercial 
principles,  which,  in  their  application,  have  already  conferred  so 
much  benefit  upon  this  country.  This  noble  lord  called  together 
the  company  over  which  he  presides,  and  proposed  to  them  a 

*  Lord  Grenville. 


COMMERCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  397 

voluntary  surrender  of  the  charter  which  they  had  enjoyed  for 
two  hundred  years.  In  the  most  praiseworthy  manner,  the  com- 
pany acquiesced  in  this  suggestion.  His  Majesty  will  be  advised 
to  accept  the  surrender  so  tendered ;  but  it  cannot  be  carried  into 
effect  without  an  act  of  parliament.  Among  other  requisite 
arrangements  to  be  provided  for  by  the  bill,  will  be  the  transfer 
of  a  fund  which  the  company  has  accumulated  out  of  their 
revenue,  and  the  abohtion  of  the  taxes  by  which  that  revenue  was 
produced. 

I  have  now  travelled  over  the  wide  field  of  the  alterations, 
w^hich  I  undertook  to  submit  to  the  Committee,  in  the  commercial 
concerns  of  this  country,  I  wish  that  my  staten?ent,  to  many 
members  of  this  House  comparatively  uninteresting,  had  been 
more  perspicuous,  for  the  sake  of  those  who  have  paid  attention 
to  this  subject.  I  was  desirous  to  bring  it  under  consideration 
before  the  recess,  in  order  that  the  details  might  be  dispassionately 
and  generally  considered  by  the  several  interests  throughout  the 
country,  which  are  likely  to  be  affected  by  the  measures  which  I 
have  now  proposed.  They  are  open  to  alterations,  and  to  amend- 
ment I  shall  be  happy  to  pay  every  attention  in  my  power  to 
whatever  suggestions  may  be  transmitted  to  me,  from  any  quarter, 
for  this  purpose.  All  I  ask  now  of  the  Committee  is,  to  take  under 
their  protection  the  comprehensive  principle  of  the  system  which 
I  have  ventured  to  recommend,  and  that,  so  far,  they  will  look 
upon  it  as  a  state  measure,  connected  with  the  public  prosperity. 
If,  to  this  extent,  it  shall  receive  their  steady  countenance  and 
support,  this  session  will  not  close  without  our  having  proved  to 
this,  as  well  as  to  other  countries,  that  we  have  not  Tost  sight  of 
the  recommendation  from  the  throne  —  to  remove  as  much,  and 
as  fast  as  possible,  all  unnecessary  restrictions  upon  trade, 

Mr.  Alderman  Thompson  expressed  his  hearty  concurrence  in  the  proposi- 
tions laid  down  by  the  right  honourable,  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade; 
whose  luminous  exposition  of  the  genuine  principles  of  our  commercial  policy 
must  excite  the  admiration  of  every  friend  of  the  country.  Mr,  Baring  ob- 
served, that  what  he  most  approved  of  in  the  proposed  alterations  was,  that 
thoy  went  upon  general  principles,  without  any  undue  regard  to  private 
interests.  Great  Britain,  as  the  principal  commercial  country  of  the  world, 
ought  to  set  the  example  of  free  trade  to  other  nations.  Sir  Henry  Pamell 
hoped  the  right  honourable  gentleman  would  not  stop  in  his  career,  until  he 
had  given  the  country,  redly  and  substantially,  the  full  benefit  of  a  perfectly 
free  system  of  trade.  Sir  H.  Vivian,  adverting  to  the  proposed  duty  on 
foreign  books,  said,  that  if  the  present  duties  were  removed,  all  copyrights  in 
this  country  would  be  done  away  with.  Even  at  present,  French  and  Ger- 
man editions  of  our  popular  northern  novels  might  be  had  abroad  much  under 
the  price  at  which  they  could  be  sold  in  England. 
34 


398  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  FOREIGN 

Mr.  HusKissoN  said,  he  was  anxious  to  set  himself  right  with 
the  committee,  as  to  his  intention  with  respect  to  the  reduction  of 
the  duty  on  foreign  books.  The  honourable  member  must  surely 
be  aware,  that  the  Copyright  Act  gave  full  protection  to  such 
works  as  those  given  to  the  world  by  the  "  Great  Unknown ;" 
and,  indeed,  to  all  who  thought  proper  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
protection  of  that  act.  He  was  aware  that  those  delightful  works 
were  printed  and  sold  in  every  city  of  France  and  Germany ;  but 
if  it  could  be  shown  that  a  single  copy  of  these  works  published 
abroad  was  sold  here,  the  person  selling  it  was  liable  to  an  action 
of  damages.  With  respect  to  the  books  of  which  there  was  no 
copyright,  he  could  see  no  reason  why  a  monopoly  should  be 
allowed  here,  or  why  the  people  of  England,  who  wished  to  read 
such  books,  should  not  be  allowed  to  purchase  them  at  the 
cheapest  rate. 

He  would  offer  one  word  upon  what  had  been  said,  with  respect 
to  the  repeal  of  the  duties  on  foreign  copper.  He  had  formerly 
stated,  that  in  case  the  duty  of  27/.  per  ton  on  copper  should  be 
so  high  as  to  raise  the  price  of  that  article  in  this  country  to  an 
extravagant  degree,  he  should  feel  himself  at  liberty,  acting  upon 
the  principle  which  he  had  already  laid  down,  to  reduce  that  duty 
still  lower.  He  did  not  believe  that  such  would  be  the  effect  of 
the  proposed  reduction.  But,  in  order  to  set  himself  right  with 
the  Committee,  he  would  add,  that  his  only  object  was  to  protect 
the  miner  on  the  one  hand,  while  on  the  other  he  took  care  that 
the  interests  of  the  country  should  be  attended  to,  by  allowing  the 
importation  of  copper  to  take  place,  when  the  increased  price  at 
home  required  it. 

As  to  the  iron  trade,  which  an  honourable  member  had  alluded 
to,  the  fact  was,  that  the  present  duty  on  old  iron  was  175.  6d, 
per  ton.  This  sort  of  iron  was  that  which,  in  the  trade,  was 
known  by  the  designation  of  scrap  iron,  and  the  duty  in  question 
he  should  propose  to  reduce  to  12^.  a  ton.  If  he  were  to  make 
too  great  a  difference  between  the  duties  on  the  two  sorts  of  iron, 
there  would  be  an  endeavour  to  bring  all  the  species  under  the 
operation  of  the  duty  affecting  this  inferior  description. 

With  regard  to  the  timber-trade,  he  was  surprised  that  the 
honourable  gentleman  who  had  the  other  night  presented  a  strong 
petition  to  the  House  in  favour  of  the  reduction  of  the  duty  on 
Cape  wines,  on  the  ground  of  their  being  the  production  of  one  of 
our  own  colonies,  should  now  argue,  in  fact,  against  the  protec- 
tion afforded  to  the  timber  trade  of  Canada.  Why!  he  must 
recollect  that  Canadian  timber,  considering  that  it  grew  in  one 
of  our  own  colonies,  and  was  transported  in  our  own  ships,  was 
a  most  valuable  trade  to  Great  Britain.  And  as  an  additional 
argument  why  the  existing  duties  on  other  timber  should  not  be 


COMMERCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  399 

further  reducecj,  he  would  just  observe,  that  there  was  no  trade 
which,  by  reason  of  increased  demand,  had  lately  attained  a  more 
improved  and  prosperous  condition,  than  the  trade  in  Baltic 
timber.  The  Board  of  Trade  would  shortly,  he  trusted,  be  able 
to  consider  the  proper  steps  to  be  taken  for  equalizing  the  duties 
on  timber ;  which  he  believed  would  be  the  same  as  those  that 
were  now  pursued  in  Ireland,  where  the  mode  of  estimating  such 
duties  was  by  tale,  instead  of  by  estimation  of  the  quantity  of 
timber  contained  in  any  given  number  of  planks.  In  conclusion, 
he  begged  to  repeat,  that  he  could  not  accede  to  the  suggestions 
of  the  honourable  member  for  Montrose ;  inasmuch  as  no  trade 
was  more  flourishing  at  present  than  the  rival  'trade  (as  with 
respect  to  Canada  it  might  be  called)  of  Baltic,  timber. 

The  several  Resolutions  were  agreed  ta 


(    400     ) 

COMBINATION    LAWS. 

MARCH  29th,  1825. 


In  pursuance  of  the  notice  he  had  given, 


Mr.  HusKissoN  rose,  he  said,  with  considerable  regret,'  to  call 
the  attention  of  the  House  to  a  subject  that  was  of  the  highest 
importance  to  the  commercial  interests  of  this  empire,  but  which, 
in  consequence,  as  he  apprehended,  of  some  misconstruction  that 
prevailed  among  certain  classes  in  this  country,  in  respect  of  a 
legislative  proceeding  of  the  last  session,  repealing  the  Combina- 
tion Laws,  seemed  likely  to  be  attended  with  most  inconvenient 
and  dangerous  consequences.  He  certainly  considered,  that  the 
parties  immediately  interested  in  that  proceeding  had  been  sub- 
sequently acting  under  a  misconstruction  of  the  intentions  of  the 
legislature.  Nevertheless,  in  the  motion  with  which  he  meant  to 
conclude  this  evening,  he  did  not  propose  to  suggest  that  the  old 
laws  against  the  combinations  of  workmen  or  labourers  against 
their  employers  should  be  again  put  in  force.  Those  laws  were, 
many  of  them,  oppressive  and  cruel  in  their  operation  on  work- 
men; and  he  had  always  advocated  the  principle  of  allowing 
every  man  to  dispose  of  his  labour  to  the  best  advantage, — which 
principle  they,  in  very  many  instances,  had  directly  violated. 

The  right  honourable  gentleman  then  proceeded  to  advert  to 
the  bringing  in  of  the  5th  of  George  IV.  c.  95,  and  to  the  avowed 
objects  of  that  bill.  He  felt  himself  bound  to  admit  that  in  prin- 
ciple those  objects  seemed  to  be  perfectly  fair  and  proper  to  be 
established,  as  between  workmen  and  their  employers ;  but  he 
was  satisfied  that  they  were  not  so  in  practice.  Moreover,  he 
doubted  whether  the  act  in  question,  as  long  as  it  should  continue 
to  exist,  would  not  have  a  strong  tendency  to  keep  up  between 
workmen  and  their  employers  a  spirit,  on  one  side  of  alarm,  and 
on  the  other  of  distrust.  But  he  would  briefly  review  the  course 
and  eflfect  of  that  proceeding.  It  commenced  by  a  motion  introduc- 
ed by  an  honourable  gentleman  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  House,* 
who  pointed  out  the  hardships  to  which,  under  the  then  subsist- 
ing laws,  journeymen  and  others  were  liable ;  and  there  could  be 
no  doubt  that,  in  too  many  cases,  those  laws  were,  in  a  great 
degree,  unjust  and  prejudicial  in  their  operation.     A  Committee 

*Mr.  Hume. 


^    COMBINATION  LAWS.  401 

was  accordingly  granted  to  the  motion  of  the  honourable  gentle- 
nnan,  in  which  it  was  proposed  to  go  largely  into  evidence,  and 
inquiries  on  those  topics.  It  was  a  very  full  connmittee,  consist- 
ing of  about  fifty  members;  and  it  undoubtedly  examined  a  vast 
variety  of  evidence,  »upon  all  questions  connected  with  the  main 
intention  of  its  labours. 

The  result  of  those  labours  was — not  that  a  report  was  made 
to  that  House  (which,  as  he  thought,  would  have  been  the  most 
desirable  course),  stating  the  grounds  upon  which  the  Committee 
had  come  to  the  conclusion  of  recommending  the  introduction  of 
their  bill,  and  thereby  affording  to  the  public,  and  in  a  more 
especial  manner  to  Parliament,  the  necessary  information  as  to 
the  motives  which  induced  them  to  recommend  such  a  change  of 
the  existing  law ; — but  the  result  was,  that  the  Committee  adopt- 
ed finally  a  string  of  resolutions,  which  involved  no  such  state- 
ment whatever.  He  should  inform  the  House,  that  he  was  him- 
self a  member  of  that  Committee  ;  and  perhaps  he  ought  to  men- 
tion that  circumstance  with  considerable  regret,  owing  to  the  fact 
of  numerous  other  engagements  and  avocations  of  an  official 
nature,  in  which  he  was  all  that  time  extremely  busied,  having 
prevented  him  from  paying  that  degree  of  attention  to  the  busi- 
ness of  the  Committee,  which  he  could  have  wished  to  do,  and 
which  the  importance  of  its  inquiries  most  undoubtedly  demand- 
ed. To  the  same  causes  he  must  refer  the  indulgence  of  the 
House,  while  he  stated,  that  they  had  equally  precluded  him, 
when  the  bill  in  question  was  brought  into  the  House,  from  con- 
sidering it  with  all  the  attention  and  care,  in  its  various  stages, 
that  it  deserved  to  be  considered  with.  And  he  might  go  further, 
and  express  his  regret,  that  those  of  its  enactments  which  were 
of  a  legal  nature  had  not  possibly  been  discussed  with  all  the 
technical  knowledge  which  might  have  been  beneficially  applied 
to  them  by  those  honourable  and  learned  friends  of  his,  of  whose 
professional  assistance  in  ordinary  cases  Government  had  the 
benefit. 

The  consequence  of  this  had  been,  that  some  of  the  provisions 
of  the  bill,  which  afterwards  passed  into  an  act,  were  of  a  very 
extraordinary  nature.  Not  only  did  the  bill  repeal  all  formei 
statutes  relative  to  combinations  and  conspiracies  of  workmen, 
but  it  even  provided,  that  no  proceedings  should  be  had  at  com- 
mon law  on  account  of  any  such  combination,  meeting,  conspi- 
racy, or  uniting  together  of  journeymen,  &c.,  for,  in  fact,  almost 
any  purpose :  and  thus,  by  one  clause,  it  went  to  preclude  the  pos- 
sibility of  applying  any  legal  remedy  to  a  state  of  things,  which 
might  become,  and  which  had  since  become,  a  great  public  evil 
Now  this  fact  was  the  more  curious,  inasmuch  as  the  honourable 
member  who  introduced  the  bill,  had  himself  taken  occasion  to 
34*  3  A 


402  COMBINATION  LAWS. 

state,  both  in  that  House  and  in  the  Committee,  on  what  he  cpn- 
sidered  to  be  legal  authority, — and  he,  in  common,  he  was  sure, 
with  every  honourable  gentleman  who  heard  him,  would  readily 
allow  that  the  honourable  and  learned  member  for  Peterborough* 
was  indeed  high  legal  authority — that  if  al^  the  statutes  relative 
to  combinations  were  to  be  repealed,  he  thougl^t  the  operation  of 
the  common  law  alone  would  be  quite  sufficient  to  repress,  among 
workmen,  any  dangerous  and  injurious  tendency  improperly  or 
violently  to  combine  against  their  masters.  The  bill  itself,  how- 
ever, repealing  thirty  or  forty  acts  of  Parliament,  and  in  this  sin- 
gular manner  putting  aside  the  common  law  altogether,  was 
brought  into  the  house  at  a  late  period  of  the  session ;  passed 
through  its  stage,  subsequent  to  the  first  reading,  on  Wednesday 
the  2d  of  June  ;  and  on  Saturday  the  5th  of  June,  only  four  days 
after  the  second  reading,  and  in  the  same  week,  was  read  a  third 
time  and  passed,  without  any  discussion.  The  measure  was 
therefore  hurried  on  with  as  much  expedition  as  was  usually 
applied  to  the  most  pressing  bills. 

To  the  honourable  gentleman  himself  he  imputed  no  blame  for 
thus  speeding  his  Bill  through  the  House  of  Commons.  Looking 
to  the  advanced  period  of  the  session,  and  the  discussion  which  it 
had  received  in  the  Committee,  it  was  natural  enough  that  he 
should  desire  it  to  go  through  the  House  with  all  this  expedition. 
But,  since  the  passing  of  the  Act  in  question,  it  had  happened  to 
him,  in  his  official  capacity,  to  receive  information  of  the  conduct 
adopted  by  bodies  of  workmen  in  various  parts  of  the  country. 
They  were,  many  of  them,  very  painful  accounts ;  and  to  his 
right  honourable  friend,  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Home 
Department,  numerous  reports  had  been  forwarded,  detailing  acts 
of  outrage  and  violence,  on  the  part  of  the  workmen  combined 
against  their  employers,  of  the  most  disgraceful  character.  His 
right  honourable  friend  had  permitted  him  to  inspect  those  reports ; 
and  he  could  state,  that  they  manifested,  in  all  those  classes  of 
workmen  who  had  misconceived  the  real  object  of  the  legislature 
in  the  late  Act,  a  disposition  to  combine  against  the  masters,  and 
a  tendency  to  proceedings  destructive  of  the  property  and  busi- 
ness of  the  latter,  which,  if  left  to  itself,  and  permitted  to  remain 
unchecked,  must  terminate  in  producing  the  greatest  mischiefs  to 
the  country.  Indeed,  those  mischiefs  were  rapidly  growing,  in 
some  districts,  to  so  alarming  a  pitch,  that  if  their  progress  was 
not  speedily  repressed  and  interrupted,  they  would  very  soon 
become  rather  a  subject  for  his  right  honourable  friend  to  deal 
with  in  the  exercise  of  his  official  functions,  than  for  him  to  call 

*Mr.  Scarlett. 


CX)MBINATION  LAWS.  403 

vhe  attention  of  the  House  to,  in  this  manner.  These  things  could 
not  remain  much  longer  in  their  present  condition.  Unless  Par- 
liament should  interfere  to  place  them  on  a  different  footing,  his 
right  honourable  friend — armed  as  he  was  by  the  State,  with  the 
authority  of  calling  in  aid  to  the  civil  power  (where  that  proceed- 
ing was  necessary  by  the  urgency  of  the  case),  for  the  protection 
of  the  property  and  liberty  of  the  King's  subjects — would  find 
himself  necessitated  so  to  interpose  against  what  he  could  not  but 
consider  a  very  formidable  conspiracy  in  certain  bodies  of  men, 
calculated  to  place  that  liberty  and  property,  and  perhaps  life 
itself,  in  great  jeopardy,  as  regarded  certain  individuals,  who 
employed  large  numbers  of  labourers  and  journeymen.  But,  by  a 
timely  inquiry  into,  and  consideration  of,  the  subject,  Parliament 
might  be  enabled  to  deal  with  it,  as  with  a  question  merely  of 
commercial  polity. 

He  wished  to  treat  it  as  a  question,  on  the  one  hand,  of  the 
freedom  of  labour,  looking  to  the  right  which  every  man  natural- 
ly claimed  to  exercise  over  his  own  labour;  and,  on  the  other,  as 
a  question  upon  the  effect  of  those  principles  that  had  formerly 
prevailed  in  this  country,  with  regard  to  the  right  in  those  claim- 
ing this  freedom  of  labour,  of  interfering  with,  and  exercising  a 
control  over,  parties  largely  employing  such  labour.  But,  he  must 
beg  to  repeat  his  conviction,  that  if  Parliament  did  not  very  soon 
interfere  to  reconsider  the  whole  of  this  question,  in  all  these 
branches,  they  would  find  that  the  evil  which  was  already  exist- 
ing, would  quickly  attain  an  extremely  mischievous  height.  They 
would  then  be  obliged  to  apply  to  it  other  means  and  another 
remedy.  If  such  should  unfortunately  ever  be  the  case,  he  did 
hope  that  his  right  honourable  friend  would  not  only  not  be  back- 
ward to  employ  those  means  and  that  power  with  which  he  w^as 
vested  for  the  removal  of  the  evil  he  spoke  of,  but  that,  if  neces- 
sary, he  would  apply  to  Parliament  to  be  furnished  with  further 
powers  to  prevent  the  baneful  operation  of  a  tyranny,  as  he  must 
call  it,  that  was  now  exercised  over  a  great  portion  of  the  pro- 
perty, and  the  liberty  of  some  of  his  Majesty's  subjects,  in  many 
parts  of  the  country. 

But,  while  he  thus  designated  the  character  of  those  combina- 
tions which  had  been  so  extensively  formed  by  men  who  were 
obviously  proceeding  altogether  in  error,  he  did  trust,  that  on  ac- 
count of'^what  he  had  been  saying,  he  should  not  be  considered 
as  a  person  who  was  at  all  hostile — nay,  who  was  not  friendly — 
to  the  right  of  labour — to  the  right  which  every  man,  generally 
speaking,  had,  to  dispose  of  his  labour  and  skill  to  the  best  aa- 
vantage,  or  as  he  might  think  proper.  As  a  general  principle,  he 
undoubtedly  thought  that  every  man  had  a  fair  inherent  right  to 
carry  his  own  laoour  to  whatever  market  he  pleased,  and  so  to 


404  COMBINATION  LAWS. 

make  the  best  of  it ;  and,  accordingly,  he  had  always  maintained 
that  labour  was  the  poor  man's  capital.  But  then,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  must  as  strenuously  contend  for  the  perfect  freedom  of 
those  who  were  to  give  employment  to  that  labour.  Theirs  was 
the  property  which  rendered  that  labour  necessary — theirs  was 
the  machinery  on  which  that  labour  was  to  be  employed — theirs 
was  the  capital  by  which  its  employment  was  to  be  paid  for.  At 
least,  therefore,  they  were  entitled  to  equal  freedom  of  action ; 
and  that  property,  that  machinery,  and  that  capital,  ought  to  be 
as  sacred  and  unfettered,  as  the  labour  which  was  the  admitted 
property  of  the  workman.  If  their  right,  and  title,  and  freedom 
in  all  these  matters  could  not  be  sustained ;  so  neither  could  there 
be  kept  and  retained  in  the  country  the  means  of  employing 
labour ;  and  the  workmen  themselves  would  be  the  victims  of  a 
delusive  system  of  attempted  influence  and  intimidation  over  the 
employers. 

He  would  not  unnecessarily  detain  the  House  by  entering  at 
any  length  into  details,  to  show  that  such  a  system  was,  in  several 
quarters,  now  acted  upon.  Meetings  had  been  held,  and  associa- 
tions formed,  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  which,  if  persevered 
in  and  prosecuted  successfully,  must  terminate  in  the  ruin  and 
destruction  of  the  very  men  who  were  parties  to  them.  Now,  as 
to  the  individuals  who  had  adopted  measures  of  this  kind,  it  might 
not  be  immaterial  to  advert  to  one  or  two  papers  that  he  held  in 
his  hand,  which  pretty  clearly  developed  what  were  their  own 
views,  and  what  their  own  proposals,  in  respect  of  this  right  which 
they  had  assumed  of  interference  with  the  property  and  the  con- 
cerns of  their  employers.  The  first  which  he  had  with  him  was 
entitled,  "  The  Articles  of  Regulation  of  the  Operative  Colliers  of 
Lanark  and  Dumbarton."  The  second  was  a  similar  production 
of  the  Ayrshire  Association;  and  he  could  produce  a  great 
number  of  such  rules  and  articles  and  regulations,  each  body  of 
them  absolutely  forming  as  regular  a  constitution,  as  any  of  those 
which  we  were  now  almost  daily  reading  of,  as  arising  from  the 
new  governments  that  were  springing  up  in  every  part  of  the 
world.  These  associations  had  their  delegates,  their  presidents, 
their  committees  of  management,  and  every  other  sort  of  func- 
tionary comprised  in  the  plan  of  a  government.  By  the  ninth 
article  of  one  of  the  sets  of  regulations,  it  was  provided,  "  that 
the  delegates  from  all  the  different  works  should  assemble  at  one 
and  the  same  place,"  on  certain  stated  occasions:  so  that  the 
House  would  perceive,  that  this  provision  regarded  not  a  com- 
bination of  all  the  workmen  of  one  employer  against  him,  or  even 
of  one  whole  trade  against  the  masters;  but  something  more 
formidable  and  extensive  in  its  nature  —  namely,  a  systematic 
union  of  the  workmen  of  many  different  trades,  and  a  delegation 


COMBINATION  LAWS.  405 

from  each  of  them  to  one  central  meeting.  Thus  there  was 
established,  as  against  the  employers,  a  formal  system  of  delega- 
tion, a  kind  of  federal  republic — all  the  trades  being  represented 
by  delegates,  who  formed  a  sort  of  Congress.  Another  regulation 
was  to  this  effect — "  Each  delegate  shall  be  paid  out  of  his  own 
work"  (the  earnings  which  he  was  to  be  permitted  to  make,  and 
of  which  a  portion  was  subscribed  by  every  member  having  em- 
ployment for  the  purposes  of  these  associations),  "  with  these  ex- 
ceptions only — the  President"  (or  the  head  of  this  Government), 
"  the  Secretary,  and  the  Treasurer  are  to  be  paid  out  of  the 
general  funds :  the  delegates  are  elected  for  six  months,  and  may 
be  re-elected."  So  that  here  was  a  tax  levied  upon  each  workman 
for  the  maintenance  of  general  funds  applicable  to  purposes  of 
this  mischievous  character. 

But  he  would  particularly  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the 
eleventh  article;  inasmuch  as  it  clearly  demonstrated  the  real 
meaning  and  intentions  of  the  societies  thus  constituted.  "It  is 
the  duty  of  these  delegates,  first,  to  point  out  the  masters  they 
dislike" — a  duty  in  itself  sufficiently  dangerous  and  illegal: 
"  Secondly,  to  warn  such  masters" — of  what  ? — "  of  the  danger  in 
which  they  are  placed  in  consequence  of  this  combination."  Here, 
therefore,  was  an  acknowledgment  of  the  danger  of  such  associa- 
tions, admitted  by  themselves.  But  let  the  House  observe  what 
followed:  "And,  thirdly,  -to  try  every  thing  which  prudence 
might  dictate  to  put  them"  (the  masters)  "  out  of  the  trade" — not, 
let  it  be  observed,  every  thing  which  fairness  and  justice  might 
dictate  to  workmen  who  sought  really  to  obtain  a  redress  of 
grievances;  but  every  thing  which  "prudence"  might  dictate. 
Irt  such  a  position  "prudence"  must  be  understood  as  implying 
merely  that  degree  of  precaution  that  might  prevent  the  "  Union" 
from  being  brought  within  a  breach  of  the  law — such  as  the 
crime  of  murder,  for  example.  Now,  was  it  fit,  or  right,  or 
reasonable,  that  persons  engaged  in  commercial  or  other  pursuits 
—  such  as  mining,  for  example — should,  by  combinations  thus 
organized,  and  by  pretensions  of  this  kind,  be  kept  in  constant 
anxiety  and  terror  about  their  interests  and  property  ?  In  order 
to  show  how  regularly  organised  these  bodies  were,  and  how 
they  proposed  to  exercise  the  mischievous  tyranny  that  he  com- 
plained of,  over  such  masters  as  might  happen  to  be  placed  with- 
in the  sphere  of  their  control,  he  would  just  allude  to  the  thirteenth 
article: — "These  articles  may  be  modified  and  altered  at  any 
meeting  of  the  delegates :  and  if  sanctioned  at  such  meeting  by 
twft-thirds  of  the  delegates  present,  they  shall  be  final.  The  power 
of  levying  money  from  all  the  members  of  the  association  must 
be  left  to  the  general  committee."  So  that  these  were  not  to  be 
Voluntary,  but  compulsory  contributions,  actually  "  levied"  upon 


406  COMBINATION  LAWS. 

all  the  parties  to  the  union.  "  All  laws  passed  at  the  meetings  of 
the  delegates  will  be  binding  on  all  whom  those  delegates  repre- 
sent." Now,  one  of  these  laws  was,  "  that  there  should  never  be 
allowed  to  be  any  stock  of  coals  in  the  hands  of  any  of  the 
masters;"  because,  if  such  stock  were  allowed,  they  would  be 
less  dependent  on  the  workmen,  and  might  possess  some  means 
of  rescuing  themselves  from  the  tyranny  and  control  of  this  asso- 
ciation or  union. 

Other  associations,  however,  were  governed  by  regulations,  if 
possible,  more  extraordinary.  One  of  these  regulations  was,  that 
no  man  coming  into  any  given  district  or  county  within  the  con- 
trol assumed  by  the  associating  parties,  should  be  allowed  to 
work,  without  being  previously  amerced  5/.,  to  be  applied  to  the 
funds  of  the  association.  And  another  of  the  regulations  was, 
that  any  child  being  permitted  to  work  or  assist  (as,  for  instance, 
a  man's  son),  should,  at  ten  years  old,  be  reckoned  a  quarter  of  a 
man,  and  pay  a  proportionable  amercement  accordingly.  In  like 
manner,  it  was  provided,  that  any  man  being  called  in  by  any 
collier  to  his  assistance,  should  not  be  at  liberty  to  work  under 
him,  unless  previously  adopted,  like  the  collier,  by  the  society, 
and  unless,  like  him,  he  should  previously  have  paid  his  5/.  Now, 
in  this  part  of  the  empire  there  could  not  exist  any  doubt  what- 
ever, looking  to  the  artificial  situation  in  which  this  country  was 
placed,  with  regard  to  many  of  its  institutions,  and  particularly 
in  regard  to  the  poor  laws,  that  parties  who  were  hable  some  day 
or  other  to  become  reversionaries  on  that  immense  fund,  had  no 
right  to  take  measures  that  had  an  obvious  tendency  to  throw 
them  on  that  fund,  and  so  increase  the  burden  which  its  support 
imposed  upon  the  country.  And  without  desiring  to  restrict  the 
right  or  choice  of  any  individuals  as  to  the  legal  disposal  of  their 
means,  he  could  not  help  asking,  whether  this  amercement  of  5^, 
and  this  subscription  of  Is.  a  week  to  the  funds  of  the  association, 
which  every  member  of  it  was  called  upon  to  pay  and  contribute, 
would  not  produce  to  each  of  the  parties,  if  placed  in  a  saving- 
bank,  far  more  beneficial  and  advantageous  results  ?  What  could 
be  the  meaning  or  motive  of  creating  all  these  presidents,  and 
permanent  committees  of  management,  if  there  were  not  among 
these  combinations  many  persons  anxious  for  the  enjoyment  of 
the  power  and  distinction  which  they  considered  the  attainment 
of  certain  posts  like  these  would  confer  upon  them  ?  And  was  it 
not  in  human  nature  almost  an  invariable  principle,  that  in  all 
contests  for  all  kinds  of  power,  the  most  artful  were  those  who 
usually  obtained  their  object  and  seated  themselves  in  places  of 
authority  ?  This  consideration  rendered  it  still  more  necessary  to 
look  narrowly  at  the  constitution  of  these  assemblies. 

Another  of  their  rules  was,  that  every  measure  to  be  adopted 


COMBINATION  LAWS.  407 

should  previously  undergo  a  full  discussion,  and  that  the  majority 
should  bind  the  rest, — a  very  proper  rule  in  debating  societies,  no 
doubt ;  and  one,  he  believed,  very  generally  adopted  in  them,  but 
it  was  one  which,  under  these  circumstances,  he  could  not  ap- 
prove of,  thinking  it  to  be,  in  its  consequences  and  application, 
inconsistent  with  that  power,  that  freedom  from  all  external  con- 
trol, which  the  masters  or  employers  were  obviously  entitled  to, 
in  the  administration  and  management  of  their  own  property. 
That  he  had  not  over-stated  either  facts  or  their  possible  effect, 
the  twenty-second  of  the  articles  from  which  he  had  been  reading 
would  sufficiently  show.  It  was  conceived  in  these  terms: — "No 
operative,  being  a  member  of  this  association,  shall  be  at  Hberty 
to  engage  himself  for  any  given  time  or  price,  without  the  consent 
of  the  committee  of  management."  Why,  if  a  system  of  this  kind 
was  to  extend  itself  through  the  operative  population  engaged  in 
all  the  different  branches  of  mining,  manufactures,  navigation,  and 
shipping  in  this  country,  in  what  a  painful  situation  would  every 
body  concerned  be  placed  !  Who  would,  for  an  instant,  endure  a 
control  of  this  oppressive,  of  this  destructive  nature?  Yet,  such  a 
control,  under  the  prevalence  of  such  principles,  might  exist :  and 
when  he  said  it  might,  he  was  sorry  to  add  that  it  did  exist.  For 
example,  it  existed  in  that  most  important  branch  of  our  com- 
mercial greatness,  our  coasting  trade.  There  had  been  a  society 
formed,  called  the  "  Seamen's  Union."  The  principles  and  objects 
of  this  combination  had  been  promulgated  in  the  form  of  a  little 
dialogue — not  the  less  interesting,  be  it  observed,  on  that  account, 
to  those  whom  they  were  addressed  to.  In  this,  as  in  other  con- 
cerns, it  seemed  that  the  association  had  come  to  the  determina- 
tion of  not  submitting  to  the  authority  of  any  persons  whom  they 
had  not  themselves  appointed  or  approved.  He  would  here  ask, 
in  relation  to  doctrines  of  this  sort,  how  it  would  be  possible  to 
carry  on  business  in  mining  concerns,  for  example,  if  the  work- 
men themselves  should  have  the  appointment  of  all  the  overseers 
under  whose  superintendence  they  were  employed  ?  In  the  same 
manner,  however,  it  appeared,  that  they  who  were  employed  as 
seamen  in  the  coasting  trade  would  not  put  to  sea,  unless  all  the 
rest  of  the  crew  were  members  of  their  union. 

Having  stated  to  the  House,  that  it  was  positively  one  of  the 
articles  agreed  upon  by  this  Union,  that  men  thus  employed 
should  do  nothing  which  they  had  never  before  been  called  upon 
to  do  as  seamen,  but  which  it  was  quite  evident  it  might  be  very 
material  on  particular  emergencies  that  they  should  do,  let  the 
House  observe  the  mischiefs  which  must  arise  from  such  a  regula- 
tion. He  could  adduce,  if  it  were  necessary,  a  case  that  had 
occurred  very  recently,  in  which  a  vessel,  coal-laden,  got  on  a 
sand-bank  at  the  mouth  of  the  river.     It  became  necessary  to 


408  CX)MBINATION  LAWS. 

have  her  ballast  shifted ;  but  it  so  happened,  that  one  of  the 
regulations  to  be  found  in  this  dialogue  between  Tom  and  Harry 
purported,  that  it  was  unworthy,  a  seaman  to  assist  in  shifting 
ballast.  The  consequence  was,  that  on  the  occasion  he  was  speak- 
ing of,  all  the  men  were  in  a  state  of  insubordination  and  mutiny; 
and,  if  some  craft  had  not  come  up  to  the  vessel's  assistance,  it 
was  impossible  to  say  what  mischief  might  have  ensued  to  her. 
As  soon  as  the  ballast  had  been  shifted  by  the  craft's  hands,  the 
men  immediately  returned  to  their  duty,  and  navigated  the  vessel 
as  before.  What,  however,  was  the  result  of  their  refusal  to  shift 
the  ballast?  The  men  in  the  craft  who  had  performed  that  service 
claimed  salvage.  A  sum  of  200/.  was  awarded  to  them  on  ac- 
count of  salvage ;  which,  of  course,  the  owners  were  obliged  to 
pay,  the  salvors  themselves  unanimously  declaring,  that  the 
danger  of  the  ship  and  cargo  was  occasioned  by,  in  fact,  the  ad- 
herence of  the  crew  to  one  of  the  rules  of  this  "Seamen's  Union." 
If  any  man  after  this  could  be  found  to  affirm  that  such  principles 
and  such  conduct  were  not  matter  for  the  interference  of  Parlia- 
ment, he  would  only  say,  that  Parliament  had  better  at  once 
resign  every  idea  of  giving  protection  to  any  species  of  pro- 
perty. 

He  was  really  not  surprised,  notwithstanding,  when  he  looked 
at  the  way  in  which  the  act  of  last  session  was  worded,  and  the 
artful  misconstruction  that  might  easily  be  put  upon  it  by  those 
who  best  knew  how  to  mislead  and  deceive  the  men  who  had 
engaged  in  these  combinations,  that  those  men  should  have 
erroneously  supposed  their  proceedings  to  be  warranted  under 
this  act.  The  act,  as  he  had  before  intimated,  repealed  all  former 
statutes,  and  so  on ;  and  it  then  enacted,  that  no  proceedings  at 
common  law  should  be  had  by  reason  of  any  combinations  or 
conspiracies  of  workmen  formerly  punishable  under  those  repeal- 
ed statutes.  The  House  would  perceive,  that  the  second  section 
declared,  "  that  journeymen,  workmen,  and  other  persons,  who 
shall  hereafter  enter  into  any  combination  to  obtain  higher  rate 
of  wages,"  and  so  forth ;  "  or  to  regulate  the  mode  of  carrying 
on  any  manufacture,  trade,  or  business,  or  the  management 
thereof,  shall  not  be  subject  or  liable  to  any  indictment  or  pro- 
secution for  a  criminal  conspiracy  or  combination,  or  to  any 
other  proceeding  or  punishment  whatever,  or  under  the  common 
statute  law."  Now,  would  not  any  one,  on  reading  this  sentence, 
suppose  it  was  something  really  proper,  and  almost  commend- 
able, for  workmen  to  combine  and  conspire  together  to  regulate 
and  control  the  management  of  any  manufacture  ?  And  accord- 
ingly,— without  imputing  to  the  framers  of  the  bill  the  slightest 
idea  on  their  parts,  that  such  a  misapprehension  could  ever  be 
entertained, — he  did  not  doubt  that  a  great  proportion  of  the 


COMBINATION  LAWS.  409 

associated  and  combined  workmen  in  the  country  did  actually 
believe,  that  so  far  from  violating  the  law,  this  clause  proved  that 
they  had  been  only  pursuing  a  course  that  was  strictly  conform- 
able with  the  meaning  of  the  legislature.  If,  then,  it  was  only  to 
set  these  men  right,  it  would  be  highly  proper  that  some  inquiry 
should  be  forthwith  instituted  with  this  view,  and  that  the  Com- 
mittee charged  to  make  it  should  report  to  the  House  what  would 
be  the  most  eligible  steps  to  be  adopted  in  consequence. 

He  would  next  offer  a  word  or  two  on  the  fifth  section  of  the 
same  act.  That  section  provided,  not  that  any  such  combination 
or  conspiracy  should  be  visited  with  any  punishment,  or  be  made 
matter  of  legal  cognizance,  but  "  that  if  any  person  shall  here- 
after by  threats  deter  a  man  from  his  hiring,  or  engage  in  any 
combination  or  conspiracy  to  destroy  any  machinery,  goods, 
wares,  or  merchandizes,  he  shall,  upon  being  convicted  of  such 
offence  before  a  magistrate,  on  the  evidence  of  any  two  witnesses, 
be  punished  with  two  months'  imprisonment."  Now,  it  surely 
did  not  require  any  act  of  Parliament — (he  was  speaking  in  the 
presence  of  his  honourable  and  learned  friend  the  Attorney-Gene- 
ral, who  would  correct  him  if  he  was  wrong) — to  declare,  that 
to  deter  a  man  by  threats  from  his  hiring,  or  to  destroy,  or  com- 
bine and  conspire  for  the  destruction  of  goods  or  machinery,  was 
an  offence  to  be  made  punishable  in  a  certain  way,  upon  convic- 
tion. Such  acts  were  already  offences  by  the  law  of  the  land, 
independent  of  any  thing  like  combination ;  and  in  so  far,  at  least, 
the  declarations  and  provisions  of  this  act  were  quite  supereroga- 
tory. By  the  law  of  the  land  some  of  these  offences  would  be 
actual  felonies;  others  high  misdemeanors.  It  was  equally  ex- 
traordinary, that  the  act  should  require  the  conviction  to  be  on 
the  oath  of  two  witnesses — two  witnesses  being  necessary  only 
in  cases  of  high  treason  and  perjury — and  that  the  punishment 
should  be  limited  to  two  months'  imprisonment.  Therefore,  here 
was  a  law  that  contemplated  certain  offences  which  had  in  them- 
selves nothing,  necessarily,  to  do  with  the  offence  of  combinations 
— which  regarded  quite  different  questions.  But  under  this  act — 
plotting  together  for  the  destruction  of  machinery — threatening 
even,  which  proceeded  to  menace  of  Hfe  or  property,  were  no 
longer  any  criminal  offence  whatever;  and  thus,  by  repealing  the 
combination  laws,  the  acts  of  plotting  and  threatening  were  ren- 
dered no  criminal  offences  at  all. 

Under  these  circumstances,  he  must  consider  that  the  law  of 
which  he  had  been  speaking  was  not  adequate  to  put  down  an 
evil  which  was  increasing  to  so  formidable  an  extent;  not  the 
evil  of  committing  the  other  offences  to  which  the  act  had  so 
particularly  adverted,  but  the  evil  of  workmen  being  permitted 
to  plot,  and  the  bold  open  avowal  of  their  intention  to  carry  such 
35  3B 


410  COMBINATION  LAWS. 

permission  (as  they  presumed  it  to  be)  into  effect,  in  the  kind  of 
manner  he  had  pointed  out  to  the  notice  of  the  House — a  man- 
ner, the  most  destructive,  perhaps,  which  it  was  in  their  power 
to  devise,  to  the  property  of  their  masters  and  employers.  He 
did  conceive  that  if  these  misguided  men  could  be  induced,  for 
one  moment,  to  reflect  upon  what  must  be  the  inevitable  con- 
sequences of  the  course  they  were  pursuing,  they  must  see  that 
such  a  course  of  proceeding,  if  contmued,  would  render  it  impos- 
sible for  any  body  to  embark  his  capital  under  risks  so  great  as 
those  which  he  had  pointed  out ;  or  to  submit  its  application  to  a 
system  of  tyranny  and  control,  which  nobody  with  capital  would 
for  a  moment  choose  to  endure.  If  they  would  reflect  on  these 
facts,  they  would  perceive  the  impossibility  of  their  being  left  at 
liberty  to  pursue  the  career  of  violence  and  combination,  in  which 
they  were  now  proceeding;  and  that  they  must  soon  cease 
altogether  to  procure  employment  for  their  own  subsistence.  For, 
so  sure  as  they  persevered  in  their  measures,  capital  must  desert 
the  districts  in  which  they  were  carried  on,  and  ultimately,  unless 
the  evil  was  arrested,  the  kingdom  itself,  for  other  countries. 

He  would  only  add,  that  he  would  recommend  to  those  who 
employed  numerous  workmen,  not  lightly  to  submit  to  such  ex- 
travagant pretensions,  and  to  feel  assured,  that  if  the  present  pre- 
vailing misconstruction  of  the  law  should  be  thought  by  the  work- 
men to  justify  those  pretensions,  the  magistrates  would  give  the 
masters  their  support  against  any  such  demands.  If  that  support 
should  be  found  still  inadequate,  his  right  honourable  friend  would 
not  fail  to  afford  them  such  further  assistance  as  might  be  neces- 
sary to  protect  them  from  those  measures  which  had  so  fatal  a 
tendency  to  destroy  the  property  of  the  employers,  and  to  dry  up 
the  sources  of  labour  to  the  workmen.  In  what  state  the  law 
with  regard  to  combinations  should  be  put — whether  the  last  act, 
repealing  all  the  old  statutes,  should  in  its  turn  be  repealed  al- 
together, or  not,  he  was  not  at  present  prepared  to  suggest,  and 
had  not  in  his  own  mind  determined :  but,  the  necessity  for  inquiry 
did  not  seem  on  that  account  the  less  urgent.  He  should  be  very 
sorry  to  see  all  those  laws  which  were  formerly  in  force  on  this 
subject,  renewed ;  but  it  might  be  well  worth  their  consideration 
to  ascertain,  whether  something  at  least  more  definite  and  effec- 
tual than  the  existing  statute  could  not  be  devised — something 
that  might  prevent  the  evil  he  had  been  describing  from  extend- 
ing itself  any  further  than  the  point  to  which  it  had  already  ar- 
rived. This  was  a  question  that  deserved  the  most  serious  atten- 
tion of  the  House. 

In  the  mean  time,  he  felt  that  in  having  submitted  these  matters 
to  their  consideration,  and  in  calling  upon  them,  in  virtue  of  the 
situation  which  he  had  the  honour  to  fill,  to  give  a  more  effectual 


COMBINATION  LAWS.  4 1 1 

protection,  forthwith,  to  the  property  employed  in  the  hire  and 
application  of  labour,  and  also  to  the  labour  applied  to  the  im- 
provement and  increase  of  property,  he  was  acting  in  the  con- 
scientious discharge  of  what  he  believed  to  be  his  public  duty. 
He  did  still  indulge  the  hope,  that,  by  the  timely  interference  of 
Parliament,  they  might  yet  prevent  that  interruption  to  the  public 
peace,  which  must  infallibly  be  the  consequence  of  their  remain- 
ing any  longer  inactive  spectators  of  a  mischief  that  was  rapidly 
increasing,  and  which,  if  not  speedily  arrested,  must  be  followed 
by  the  most  disastrous  results.  He  had  trusted,  that  whatever 
might  be  the  first  ebullition  of  the  feelings  of  the  workmen,  on 
finding  themselves  emancipated  from  some  of  the  grievous  re- 
straints imposed  by  the  old  laws  in  question  on  their  industry, 
their  own  good  sense  would  have  instructed  them  to  withdraw 
from  a  path,  so  fraught  with  difficulties  and  dangers  as  that  which 
they  had  so  unwisely  adopted.  That  anticipation  he  could  now, 
unhappily,  no  longer  indulge ;  and  it  was  with  the  hope  of  thereby 
doing  justice  to  both  parties — the  workmen  and  their  employers 
— that  he  now  moved,  "  for  the  appointment  of  a  Select  Com- 
mittee, to  inquire  into  the  effect  of  the  act  of  the  5th  George  IV., 
cap.  95,  in  respect  to  the  conduct  of  Workmen  and  others,  in 
different  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom :  and  to  report  their 
opinion  how  far  it  may  be  necessary  to  repeal  or  amend  the  pro- 
visions of  the  said  act."  He  was  aware  that  in  making  this  mo- 
tion he  might  expose  himself  to  some  obloquy,  and  the  expression 
of  much  dissatisfaction  among  some  of  the  parties  to  whom  it 
related ;  and  particularly  in  a  place  where  he  was  most  anxious 
to  stand  well,  and  amonff  those  who  had  sent  him  to  that  House. 
However  this  might  be,  ne  had  only  to  do  his  duty  fearlessly  and 
properly;  and  he  had  no  doubt  that  upon  a  little  reflection,  the 
same  parties  would  be  among  those  who  would  feel  most  obliged 
to  him  for  having,  in  this  instance  at  least,  performed  it 

The  motion  was  agreed  to,  and  a  Committee  appointed. 


(    412    ) 

COMBINATION   LAWS. 

MAY  3d,  1825. 

On  presenting  a  petition  from  Northampton,  respecting  the  Combination 
Laws,  Mr.  Cartwright  said,  he  wished  to  ask  the  President  of  the  Board  of 
Trade,  whether  it  was  in  his  contemplation  to  propose  any  further  measure 
on  this  subject,  during  the  present  session. 

Mr.  HusKissoN  said,  the  honourable  gentleman  had  asked  him, 
whether  it  was  intended  to  propose  any  measure  this  session,  on 
a  subject  which,  he  agreed  with  the  honourable  member,  deserved 
the  serious  attention  of  the  House.  He  meant  the  present  state 
of  the  country,  with  regard  to  the  conduct  of  the  Workmen, 
whose  practices,  in  forming  Combinations,  were  extending  them- 
selves to  every  part  of  the  kingdom.  The  House  were  aware, 
that  a  Committee  was  sitting  up  stairs,  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
vestigating the  effect  produced  by  the  law  of  last  session.  That 
Committee  was  pursuing  its  labours  with  all  proper  vigilance,  and 
would,  he  trusted,  be  in  a  situation  to  make  a  report  to  the  House 
without  the  intervention  of  any  great  delay.  He  admitted,  with 
the  honourable  member,  that  it  was  a  subject  which  pressed  for 
decision.  It  was  not  his  wish,  nor  that  of  any  gentleman  on  that 
Committee,  to  interfere  with  the  meetings,  or  combinations,  as 
they  were  called,  of  those  individuals,  so  far  as  related  to  the 
amount  of  their  own  wages.  They  were  at  liberty  to  take  all 
proper  means  to  secure  that  renumeration  for  their  labour,  to 
which  they  conceived  they  were  entitled — to  consider  the  cir- 
cumstances of  a  greater  demand  for  labour,  or  a  greater  expense 
incurred  in  the  purchase  of  provisions.  Under  circumstances  of 
this  nature,  they  might  reasonably  ask  for  larger  wages:  but, 
they  did  not  stop  here.  They  combined  for  purposes  of  the  most 
unjustifiable  description :  they  combined  to  dictate  to  their  masters 
the  mode  in  which  they  should  conduct  their  business :  they  com- 
bined to  dictate  whether  the  master  should  take  an  apprentice  or 
not :  they  combined  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  certain  indi- 
viduals from  working,  they  combined  to  enforce  the  principle, 
that  wages  should  be  paid  alike  to  every  man,  whether  he  were 
a  good  workman  or  a  bad  one ;  and  they  levied  heavy  fines  on 
those  parties  who  refused  to  agree  to  their  conditions. 

What  he  complained  of,  on  the  part  of  the  employers,  as  well 
as  on  the  part  of  those  who  were  willing  to  labour,  was,  that  the 


COMBINATION  LAWS.  413 

persons  thus  combining  not  only  prevented  the  employers  from 
carrying  on  their  business  with  their  assistance,  but  they  prevented 
individuals  who  wished  to  work  from  getting  employment  at  all. 
He  believed  that,  at  the  present  moment,  a  great  part  of  the 
woollen  manufacturers  were  standing  still,  on  account  of  com- 
binations of  this  sort.  They  existed  in  London,  and  he  understood 
that  they  had  spread  through  various  parts  of  the  country,  to  a 
very  extensive  degree.  He  did  not  wish  to  resort  to  the  old  com- 
bination law,  or  to  any  measure  that  would  not  give  equal  pro- 
tection to  the  employed,  as  well  as  to  the  employer.  But  un- 
questionably it  was  necessary  that  something  should  be  done  to 
remedy  the  existing  evil.  The  tyranny  of  the  many  would,  he 
apprehended,  be  allowed  to  be  worse  than  the  tyranny  of  the 
few ;  and  he  must  say,  that  the  conduct  of  those  who  kept  up 
these  combinations  threatened  to  destroy  the  peace  and  prosperity 
of  the  manufacturing  interests.  It  was  undoubtedly  time  to  remove 
these  evils ;  and  he  would,  as  soon  as  possible,  endeavour  to  do 
so,  by  suggesting  some  efficient  means,  for  the  equal  protection 
of  the  master  and  the  workman. 
35* 


(     414    ) 

ROMAN  CATHOLIC  RELIEF  BILL. 

MAY  10th,  1825. 

On  the  order  of  the  day  for  the  third  reading  of  the  BiH  brought  in  by  Sir 
Francis  Burdett,  "  to  provide  for  the  removal  of  the  Disqualifications  under 
Mrhich  his  Majesty's  Roman  Catholic  subjects  now  labour 

Mr.  HusKissoN  rose  and  spoke  as  follows  :* — 

After  the  frequent,  the  ample,  and,  above  all,  the  very  able 
discussions  which  this  subject  has  undergone  within  the  walls  of 
this  House,  it  is  w^ith  no  small  degree  of  hesitation  and  reluctance 
that  I  venture  to  offer  myself  to  your  notice.  If  some  apology  be 
necessary  for  this  instrusion,  the  only  plea  which  I  can  offer  is 
one  which  has  been  allowed  to  other  individuals  in  the  like  situa- 
tion with  myself;  namely,  that  I  have  hitherto  abstained  from 
doing  more  than  give  silent  votes  upon  this  most  important  con- 
cern. Of  these  gone-by  votes  I  can  only  say,  that  there  are  none 
which  I  have  ever  given,  in  the  course  of  a  long  parliamentary 
career,  to  which  I  look  back  with  a  more  entire  satisfaction,  and 
a  more  conscientious  conviction  that  they  were  right,  than  to 
those  votes  which  had  for  their  object  the  furtherance  of  any 
measure  which  has  been  brought  into  this  House,  either  for  the 
partial  relaxation,  or  the  more  general  repeal,  of  those  Laws 
which  affect  the  Roman  Catholics. 

Not,  Sir,  that  I,  any  more  than  other  honourable  gentlemen 
who  have  addressed  this  House,  have  done  so  with  any  desire  to 
show  favour  to  the  Catholics,  or  to  their  religion.  With  the 
spiritual  tenets  and  doctrines  of  that  religion  I  have  nothing  to  do 
— for  the  practices  and  pretensions  of  the  Romish  hierarchy,  either 
as  affecting  the  relations  of  private  life,  or  the  maintenance  and 
security  of  civil  liberty,  especially  when  those  practices  and  pre- 
tensions are  backed  by  the  arm  of  secular  power,  I  certainly  feel 
any  thing  but  partiality  or  admiration.  Neither,  Sir,  am  I,  as 
some  who  hear  me  may  perhaps  be,  under  any  obligation,  per- 
sonal or  political,  to  the  followers  of  that  Church ;  but  I  do  owe 
it  to  justice  to  vote  for  the  repeal  of  every  penal  restraining  or 
disqualifying  enactment,  affecting  either  the  Roman  Catholic,  or 

*  This  speech,  excepting  the  passages  included  within  brackets,  is  printed 
from  manuscript  notes,  found  in  the  hand-writing  of  Mr,  Huskisson  since  his 
decease. 


ROMAN  CATHOLIC  RELIEF  BILL.  415 

any  other  class  of  his  Majesty's  subjects,  so  soon  as  it  shall  ap- 
pear to  me,  that  the  necessity  for  continuing  that  enactment, 
either  on  account  of  the  evil  for  which  it  was  a  remedy,  or  the 
danger  which  it  was  intended  to  avert,  shall  have  ceased  to  exist. 

On  this  ground,  and  on  this  ground  only,  the  Roman  Catholics 
are  clearly  entitled  to  my  vote.  But  to  my  country  I  owe  that 
vote  on  other,  and  with  me  more  important,  considerations.  '  To 
withhold  Catholic  emancipation,  in  my  judgment,  is  to  keep  alive 
dangerous  discontents,  which  retard  the  progress  of  public  pros- 
perity in  time  of  peace,  which  may  perhaps  render  the  tenure  of 
that  peace  less  permanent  and  less  secure,  and  which,  in  the  even< 
of  war,  must  certainly  tend  to  impair  those  resources,  and  to 
divide  and  distract  those  energies,  which  ought  to  be  concentrat- 
ed and  directed,  with  one  common  effort,  against  the  public  enemy 
of  the  State. 

I  shall  confine  myself  to  this  brief  and  general  statement  of  the 
grounds  on  which  I  shall  vote  for  the  motion — first,  because  I  am 
anxious  to  keep  my  promise  in  not  taking  up  the  time  of  the 
House ;  and  secondly,  because  I  am  aware  that  on  this,  as  on 
former  occasions,  the  subject  has  been  exhausted ;  and  that  every 
thing  which  the  powers  of  reason  could  adduce  in  the  way  of 
argument — every  thing  which  historical  research  and  constitu- 
tional learning  could  bring  to  bear  upon  the  question,  in  the  way 
of  information — every  thing  which  eloquence  and  ingenuity  could 
address,  either  to  the  generosity  or  the  justice  of  the  House,  have 
more  than  once  been  put  forth,  and  more  than  once  successfully, 
in  favour  of  the  cause  which  I  am  now  endeavouring  to  advocate. 

Trusting,  therefore,  that  these  appeals  to  their  reason,  to  their 
justice,  and  to  their  liberality,  will  have  their  due  weight  in  the 
present  discussion,  I  shall  proceed  at  once  to  what  appears  to  me 
the  more  practical  view  of  the  question  now  under  consideration. 
In  that  view  I  shall  confine  myself  to  Ireland ;  for,  apart  from 
Ireland,  however  urgent  the  claims  of  the  English  Catholics,  the 
Catholic  question  would  be  one  comparatively  unimportant,  and 
of  far  less  difficulty  in  its  adjustment. 

Sir,  I  have  already  said,  that  I  am  no  admirer  of  the  Catholic 
religion.  I  go  further ;  and  I  have  no  hesitation  to  admit,  that  its 
existence  in  Ireland,  as  the  religion  of  the  largest  portion  of  that 
community,  is  a  very  serious  public  misfortune.  Admitting  the 
power  and  influence  claimed  by  the  head  of  the  Romish  church 
to  be  of  a  nature  merely  spiritual,  and  even  if  I  could  admit  more 
fully  than  I  do,  that  it  is  easy  on  all  occasions  to  distinguish  spirit- 
ual from  temporal  authority,  I  should  still  say,  that  a  hierarchy 
so  numerous  and  so  extensive,  of  which  the  head  is  a  foreign 
potentate,  and  of  which  the  numerous  ramifications,  by  the  prac- 
tice and  doctrines  of  the  Catholic  church,  pervade  the  inmost 


416  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  RELIEF  BILL. 

recesses  of  every  abode,  and  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  most 
private  and  secret  concerns  of  every  family,  is  in  itself  a  great 
evil.  But  I  almost  readily  avow  that  it  is  difficult,  in  some 
instances,  distinctly  to  draw  the  line  between  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral authority ;  and  I  do  not  deny  that  in  times  of  ignorance,  of 
violence,  and  disorder,  such  times  as  marked  the  middle  and  dark 
ages  of  Christendom,  those  authorities  have  been  confounded,  and 
that  they  would  be  again,  if  the  same  opportunities  occurred  of 
superstition  on  the  one  side,  and  the  same  temptations  to  ambition 
on  the  other.  But,  Sir,  it  would  be  as  unfair  to  argue  from  the 
•onduct  and  pretensions  of  the  Church  of  Rome  in  those  days,  in 
reference  to  the  present  subject  of  debate,  as  it  would  be  to  argue 
from  the  crimes  of  the  old  monarchies  of  the  same  periods  against 
the  principle  of  limited  monarchy,  as  now  happily  settled  in  this 
country.  What  should  we  think  of  the  fairness  of  a  man,  who 
quoted  the  cruelties  of  Louis  XL  or  Charles  IX.  of  France,  or  the 
public  vices  and  enormities  of  some  of  our  own  sovereigns  of 
former  ages,  as  a  proof  that  hereditary  monarchy  was  incom- 
patible with  political  and  civil  liberty  1  How  many  arguments, 
Elausible  in  the  abstract,  may  be  raised  against  the  principle  of 
ereditary  monarchy — how  many  illustrations  would  history 
furnish  to  countenance  these  arguments !  But  the  answer  to  them 
all  is  in  the  example  of  this  country — where  limited  monarchy  is 
much  more  likely  to  endure,  from  the  happiness  and  well-being 
of  the  state,  than  the  institutions  of  the  most  democratic  state  in 
any  other  part  of  the  world.  And  why? — ^Not,  Sir,  because  the 
sovereigns  of  this  kingdom  are  not  men  with  all  the  passions  of 
other  men — not.  Sir,  because  the  order  of  nature  has  been 
changed  in  that  Family  which  has  now  so  auspiciously  wielded 
the  sceptre  of  these  realms  for  more  than  a  hundred  years — they 
would  spurn  any  such  supposition ;  but  because  every  member  of 
that  illustrious  Family  is  as  much  alive  to  the  blessings  of  freedom 
as  any  of  the  other  members  of  the  community — is  as  fully  sensi- 
ble, that  the  monarch  on  the  throne  owes  every  thing  which  con- 
stitutes his  present  greatness,  and  will  be  his  future  glory  in 
history,  to  the  constitution  of  which  he  is  the  head,  and  that  that 
constitution  is  upheld  and  rendered  secure  by  the  intelligence, 
as  much  as  it  is  by  the  attachment,  of  all  his  people.  In  like 
manner.  Sir,  that  we  have  these  guarantees  for  the  constitution, 
against  what  may  be  stated  to  be  the  inconveniences  of  hereditary 
monarchy  in  the  abstract ;  so  we  shall  have  the  guarantee  of  the 
enlightened  state  of  the  Catholic  part  of  our  population, — of  their 
attachment  to  the  constitution, — of  the  present  state  of  intelligence 
in  the  world, — of  the  vigilance  of  a  government,  a  population,  a 
most  learned  church  establishment, — the  guarantee  of  all  our  insti- 
tutions, and  not  least  of  all,  of  a  free  press  and  free  discussion, 


ROMAN  CATHOLIC  RELIEF  BILL.  41 7 

against  the  revival  of  those  pretensions  and  that  interference, 
which  disgraced  the  conduct  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  in  the  darker 
ages  of  the  vv^orld. 

Returning,  however,  to  the  state  of  Ireland.  I  admit  that  the 
proportion  which  there  exists  between  the  Protestant  and  the 
Catholic  parts  of  the  population,  would  be  a  great  evil  in  any 
Protestant  state ;  but  that  in  Ireland,  considering  the  manner  in 
which  the  Protestant  faith  was  introduced  into  that  kingdom,  con- 
sidering the  transfer  of  the  rich  endowments  of  that  Church  to 
the  Protestant  Church,  without  any  corresponding  transfer  being 
effected  in  the  opinions  and  feelings  of  the  people — considering 
the  other  forcible  changes  which  have  been  made  in  the  property 
of  that  country,  the  intensity  of  that  evil  is  greatly  increased. 
But,  Sir,  that  transfer  of  property  is  irrevocable.  It  is  so,  not 
only  because  it  is  so  declared  and  provided  by  the  Act  of  Union ; 
but  I  am  sure  that,  quite  independently  of  that  solemn  compact, 
its  inviolability  must  be  maintained  by  every  man  who  under- 
stands the  true  principles  of  a  free  government,  and  is  capable  of 
forming  a  just  estimate  of  what  constitutes  its  strength  and  most 
secure  foundation.  Sir,  the  foundation  of  all  government  is 
respect  for  property.  I  therefore  never  will  consent  to  shake  that 
foundation  to  its  very  centre,  by  unsettling  one  description  of 
property.  I  could  not  do  so,  without  leading  to  the  confounding 
and  destruction  of  property  altogether. 

I  have  thought  it  right  to  make  this  declaration,  lest  the  drift 
of  my  statement  should  be  misunderstood  by  any  honourable  gen- 
tleman who  hears  me ;  and  trusting  that  every  gentleman  will 
give  me  full  credit  for  the  sincerity  with  which  it  is  made,  the 
practical  questions  which  I  have  asked  myself  whenever  I  have 
voted  on  this  subject,  are, — first,  the  extent  of  the  evil  being 
admitted,  is  it  one  which  is  likely  to  wear  itself  out,  or  is  it  not 
one  becoming  every  day  more  portentous  in  size,  and  more  alarm- 
ing to  the  best  interests  of  the  empire  ?  If,  as  I  think,  there  can 
be  but  one  answer  to  this  question,  I  should  next  say  to  this 
House — Admitting  the  evil  to  be  growing  every  day  more  formi- 
dable, is  your  mind  made  up,  that  an  evil  of  this  description  must 
take  its  course,  and  that  there  exists  no  remedy?  Sir,  it  is  a  good 
old  dictum  of  this  House,  that  nothing  is  beyond  its  reach,  and 
that  there  can  be  no  political  evil  in  the  State,  for  which  there  is 
not  to  be  found  some  remedy.  I  trust  that  this  principle  is  not 
lost  sight  of  by  the  many,  who  have  hitherto  been  opposed  to 
Catholic  Emancipation;  but  who,  perhaps,  from  having  asked 
themselves  these  same  questions,  begin  now  to  declare,  that 
"  something  must  be  done."  I  am  glad  that  this  feeling  is  preva- 
lent, and  to  those  in  whom  it  prevails,  my  next  question  is — What 
is  that  something  1    Do  you  hope  to  convert  the  Catholics  to  the 

3C 


418  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  RELIEF  BILL. 

Protestant  church  1  The  expectation  of  it,  as  a  general  measure, 
is  too  visionary  for  serious  examination,  and  the  chance  of  it, 
even  in  individual  cases,  and  by  individual  zeal,  can  scarcely  be 
indulged,  so  long  as  the  door  of  fair  discussion  and  investigation 
is  closed,  as  it  always  will  be,  against  those  who  persecute,  and 
endeavour  to  make  converts,  at  the  same  time. 

If  you  cannot  convert  the  Catholics,  do  you  hope  that  growing 
wealth,  diffused  education,  increasing  numbers,  the  development 
and  expansion  of  talent  among  the  educated  and  higher  classes, 
especially  those  who  devote  themselves  to  the  learned  professions 
— that  the  example  of  other  countries,  and  the  support,  the  sym- 
pathy, and  the  co-operation  of  so  large  a  portion  of  the  Protes- 
tant community  in  their  own, — the  countenance  which  their 
Claims  have  received  from  a  majority  of  this  exclusively  Protes- 
tant House,  and  from  so  large  a  portion  of  the  Other,  are  Hkely 
to  make  them  less  eager,  and  less  determined  to  prosecute  those 
claims,  for  which  they  are  now  petitioners  at  your  bar  ?  No,  Sir, 
you  can  entertain  no  such  expectation.     It  is  not  possible. 

Why,  then,  if  something  must  be  done,  is  it  not  plain  what  that 
something  must  be  ?  You  must  disarm  the  discontent  of  so  many 
millions,  by  taking  away  the  cause  of  that  discontent.  Assuming, 
for  the  sakp  of  argument,  that  there  is  some  danger  in  this  course, 
you  must  ask  yourselves,  as  practical  statesmen, — Is  not  that 
danger  less  than  that  of  leaving  things  as  they  are  ?  You  must 
ask  yourselves,  whether  the  present  danger  be  one  which,  if  let 
alone,  is  calculated  to  alarm  men  of  firm  and  constant  minds  1 
You  must  ask  yourselves,  whether  the  danger  which  you  appre- 
hend be  of  that  description  which  can  reasonably  give  rise  to  a 
similar  alarm  1  Independently  of  the  general  knowledge  which 
every  man  must  have  of  the  present  state  of  Ireland  as  pregnant 
with  alarm,  and  threatening  a  constantly  growing  danger,  we 
have  had,  in  the  course  of  these  debates,  the  reluctant  testimony 
of  witnesses,  who  are  certainly  not  wanting  in  firmness  of  nerve, 
or  vigour  of  intellect,  or  opportunities  of  observation.  [Let  the 
House  look  to  the  opinion  of  the  gallant  member  for  Westmeath. 
He  tells  you,  that  he  had  violent  prejudices  upon  the  subject,  and 
that  it  was  with  the  utmost  reluctance  he  surrendered  them.  He 
tells  you  of  the  danger  of  the  present  state  of  things,  and  that  if 
the  measure  be  not  granted  that  danger  cannot  be  postponed. 
From  his  habits  of  life,  the  gallant  member  knows  the  value  of 
ten  thousand  well-disciplined  troops ;  and  he  tells  you,  that  if  the 
question  of  Catholic  Emancipation  be  carried,  it  will  do  more  for 
the  peace  of  Ireland,  than  you  could  effect  by  an  augmentation 
of  your  forces  to  that  extent. 

Upon  this  part  of  the  subject,  I  will  not  offer  any  opinion ;  but 
will  consider  the  question  in  reference  to  the  wealth  and  resour- 


ROMAN  CATHOLIC  RELIEF  BILL.  419 

ces  of  Ireland.  And  here  I  am  prepared  to  maintain,  that  the 
cost  of  the  EstabHshment  of  10,000  men  is  by  far  the  least  im- 
portant part  of  the  question.  It  was  not  the  saving  of  that  item 
of  expense,  but  the  loss  which  the  country  experienced,  in  con- 
sequence of  these  restrictions  on  our  Roman  Catholic  fellow  sub- 
jects— and  this  was  a  point  which  gentlemen  who  were  accus- 
tomed to  discuss  questions  of  political  economy  would  do  well  to 
consider — from  the  absence  of  all  the  benefit  which  would,  under 
other  circumstances,  be  derived  from  the  employment  of  millions 
of  English  capital  in  the  sister  kingdom,  which  must  now  be  con- 
sidered as  so  many  millions  driven  away,  or  diverted,  from  those 
channels  of  industry  and  improvement,  which  might  have  been 
so  beneficially  opened  or  enlarged. 

I  am  one  of  those  who  should  unquestionably  have  rejoiced,  if 
the  measure  of  Catholic  Emancipation  had  been  granted,  at  the 
time  of  voting  the  Union  of  the  two  countries.  But  whatever 
had,  subsequently  to  that  measure,  been  the  misfortunes  and  the 
troubles  of  Ireland,  it  cannot  be  denied,  that  she  has,  in  the  same 
period,  been  going  on  increasing  in  wealth,  in  power,  and  in  in- 
telligence. In  fact,  there  are  a  great  many  more  existing  cir- 
cumstances than  there  were  five-and-twenty  years  ago,  to  enable 
Ireland  to  receive  the  boon  which  she  now  claims,  with  advan- 
tage to  herself;  and  the  danger  of  withholding  that  boon,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  proportionably  increased,  compared  with  what  it 
was  five-and-twenty  years  ago.] 

And,  what  are  the  dangers  of  admission  ?  My  right  honour- 
able friend,  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Home  Department,  has 
told  us,  that  our  ancestors,  contemplating  a  speculative  danger, 
thought  it  right  to  provide  against  it,  even  for  their  remotest  pos- 
terity. Now,  Sir,  I  do  beg  of  the  House,  to  weigh  the  proba- 
bilities of  this  speculative  danger  against  the  near  and  palpable 
and  positive  danger  which  now  exists.  I  do  intreat  of  them  to 
ask  themselves  whether,  if  they  relieve  themselves  from  this  last 
and  urgent  danger,  they  necessarily,  or  even  probably,  bring  upon 
themselves  the  risk  of  that  distant  and  speculative  one,  which  is 
so  much  dreaded — whether,  if  so  improbable  an  evil  should 
occur,  the  remedy  against  it  would  not  at  all  times  be  in  our  own 
hands?  The  Catholics  now  are  supplicants  for  justice,  and  for 
an  equal  participation  of  civil  rights  with  their  fellow-subjects. 
It  is  this  position  which  makes  them  formidable.  Concede  to 
them  that  participation,  and  the  danger  ceases.  I  believe  it 
would  cease  altogether;  but  admitting,  for  argument's  sake,  that 
the  constant  object  of  Catholic  ambition  is  the  subversion  of  our 
Protestant  government,  I  think  the  most  prejudiced  Protestant 
must  admit,  that  it  would  be  a  danger  of  a  different  description. 
The  Catholic  laity  and  nobility,  who  now  supplicate  to  be  admit- 


420  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  RELIEF  BILL. 

ted  to  the  benefits  of  the  British  constitution,  backed  by  all  the 
moral  and  political  influence  which  upholds  their  claims,  must 
then,  in  order  to  create  any  danger,  become  aggressors  against 
those  very  institutions,  upon  which  depends  the  existence  of  those 
very  benefits,  which  they  are  so  anxious  to  share.  By  what 
influence,  moral  or  political,  would  they  then  be  supported  ?  By 
none.  I  believe  there  would  be  no  risk  of  such  an  aggression ; 
but,  assuming  it  to  be  possible — that  is,  assuming  men  to  be  despe- 
rately foolish,  as  well  as  desperately  wicked,  I  say  that  the  risk 
would  be  contemptible— contemptible  in  proportion  as  the  attempt 
was  wicked  and  foolish — compared  to  the  dangers  to  which  we 
are  now  exposed. 

My  right  honourable  friend,  the  strength  as  well  as  the  sin- 
cerity of  whose  arguments  upon  this  question  have  so  often 
called  -for  the  applause  of  all  parties  in  this  House,  is  not  one  of 
those  who  object  to  every  concession  to  the  Catholics.  He  does 
not  make  common  cause  with  those  who  think  that  every  thing 
which  is  now  withheld  ought  for  ever  to  be  withheld.  On  the 
contrary — and  it  is  the  strongest  evidence,  if  any  were  wanted 
beyond  his  own  personal  character,  of  his  sincerity — he  has  told 
us,  that,  with  some  doubts  as  to  the  Bench,  he  limits  his  objec- 
tions to  seats  in  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  the  Privy 
Council.  With  respect  to  the  latter,  my  right  honourable  friend 
appears  to  have  forgotten  that  it  rests  with  the  Crown  to  bestow 
such  a  mark  of  distinction,  and  that,  moreover,  it  is  scarcely  pos- 
sible for  any  individual  to  attain  to  it  but  through  the  channel  of 
Parliament. 

But  then  there  may  arise  a  man  in  Parliament,  of  such  tran- 
scendant  talents,  of  such  exalted  excellence  of  character,  with 
such  a  following  in  this  House,  as  to  give  him  an  ascendency  in 
the  councils  of  Parliament  and  of  the  country !  It  cannot  be  de- 
nied that  such  an  occurrence  is  barely  possible.  But,  with  how 
many  bare  possibilities  must  it  be  coupled  and  connected,  before 
the  presence  of  such  an  individual  would  lead  to  danger !  He 
must  be  a  bigot,  his  mind  debased  and  subdued  by  the  worst  doc- 
trines of  the  Roman  church — a  hypocrite  of  the  most  profound 
dissimulation,  such  as  would  enable  him  to  blind  the  House,  and 
to  escape  the  keen  vigilance  of  the  Press,  and  the  jealous  scrutiny 
of  the  other  free  institutions  of  the  country.  His  ambition  must 
be  such  as  never  actuated  a  statesman  in  a  popular  assembly — 
his  love  of  fame,  still  more  extraordinary  than  his  ambition.  He 
must,  in  short,  possess  such  a  combination  of  qualities,  as  have 
never  been  united  in  any  individual  who  has  in  any  times  en- 
deavoured to  obtain  authority  through  the  medium  of  a  popular 
assembly.  Yet,  if  there  be  such  a  man,  I  would  say,  let  him 
come  into  this  House.  And  then,  Sir,  let  his  talents,  his  eloquence. 


ROMAN  CATHOLIC  RELIEF  BILL.  421 

his  genius,  be  what  they  may,  we  have  had  standards,  we  still 
have  standards  in  this  House,  by  which  this  creature  of  my  right 
honourable  friend's  ingenuity  may  be  measured,  and  modelled. 
Let  him  come  here,  and  his  ambition  will  be  taught  to  move  in 
its  legitimate  sphere.  Here,  its  progress  can  be  watched,  its 
course  calculated,  its  movements  foreseen,  its  orbit  ascertained. 
But,  exclude  his  ambition,  banish  it  from  its  natural  sphere,  it  be- 
comes an  eccentric  and  blazing  comet,  disappearing  at  intervals, 
but,  in  its  irregular  and  desultory  movements,  returning  again  to 
spread  alarm,  and  carry  desolation  in  its  course. 

[I  am  sorry  to  trespass  so  long  upon  the  time  and  patience  of 
the  House,  but  I  cannot  conclude  without  saying  a  few  words 
more,  with  regard  to  the  Societies  which  have  been  suppressed 
in  Ireland,  or  without  warning  honourable  gentlemen, — and  I 
must  be  permitted  to  repeat  that  warning  again  and  again — that 
if  they  do  not  at  once  proceed  to  do  away  with  these  unjust 
restrictions,  and  to  repress  these  childish  and  unfounded  preju- 
dices, they  will,  over  and  over  again,  have  to  deal  with  assem- 
blies in  that  kingdom  of  as  formidable  a  description  as  the  late 
Catholic  Associations.]  You  may  put  down  one  association,  but 
the  like  evil  will  arise  again  in  some  other  shape,  directed  to  the 
same  ends,  pregnant  with  the  same  dangers,  putting  forth  the 
same  pretensions,  exercising  the  same  power  over  the  Catholic 
population,  giving  birth  to  the  same  angry  passions,  fostering  the 
same  violent  factions,  which,  in  their  struggles,  have  so  often 
rendered  the  laws  inefficient,  the  Government  powerless,  and  the 
people  miserable. 

I  have  only  one  word  to  say  upon  the  subject  of  the  two 
Wings,*  as  they  have  been  called,  to  this  Bill ;  which  has  been 
rendered  the  more  necessary,  by  what  fell  from  the  honourable 
member  for  Durham,f  last  night.  The  honourable  member  stated, 
that  he  considered  those  two  measures  as  having  originated  with 
those  to  whom  the  House  had  devolved  the  task  of  bringing  in 
the  present  Bill,  and  had  been  the  result  of  meetings  and  discus- 
sions, which  they  had  held  for  that  purpose.  Now,  Sir,  I  only 
think  it  necessary  to  state,  that  neither  my  right  honourable 
friend,J  (whose  absence  on  such  an  occasion  as  this,  and  more 
especially  on  account  of  its  cause,  the  House  must  deeply  re- 
gret), nor  myself  were  present  at  any  of  those  meetings  or 
discussions — that  we  were  no  parties  to  the  bringing  forward 
those  measures;  and  I  believe  I  may  positively  state,  that  the 

*  The  Elective  Franchi8e  for  Ireland  Bill  and  the  Resolution  respecting  a 
provision  for  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  of  Ireland, 
t  Mr.  Lambton,  the  present  Lord  Durham.  I  Mr.  Canning. 

36 


422  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  RELIEF  BILL. 

notice  given  by  my  honourable  friend,  the  member  for  Stafford- 
shire,* and  by  the  noble  lord,f  was  the  first  intimation  which  he 
had  of  their  intentions.  He  was  no  party  to  their  plans,  and  had 
no  cognizance  of  them.  [For  my  own  part,  I  believe  that  both 
measures  were  intended  to  aid  and  accelerate  the  great  measure 
of  Catholic  emancipation.  As  to  the  Bill  for  disfranchising  the 
forty-shilling  freeholders  of  Ireland,  I  cannot  quite  say  that  I 
altogether  approve  of  its  principle.  In  voting  for  the  other,  I 
intended  to  give  it  my  sanction  only  up  to  this  point  and  to  this 
extent — that  as  this  House  holds  the  pubhc  purse,  and  is  bound 
to  provide  for  the  expenses  of  the  public  service,  so  I  should  hold 
it  to  be,  to  provide  for  the  effectual  operation  and  results  of  a 
measure  which,  by  granting  Catholic  emancipation,  will  be  cal- 
culated to  produce  such  incalculable  benefits  to  the  community, 
over  which  the  parties  in  question  may  fairly  be  supposed  to 
exercise  so  extensive  an  influence.  But  when  my  right  honour- 
able friend,  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Home  Department, 
talked  about  the  making  provision  for  a  regular  establishment, — 
for  archbishops,  bishops,  and  an  inferior  clergy, — as  a  concomi- 
tant to  the  bill  for  Roman  Catholic  Emancipation,  I  beg  to  say 
that  I  stand  pledged  to  no  such  provisions  whatever.  I  think, 
indeed,  that  it  will  require  much  previous  inquiry  and  considera- 
tion, before  we  can  proceed  to  make  any  provision  for  the 
Catholic  clergy  by  law.  And  I  should  be  unwilling — as  far  as 
I  can  judge  now  upon  a  subject  so  complicated  and  difficult,  and 
mixed  up  with  many  other  considerations  that  will  be  fully  gone 
into  before  any  definitive  plan  is  acted  upon — to  place  that  pro- 
vision, whatever  it  may  be,  beyond  the  control  of  Government ; 
in  the  same  manner  as  was  observed  towards  the  Protestant  dis- 
senters, and  other  separatists  from  the  church  of  England.  To 
the  Bill  now  before  the  House,  I  give  my  cordial  support.] 

The  House  divided :  For  the  third  reading  of  the  Bill,  278.  Against  it,  227. 
Majority,  51. 

*  Mr.  Littleton.  f  Lord  Francis  Leveson  Gower. 


(     423     ) 


BANK  CHARTER  AND  PROMISSORY  NOTES 

ACTS. 

FEBRUARY  lOlh,  1826. 

Thb  House  having  resolved  itself  into  a  committee  of  the  whole  House, 
on  the  Bank  Charter  and  Promissory  Notes  Acts,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer took  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  advantages  which  would  result  to 
the  Public  in  general,  as  well  as  to  the  Bankers  themselves,  from  the  calling 
in  of  the  small  notes,  and  moved,  "  That  all  Promissory  Notes  payable  to 
bearer  on  demand,  issued  by  licensed  Bankers  in  England,  or  by  the  Bank  of 
England,  for  any  sum  less  than  bl,  bearing  a  date  previous  to  the  5th  of 
February  1826,  or  which  may  have  been  stamped  previously  to  that  day,  shall 
and  may  continue  to  be  issued,  re-issued,  and  circulated,  until  the  5th  day  of 
April  1829,  and  no  longer."  The  right  honourable  gentleman  stated,  that  it 
was  also  intended  to  allow  an  extension  of  the  present  limited  number  of 
partners  in  Banking  firms.  Mr.  Baring  characterised  the  proposed  measures 
as  being  mere  milk  and  water,  and  by  no  means  adequate  to  the  evils  to  be 
subdued.  He  also  maintained,  that  the  Bank  was  cramped  by  its  connection 
with  the  Government,  and  its  means  rendered  unavailable,  to  their  fair  extent 
After  Lord  Folkestone  and  Captain  Maberly  had  followed  on  the  same  side, 

Mr.  HusKissoN  said,  that  although  he  could  not  concur  with  all 
that  had  fallen  from  the  honourable  captain  who  spoke  last,  as  to 
the  causes  of  the  recent  events,  he  was  bound  to  acknowledge, 
that  he  had  made  a  very  clear  and  luminous  statement  on  the 
subject.  The  noble  lord  opposite,  and  his  honourable  friend,  the 
member  for  Taunton,  had,  in  the  course  of  their  addresses  to  the 
House,  made  some  observations  which  would  afford  him  an  op- 
portunity of  explaining  a  point  which  appeared  to  be  much  mis- 
understood. His  honourable  friend,  the  member  for  Taunton,  had 
indulged  in  some  animadversions — harsh  and  unsupported — on 
what  he  was  pleased  to  call  the  insensibility  of  the  First  Lord  of 
the  Treasury,  and  of  his  right  honourable  friend,  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  in  respect  to  the  present  distresses  of  the 
country.  He  was  not  sure,  indeed,  whether  his  honourable  friend 
had  not  included  the  whole  of  the  members  of  Government  in  his 
censure.  It  was  not  necessary  for  him  to  vindicate  his  noble 
friend  at  the  head  of  the  Treasury,  from  the  imputation  of  a  want 
of  feeling,  either  for  the  difficulties  of  the  country,  or  the  distresses 
of  individuals.     He  was  sure  that  his  noble  friend  must  be  aware 


424  BANK  CHARTER— PROMISSORY  NOTES. 

of  the  extent  of  suffering,  from  the  daily  intercourse  which  he  had 
with  those  who  were  most  competent  to  inform  him  of  the  state 
of  affairs  in  the  city. 

Both  the  noble  lord  and  his  honourable  friend  had  commented 
very  strongly  on  a  passage  in  the  Correspondence  between  Govern- 
ment and  the  Bank  of  England,  without  distinctly  understanding, 
as  it  appeared  to  him,  the  way  in  which  it  applied.  The  passage 
to  which  he  alluded,  was  that  commencing  with  the  words,  "  the 
panic  in  the  money-market  having  subsided,"  &lc.  Now,  he  need 
not  ask  his  honourable  friend,  who,  he  believed,  was  in  London 
about  the  middle  of  December,  and  was  a  witness  to  what  was 
then  passing,  whether  there  did  not  exist  at  that  time,  for  two  or 
three  days,  such  a  state  of  affairs  in  the  money-market,  such  a 
complete  suspension  of  all  confidence,  as,  contradistinguished  from 
commercial  distress,  rendered  it  impossible  to  procure  money 
upon  even  the  most  unobjectionable  security?  He  appealed  to 
every  gentleman  present  connected  with  the  city,  whether  it  was 
not  a  fact,  that,  during  forty-eight  hours,  it  was  impossible  to 
convert  into  money,  to  any  extent  at  least,  the  best  securities  of 
the  Government?  Persons  could  not  sell  Exchequer  bills — they 
could  not  sell  Bank  stock — they  could  not  sell  East-India  stock — 
they  could  not  sell  public  securities  on  the  funded  debt  of  the 
country.  That  difficulty  did  not  arise  from  any  rational  idea  of 
the  insolvency  of  the  Government,  or  of  the  Bank,  or  of  the  other 
great  corporate  body,  but  from  that  panic  to  which  his  right 
honourable  friend,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  the  First 
Lord  of  the  Treasury  alluded  in  the  passage  which  had  been 
referred  to,  as  having  existed,  and  as  being  removed.  Was  the 
statement  not  true,  then,  that  the  panic — that  state  of  things  which 
he  had  just  described — had  been  removed?  No  one  now  heard 
of  two  or  three  London  bankers  stopping  every  morning.  It  was 
no  longer  impossible  to  convert  all  public  securities  into  money. 
The  operations  of  the  Royal  Exchange  had  resumed  their  ordi- 
nary course.  Did  Lord  Liverpool  suppose  that,  when  the  panic 
in  the  money-market  was  over,  the  commercial  transactions  of 
the  country  would  not  be  affected  ?  No  such  thing !  In  the  con- 
versations which  he  had  had  with  Lord  Liverpool,  his  noble  friend 
had  stated,  that  the  convulsion  in  the  money-market  must  inevita- 
bly derange  the  transactions  of  commerce,  and  involve  them  in 
difficulties. 

The  honourable  member  who  last  addressed  the  House  seemed 
to  be  aware  of  the  distinction  which  existed  between  the  opera- 
tions of  the  money-market,  and  those  of  commerce.  If  the  diffi- 
culties which  existed  in  the  money-market  a  short  time  since  had 
continued  only  eight-and-forty  hours  longer,  he  sincerely  believed 
that  the  effect  would  have  been  to  put  a  stop  to  all  dealings 


BANK  CHARTER— PROMISSORY  NOTES.  425 

between  man  and  man,  except  by  way  of  barter.  It  had  been 
very  truly  observed,  that  the  Bank,  by  its  prompt  and  efficacious 
assistance,  put  an  end  to  tlie  panic,  and  averted  the  ruin  which 
threatened  all  the  banking  establishments  in  London,  and  through 
them  the  banking  establishments  and  moneyed  men  all  over  the 
country ;  and  he  firmly  believed  that,  in  saving  others,  it  had 
actually  saved  itself.  The  conduct  of  the  Bank  had  been  most 
praiseworthy.  He  would  take  upon  himself  to  say,  that  the  Bank 
directors,  throughout  their  prompt,  efficacious,  and  public-spirited 
conduct,  had  the  countenance,  advice,  and  particular  recom- 
mendation of  the  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  and  of  his  right 
honourable  friend  to  assist  them.  Therefore  he  had  a  right  to 
say,  that  his  colleagues,  in  their  Communication  to  the  Bank, 
alluded  to  the  state  of  the  money-market  only.  It  should  be  re- 
collected, that  his  colleagues  were  addressing  persons  with  whom 
they  had  been  in  constant  communication  from  the  commence- 
ment of  the  panic.  They  knew  the  extent  of  the  distress  which 
existed  in  the  commercial  interest,  but  they  did  not  allude  to  it, 
because  it  was  not  immediately  connected  with  that  part  of  the 
subject  to  which  they  were  directing  the  attention  of  the  Bank. 

His  honourable  friend,  the  member  for  Taunton,  had  inferred 
from  what  appeared  in  the  Correspondence,  that  the  Government 
was  ignorant  of  what  was  passing  in  Scotland.  Could  it  for  a 
moment  be  supposed,  that  his  noble  colleague  and  his  right 
honourable  friend  were  so  ignorant  of  the  state  of  the  country, 
as  not  to  know  that  the  greatest  commercial  distress  at  present 
existed  in  Scotland,  and  that  the  Scotch  bankers,  by  their  mode 
of  affording  discounts,  were  aggravating  that  distress  1  It  was, 
however,  quite  consistent  with  that  fact,  that  the  system  of  Scotch 
banking  afforded  greater  securities  than  the  English  system ;  and 
therefore  it  was  desirable  to  introduce  the  former  into  this 
country. 

He  did  not  know  whether  the  noble  lord  opposite  intended  to 
subject  the  whole  of  the  members  of  the  Government  to  the  charge 
of  insensibility  to  the  distresses  of  the  country ;  but  he  could  assure 
the  noble  lord,  that  there  was  no  part  of  his  speech  in  which  he 
so  cordially  and  entirely  concurred,  as  that  in  which  he  stated, 
that  a  system  of  currency  which  produced  great  and  violent  fluc- 
tuations in  the  price  of  commodities,  was  one  which,  however  it 
might  affect  the  opulent  merchant  or  the  man  of  landed  property, 
was  deeply  to  be  deplored,  on  account  of  the  manner  in  which  it 
operated  to  aggravate  the  distresses  of  the  labouring  classes. 
That  was  the  opinion  which  he  had  uniformly  maintained.  It 
would  be  found  recorded  in  the  Report  of  the  Bullion  Committee 
of  1810,  and  it  had  been  stated  by  him,  on  every  occasion  when 
he  had  been  called  upon  to  deliver  his  sentiments  on  the  subject. 
36*  3D 


426  *  BANK  CHARTER—PROMISSORY  NOTES. 

There  was  no  part  of  the  system  of  the  Currency  at  which  he 
looked  with  greater  anxiety,  than  the  manner  in  which  it  preju- 
diced the  interests  of  the  labourer,  and  particularly  those  employ- 
ed in  agriculture. 

His  honourable  friend,  the  member  for  Taunton,  had  observed, 
that  he  had  never  heard  a  speech  so  calculated  to  create  disap 
pointment — so  inadequate  to  the  occasion — as  that  of  his  rignt 
honourable  friend,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  His  honour- 
able friend  had  followed  up  that  remark  by  a  dissertation — a  very 
able  one  certainly,  to  which  he  had  listened  with  great  attention, 
and,  in  some  parts,  with  great  satisfaction  —  on  the  general 
system  of  banking  in  the  abstract.  His  honourable  friend  then 
entered  upon  a  statement  of  the  difficulties  under  which  he  sup- 
posed the  Bank  of  England  to  labour,  on  account  of  the  advances 
on  Exchequer  bills ;  and  other  advances,  more  or  less  of  a  per- 
manent nature,  made  by  it  to  Government.  As  the  question  was 
one  of  fact,  it  was  material  that  it  should  be  set  right.  His 
honourable  friend  was  considered  a  great  authority ;  and  a  state- 
ment going  forth  from  him  was  Hkely  to  produce  a  considerable 
effect.  He  wished,  therefore,  that  the  matter  should  be  fairly 
stated.  His  honourable  friend  had  stated  the  advances  made  by 
the  Bank  on  account  of  the  half-pay  annuity  at  eight  millions, 
forgetting  that  considerable  sums  were  paid  by  Government  to 
the  Bank,  twice  a  year,  on  account  of  that  transaction ;  which, 
if  deducted,  would  reduce  the  amount  advanced  by  the  Bank  to 
5,400,000/.  He  was  not  then  going  to  discuss  the  prudence  of 
that  arrangement :  he  was  only  desirous  that  the  matter  should 
be  correctly  understood;  because  it  was  a  little  hard  that  his 
honourable  friend,  who  had  himself  contracted  for  loans  with 
Government,  should  endeavour  to  throw  on  Government  the 
odium  of  having  imposed  on  the  Bank  in  the  arrangement.  The 
arrangement  was  a  voluntary  one  on  the  part  of  the  Bank :  it 
was,  in  fact,  a  description  of  loan.  The  Bank,  perhaps,  had  not 
pursued  precisely  the  same  course  as  his  honourable  friend  would 
have  adopted,  under  similar  circumstances.  He,  perhaps,  would 
have  doled  out  the  loan  piece  by  piece ;  selling  it  to  the  public, 
when  he  saw  an  opportunity  of  doing  so  to  advantage.  With 
that,  however,  he  had  nothing  to  do.  The  Bank  were  the  best 
judges  of  their  own  interests.  He  could  take  upon  himself  to  say, 
and  no  Bank  director  could  contradict  him,  that  there  was  nothing 
done,  on  the  part  of  the  Government,  to  prevent  the  Bank  from 
disposing  of  the  contract  in  any  way  they  might  think  proper,  at 
any  period.  He  was  sure  that  his  honourable  friend  would  not 
wish,  particularly  at  the  present  moment,  when  he  must  be  so 
fully  aware  of  the  danger  of  misrepresentation,  to  state  any  thing 
but  the  fact.     He  must  say,  however,  that  in  his  statement  of  the 


BANK  CHARTER— PROMISSORY  NOTES.  437 

manner  in  which  the  capital  of  the  Bank  was  locked  up  by  its 
advances  to  Government,  his  honourable  friend  was  not  correct. 
His  honourable  friend  said,  that  the  whole  of  the  capital  of  the 
Bank  was  lent  to  the  Government.  If  he  meant,  that  the  whole 
of  the  capital  which  the  Bank  possessed  at  the  period  of  its  foun- 
dation was  lent  to  Government,  as  the  price  paid  for  their  char- 
ter, he  could  not  dispute  the  truth  of  that  proposition ;  but  his 
honourable  friend  ought  to  distinguish  between  that  capital,  and 
that  which  had  been  accruing  to  the  Bank,  in  consequence  of 
their  profits,  and  with  which  they  were  at  liberty  to  deal  as  they 
pleased.  His  honourable  friend  stated,  that  the  Bank  were  in  the 
habit  of  issuing  seven  millions  upon  Exchequer-bills  at  one  time, 
and  nine  millions  at  another,  and  that  those  advances  swallowed 
up  all  their  capital,  and  left  them  without  any  means  at  their  dis- 
posal. In  the  first  place,  did  any  one  suppose  that  the  seven 
millions  which  constituted  the  charge  on  the  consolidated  fund, 
became  all  demandable  on  one  and  the  same  day?  The  money 
was  drawn  out  in  separate  portions  at  different  periods.  At  the 
same  time,  the  accruing  receipts  of  the  new  quarter  were  daily 
paid  into  the  Bank ;  so  that,  after  all,  the  alarming  statement  made 
by  his  honourable  friend,  respecting  deficiency  bills  (which  he 
was  surprised  that  he  should  have  put  forth  at  a  period  of  such 
excitement),  amounted  to  nothing  more  than  this — that  the  Bank 
was  in  the  habit  of  paying  daily  to,  and  receiving  daily  from,  the 
Government,  in  the  same  way  as  as  a  private  banker  would  deal 
with  his  customer.  Instead  of  the  Bank  advancing  twenty-four 
millions  to  Government,  as  his  honourable  friend  had  stated,  they 
advanced  only  the  sum  he  had  mentioned  on  account  of  the  half 
pay  (which  they  might  get  rid  of  if  they  thought  proper),  and 
about  six  millions  on  Exchequer  bills;  for  with  respect  to  the 
deficiency  bills,  he  considered  it  no  advance  at  all. 

He  was  not  a  little  surprised  at  another  part  of  his  honourable 
friend's  speech.  His  honourable  friend  stated,  that  at  an  early 
period  after  the  conclusion  of  the  war,  the  market  which  existed 
on  the  Continent  for  our  manufactures  aflforded  a  favourable 
opportunity  for  obtaining  a  supply  of  gold,  which  would  have 
enabled  Government  to  have  got  rid  of  the  one  and  two  pound 
notes.  Did  his  honourable  friend  recollect  the  state  of  distress  in 
which  the  continent  was  placed  by  the  operation  of  the  tremen- 
dous war,  of  which  it  had  been  the  theatre  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ?  The  continent  had  not  then  the  means  of  paying  for 
our  manufactures.  In  fact,  there  was,  at  the  present  moment,  a 
much  greater  export  of  manufactures  than  at  the  period  to  which 
his  honourable  friend  had  alluded.  Talk  of  the  principles  of 
trade  1 — he  was  surprised  to  hear  his  honourable  friend  argue, 
that  in  order  to  obtain  a  supply  of  bullion,  it  was  necessary  that 


428  BANK  C A ARTER— PROMISSORY  NOTES. 

the  goods  exported  should  be  paid  for  directly  in  metallic  cur- 
rency. The  quantity  of  exports  last  year  was  greater  than  in 
any  previous  year  in  the  history  of  the  country.  Their  total  value 
was  greater  than  in  any  previous  year.  What  signified  it  to  him, 
whether  those  exports  went  to  Cuba  or  the  United  States  of  North 
America,  or  the  New  States  of  South  America.  Did  not  his 
honourable  friend  know  how  bills  sometimes  travelled  about 
through  the  world  ?  Why,  it  had  come  under  his  own  know- 
ledge, that  bills  given  in  payment  for  goods  exported,  had  travelled 
from  South  America  to  India,  and  had  ultimately  been  returned 
to  this  country  in  the  shape  of  bullion.  To  talk,  then,  of  our 
having  been  shut  out  from  the  continent,  and  having  lost  the 
opportunity  of  obtaining  bullion,  shortly  after  the  peace,  was  a 
misrepresentation  of  facts.  The  acquirement  of  bullion  depended 
on  our  exports. 

The  honourable  member  w^ho  spoke  last  had  imputed  to  his 
right  honourable  friend,  that  he  had  not  gone  into  the  real  cause 
of  the  distress  of  the  country.  The  real  cause  had  been  stated  by 
his  right  honourable  friend.  It  was  a  spirit  of  speculation  and 
overtrading.  He  agreed  with  the  honourable  member  in  think- 
ing, that  the  immediate  cause  of  those  distresses,  and  the  feverish 
state  in  which  the  country  had  been  recently  placed,  was  over- 
trading; and  the  anxiety  of  his  Majesty's  ministers  was,  not  only 
to  relieve  the  country  at  present,  but  to  take  such  steps  as  would 
prevent  the  recurrence  of  those  distresses — distresses  which  went 
to  the  extent  of  producing  a  stagnation  and  want  of  confidence 
in  our  trade,  to  a  degree  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  this  country, 
— distresses,  which  rendered  unsaleable  and  inconvertible  into 
money,  all  the  usual  articles  of  trade  and  commerce. 

Let  the  House  but  consider  for  a  moment  what  had  been  the 
immediate  effect  of  this  overtrading.  It  produced  a  rise  in  prices, 
so  rapid  that  it  had  never  been  equalled.  And  what  was  the  con- 
sequence ?  Why,  a  fall  as  rapid  and  as  unequalled  as  the  rise  had 
been.  If  he  were  asked  to  give  documentary  proof  of  the  causes 
which  led  to  those  reverses  in  our  commercial  transactions,  he 
should  beg  leave  to  read  an  extract  or  two,  pledging  himself  that 
they  should  be  much  shorter  than  those  with  which  the  honour- 
able member,  who  had  preceded  him,  had  favoured  the  House. 
Mercantile  and  trading  men  were,  of  course,  aware  that  there 
was  published,  twice  a  week,  in  London,  an  account  of  the  Price 
Current  of  the  different  articles  on  sale  in  the  city;  and  to  this 
very  useful  publication  the  editor  was  in  the  habit  of  giving,  at 
the  end  of  the  year,  a  summary  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  prices,  add- 
ing his  own  opinions  of  the  manner  in  which  the  markets  had  been 
conducted  during  that  period.  The  paragraph  which  he  was 
about  to  read  from  that  paper  had  reference  to  the  year  1825. 


BANK  CHARTER— PROMISSORY  NOTES.  429 

The  editor,  after  some  comments  on  the  state  of  the  markets, 
went  on  to  say,  that  such  was  the  mania  for  speculation,  which 
in  March  and  April  had  taken  hold  of  persons  of  all  classes — not 
confining  itself  to  speculators,  but  extending  to  steady  merchants 
and  traders, — that  even  on  the  article  of  nutmegs  the  price  rose 
from  2s.  66?.  to  125.  6d.  per  pound,  in  the  space  of  one  month. 
He  added,  that  the  speculation  on  other  spices  had  the  effect  of 
producing  a  corresponding  rise  in  their  prices. 

But  the  mania  was  not  confined  to  these  articles.  In  cotton, 
coft'ee,  sugar,  and  tallow,  the  rage  for  speculation  was  equally 
great ;  and  merchants,  traders,  shopkeepers,  clerks,  apprentices, 
and  persons  of  all  conditions,  partook  equally  of  the  phrenzy  of 
vying  with  each  other  in  their  endeavours  to  secure  a  monopoly 
in  each  different  article ;  so  that  the  prices  were  raised  higher 
than  could  ever  have  been  expected,  and  higher  certainly,  than 
they  could  long  continue.  And  this  state  of  things,  be  it  observed, 
was  not  included  in  the  number  of  those  wild,  insane,  and  Bed- 
lamite schemes,  with  which  the  market  had  been  inundated ;  but 
had  its  rise  amongst  those  who  were  considered  the  sober,  steady 
merchants  and  traders  of  the  metropolis.  These  speculations 
attached  themselves  to  every  staple  commodity  of  our  imports  for 
the  purposes  of  manufacture,  as  well  as  to  the  foreign  articles  of 
our  consumption — cotton,  wool,  timber,  wine,  tobacco.  In  fact, 
every  article  which  it  was  necessary  to  draw  from  foreign  coun- 
tries, became  the  object  of  this  species  of  speculation. 

And  when,  he  would  ask,  did  all  this  take  place?  It  took  place 
at  a  period  when  the  exchanges  were  against  this  country,  and 
when  gold  was  necessarily  going  out  of  it !  For  he  said  again — 
and  he  was  anxious  to  submit  his  statement  upon  this  point  to 
any  set  of  practical  men — that  an  unfavourable  state  of  the  ex- 
changes had  the  effect  of  encouraging  an  increase  of  our  exports 
to,  while  it  checked  our  imports  from,  foreign  countries.  Well, 
then !  if  any  set  of  practical  men  saw  that,  at  a  period  like  this, 
when  our  coin  was  itself  finding  its  way  out  of  the  country,  every 
corner  of  Asia  and  America  was  ransacked  for  cotton  wool,  and 
other  articles  of  speculation ;  and  if,  at  such  a  period,  money  was 
so  plentiful  in  the  country  as  to  be  hawked  about,  and  offered  at 
a  depreciated  rate  of  interest,  was  it  not  a  convincing  proof,  that 
there  was  something  wrong  in  the  state  of  our  currency  ?  And  if 
so,  he  would  ask  any  sober  man — certainly,  there  were  not  many 
sober  in  the  city,  at  the  period  to  which  he  alluded — but  he  called 
upon  any  sober  man  to  say,  to  what  such  a  state  of  things,  if 
unchecked,  must  come  at  last  ? 

With  respect  to  the  state  of  the  Currency,  there  had,  unfor- 
tunately, been  much  difference  of  opinion.  But  the  Bank  felt 
called  upon  to  provide  for  its  own  safety,  by  narrowing  its  issues. 


430  BANK  CHARTER— PROMISSORY  NOTES. 

And  what  was  the  result?  The  spirit  of  speculation  was  checked ; 
and,  as  a  necessary  result,  those  country  banks  which  had  been 
most  rash  and  immoderate  in  aiding  those  speculations,  by  ad- 
vances, were  ruined.  But  the  evil  did  not  stop  here ;  for  the  ruin 
of  a  few  bad  and  unstable  banks  involv^ed  in  difficulties  many 
establishments  of  a  similar  nature,  which  were  otherwise  placed 
upon  the  most  stable  footing.  A  panic  was  spread  throughout 
the  country.  The  country  banks,  amounting  to  seven  or  eight 
hundred,  applied  to  the  Bank  of  England  as  their  only  reservoir ; 
so  that  she  was  assailed  upon  every  side.  Seven  or  eight  hundred 
drains  were  at  once  opened  through  her — gold  was  to  flow  from 
her  into  the  country.  The  Bank  of  England  was,  in  consequence, 
placed  in  a  state  of  the  greatest  difficulty  and  embarrassment. 

Now,  he  would  ask,  whether  this  was  a  situation  in  which  the 
country  banks  ought  to  be  allowed  to  stand? — whether  it  was 
safe  or  convenient  that  they  should  remain  upon  such  a  footing? 
He  maintained  that  it  was  not.  It  was  his  opinion — an  opinion 
not  hastily  formed,  but  the  result  of  long  and  anxious  observation 
— that  a  permanent  state  of  cash  payments,  and  a  circulation  of 
one  and  two  pound  notes,  could  not  co-exist.  He  would  put  his 
argument  into  the  form  of  a  single  proposition — If  there  were,  in 
any  country,  a  paper  currency  of  the  same  denomination  as  coin, 
the  paper  and  the  coin  could  not  circulate  together :  the  paper 
would  drive  out  the  coir^,  Let  crown  notes  be  made,  and  we 
should  never  seen  crown  pieces :  make  half-crown  notes,  and  a 
half-crown  would  not  remain  in  circulation:  allow  one-pound 
notes  to  circulate,  and  we  should  never  see  a  sovereign.  It  was 
very  well  known,  indeed,  that  in  1821  and  1822,  when  the  Bank 
of  England  felt  a  laudable  anxiety  to  establish  a  gold  circulation, 
and  had  actually  endeavoured  to  saturate  the  country  with  gold, 
such  was  the  indifference  for  the  precious  metal,  that  the  parcels 
of  gold  coin,  which  they  sent  down  by  one  mail,  were  returned 
by  another. 

If  this,  then,  were  a  right  and  just  description,  to  what  inference 
did  it  lead?  He  did  not  speak  it  to  the  disparagement  of  the  coun- 
try bankers,  when  he  said,  that  they  had  endeavoured,  and  very 
naturally,  to  put  out  as  much  of  their  paper  as  they  could.  They 
might  have  had  gold  by  them  to  some  extent ;  but  if  cautious  and 
prudent — and  he  was  sorry  to  say  that  some  of  them  had  shown 
themselves  not  to  be  so,  although  he  believed  that  the  country 
banks  in  general  were  managed  with  a  good  deal  of  prudence 
and  discretion — but  if  prudent  and  cautious,  they  always  placed 
their  chief  reliance  on  the  Bank  of  England.  And  not  only  did 
the  seven  or  eight  hundred  provincial  banks  of  England  thus  rely 
on  it,  but  even  the  banks  of  Scotland,*  and  the  national  bank  of 
Ireland,  looked  to  it  as  their  security. 


BANK  CHARTER—PROMISSORY  NOTES.  431 

He  would  ask,  then,  ^ny  reasonable  person,  if  it  was  fair  or 
just,  that  the  Bank  of  England  should  be  expected  to  provide 
gold  for  those  various  applicants,  no  matter  under  what  circum- 
stances they  should  seek  for  it — no  matter  whether  the  exchanges 
were  favourable  or  unfavourable  to  this  country  ?  So  long,  in- 
deed, as  the  national  bank  had  the  advantage  of  having  an  ex- 
clusive trade,  perhaps  something  in  the  way  of  a  sacrifice  might 
be  reasonably  expected  from  it ;  but  after  having,  in  the  most  dis- 
interested manner,  surrendered  a  part  of  its  monopoly,  in  which 
it  was  greatly  interested,  the  Bank  naturally  expected  to  be  re- 
lieved from  a  Hability  which  tended  greatly  to  embarrass,  if  not 
to  injure  it.  It  was,  under  any  circumstances,  unnatural  to  re- 
quire that  the  Bank  of  England  should  be  the  means  of  protect- 
ing and  securing  all  the  country  banks ;  which,  if  persevered  in, 
might  one  day  have  the  effect  of  involving  the  establishment  in 
serious  difficulties.  Why,  he  asked,  should  the  Bank  of  England 
be  obliged  to  insure  all  the  other  banks  in  the  country?  Why 
not,  on  the  contrary,  oblige  each  country  bank  to  insure  itself,  by 
having  in  its  possession,  or  at  its  command,  a  certain  portion  of 
coin  of  the  realm,  to  answer  the  demand  which  might  be  made 
upon  it,  in  cases  of  emergency? 

He  had  already  spoken  of  the  difficulties  which  had  arisen 
from  overtrading.  The  honourable  member  for  Taunton*  had 
said,  indeed,  that  we  must  look  to  nothing  else  for  the  cause  of 
those  difficulties.  Now,  he  could  not  agree  to  this.  He  would 
look  to  much  more.  Last  session,  when  the  subject  of  the  corn 
laws  was  under  discussion,  he  had  stated,  that  the  gold  was  going 
abroad  ;  that  the  foreign  exchanges  were  becoming  unfavourable 
to  us ;  that  the  Bank  of  England  ought  to  look  to  it ;  and  he  had 
adverted  to  what  might  be  the  effects  of  an  unfavourable  harvest. 
The  honourable  member  had  spoken  of  the  harvest  as  a  favour- 
able one.  He  would  ask,  then,  what  must  be  the  nature  of  a 
system,  which,  with  a  favourable  harvest,  and  at  a  period  of  pro- 
found peace,  was  capable  of  producing  such  pain  and  distress  as 
had  lately  been  experienced  ? 

The  House  had  gone  far  in  their  endeavours  to  restore  a 
metallic  currency  to  the  country;  and  he  woul3  ask,  whether 
they  were  prepared  to  hazard  the  disgrace  of  stopping  short  in 
their  career,  by  continuing  the  circulation  of  the  one  and  two- 
pound  notes  ?  He  trusted  that  the  measures,  brought  forward  by 
nis  right  honourable  friend,  would  be  felt  to  be  deserving  of  the 
support  of  those  gentlemen  who  were  not  in  the  habit  of  voting 
with  his  Majesty's  ministers.  This  was  a  question  of  the  greatest 
magnitude,  and  of  vital  importance  to  the  country;  and  his  right 

*  Mr.  Baring. 


432  BANK  CHARTER-^PROMISSORY  NOTES. 

honourable  friend  was  well  warranted  in  saying,  that  in  the  event 
of  its  being  negatived,  he  should  not  envy  the  responsibility  of 
the  individual  who  would  have  to  manage  the  finances  of  the 
country,  while  the  state  of  the  currency  was  left  to  the  chapter 
of  accidents. 

One  of  the  great  evils  which  they  were  called  upon  to  correct 
was  the  excessive  issue  of  paper.  This  had  been  productive  of 
the  greatest  distress.  It  had  been  the  destruction  of  confidence 
between  all  classes  of  society.  It  had  caused  the  ruin  of  thou- 
sands of  innocent  individuals.  It  had  given  rise  to  fluctuations 
in  our  currency,  which  were  sometimes  in  favour  of  the  debtor, 
and  sometimes  of  the  creditor;  but  which  frequently  involved  the 
one  and  the  other  in  the  deepest  distress.  Nothing  but  disgrace 
and  danger  could  attend  a  deviation  from  those  correct  principles 
of  currency,  which  Parliament  had  solemnly  recognized. 

He  was  surprised  to  hear  his  honourable  friend,  the  member 
for  Taunton,  assert  that  if  this  measure  was  carried,  it  would  in- 
volve the  whole  of  the  agricultural  interest  in  distress,  equal  to 
that  which  it  had  experienced  at  a  former  period.  If  he  had  not 
been  aware  that  his  honourable  friend  was  in  England  in  the 
months  of  November  and  December  last,  he  should  have  thought, 
from  what  he  had  said,  that  he  was  entirely  ignorant  of  recent 
events.  He  would  ask  the  honourable  member,  whether  he  had 
passed  a  town  or  a  district,  in  which  a  bank  had  not  been  swept 
away?  He  would  ask  him,  whether  he  had  not  witnessed  the 
eflfects  produced,  not  only  on  the  shop-keepers  and  traders,  but 
on  every  class  of  farmers,  by  such  failures  ?  With  whom  did  the 
farmers  transact  their  business  but  with  the  country  bankers? 
And  how  many  gentlemen  had  been  obliged  to  suspend  the  col- 
lection of  their  rents,  in  consequence  of  the  losses  sustained  by 
their  tenants,  in  the  deposits  which  they  had  made  in  the  hands 
of  the  country  bankers — losses  which  were  felt,  not  only  in  cities 
and  towns,  but  even  in  villages ;  where  the  labourers  were  fre- 
quently paid,  not  daily  or  weekly,  but  monthly,  in  one-pound 
notes  of  the  country  bankers?  What,  then,  must  be  the  over- 
whelming misery  of  those  persons  who  were  visited  by  the  sud- 
den privation  of  the  means  of  supplying  their  hourly  wants  and 
necessities?  This  distress  had  overtaken  the  farmer  and  labourer, 
but  in  a  still  greater  degree  the  manufacturer  and  the  artizan. 

And  here  he  could  not  but  advert  to  an  expression  used  by  the 
noble  lord  opposite,  that  the  proposed  measure  would  have  the 
effect  of  bringing  back  again  the  agricultural  distress  which 
existed  previous  to  1822.  Need  he  tell  the  noble  lord,  or  his 
honourable  friend,  that  there  was  a  necessary  connection  between 
those  who  consumed  and  those  who  supplied  agricultural  pro- 
duce ?     Was  it  necessary  that  he  should  point  out  the  fact,  that 


BANK  CHARTER— PROMISSORY  NOTES.  433 

51  fall  in  the  demand  for  the  labour  of  manufacturers  must  neces- 
sarily produce  a  decrease  of  consumption ;  and  that  one  must,  of 
necessity,  regulate  the  other  ?  What  was  it  that  occasioned  the 
revival  of  the  agricultural  interests  in  1822?  He  maintained  that 
it  arose  principally  from  the  revival  of  the  manufacturing  interests 
and  from  the  employment  of  thousands,  who  had,  for  a  consider- 
able time,  been  deprived  of  an  opportunity  of  supporting  them- 
selves by  their  labour.  The  increased  means  with  which  they 
were  furnished  necessarily  brought  about  an  increase  of  consump- 
tion ;  and  looking  to  the  opposite  side  of  this  argument,  he  was 
convinced,  that  the  manufacturing  distress  which  was  now  so 
generally  felt,  must  have  the  effect  of  diminishing  the  demand  for 
the  agricultural  produce  of  the  country.  It  was  the  natural 
coui'se  of  things  that,  in  such  a  fluctuating  state  of  our  currency, 
all  classes  of  society  must,  in  their  turn,  be  affected  by  it ;  and, 
therefore,  the  sooner  we  got  rid  of  that  fluctuation,  and  returned 
to  a  sound,  healthy,  and  permanent  circulating  medium,  the  better 
would  it  be  for  the  community  at  large. 

If  they  wished  for  a  proof  of  the  value  of  a  steady,  unchange- 
able currency,  they  had  it  in  the  example  of  France.  That 
country  had  been  twice  invaded:  twice  had  her  capital  been 
taken  possession  of;  and  she  had  been  compelled,  in  1816  and 
1817,  to  pay  large  sums  to  foreign  countries  for  corn.  But  she 
had  a  steady  metallic  currency;  and, however  such  visitations 
might  have  aflected  the  great — however  the  extensive  contractor 
might  have  been  injured  or  ruined — the  great  body  of  the  popula- 
tion remained  unmolested.  The  storm  which  uprooted  the  forest 
tree,  had  passed  over  without  injuring  the  humble  reed ;  and  this 
was  mainly  to  be  attributed  to  the  permanent  footing  upon  which 
the  Currency  of  the  country  had  been  placed. 

If  the  plan  of  his  right. honourable  friend  was  carried  into  exe- 
cution, he  was  satisfied  it  would  have  the  effect  of  making  the 
country  banker  as  sensitive  on  the  subject  of  the  exchanges,  and 
as  watchful  of  any  unfavourable  turn  which  might  take  place  in 
them,  as  the  Bank  of  England  now  was.  He  would  carefully 
watch  the  circumstances  which  were  calculated  to  bring  gold 
into,  or  send  it  out  of,  the  country ;  and  this  caution  being  timely 
impressed  upon  him,  the  danger  would,  in  a  measure,  be  passed. 
There  would  then  be  no  fear  of  any  agitation  or  convulsion  in  the 
country,  as  the  interest  of  every  banker  would  compel  him  to 
provide  himself  for  any  coming  emergency :  in  other  words,  every 
country  banker  would  feel  an  equal  interest  with  the  Bank  of 
England,  in  watching  the  state  of  the  Currency,  and  guarding 
against  its  fluctuations. 

If,  then,  it  was  necessary,  for  the  best  interests  of  the  country, 
that  the  Currency  should  be  established  on  a  sound  and  solid 
37  3E 


434  BANK  CHARTER— PROMISSORY  NOTES. 

foundation,  and  that  the  country  banks  should  be  prevented  from 
drawing  the  metallic  currency  out  of  the  kingdom,  by  the  issue 
of  these  small  notes,  the  next  question  was — whether  this  was  a 

E roper  time  for  carrying  the  measure  into  execution  (  But  before 
e  touched  upon  this,  perhaps  it  would  be  proper  that  he  should 
make  one  preliminary  observation  respecting  the  country  banks. 
He  was  far  from  being  hostile  to  these  banks.  On  the  contrary, 
he  thought  they  would  be  of  great  service  to  the  country,  provided 
they  were  placed  under  proper  regulations.  He  wished  to  save 
these  banks  themselves  from  the  consequences  of  their  own  pro- 
ceedings— from  the  liability  of  each  to  be  ruined  by  the  failure 
of  the  others.  But,  to  effect  this,  they  must  be  prevented  from 
issuing  paper,  as  low  as  the  highest  denomination  of  the  metallic 
currency  of  the  country.  They  must  not  be  permitted  to  issue 
their  one-pound  notes — corresponding  with  the  sovereign — the 
highest  denomination  of  metallic  currency.  To  give  them  the 
privilege  of  making  such  issues  was,  in  fact,  to  permit  them  to 
assume  the  powers  of  the  prerogative.  Let  them  continue  to  issue 
paper,  and  to  extend  and  act  upon  their  credit ;  but  let  them  not 
issue  their  small  notes,  and  thereby  trench  upon  the  prerogative. 

The  question  then  was — Is  the  present  the  fit  time  to  provide, 
by  law,  for  the  gradual  and  progressive  withdrawal  of  these  small 
notes  ?  Some  gentlemen  had  contended,  that  this  was  not  the  fit 
period.  Now  he,  on  the  contrary,  maintained,  that  this  was  the 
most  proper  time,  when  so  much  of  this  currency  was  actually 
afloat,  and  the  bankers  were  smarting  under  the  consequences  of 
their  over-issues.  Was  it  when  a  drinker  of  ardent  spirits  was 
intoxicated,  that  you  could  persuade  him  to  give  over  that  detesta- 
ble habit  ?  No !  but  when  he  was  in  his  sober  senses,  and  suffer- 
ing under  the  effects  of  his  previous  intemperance.  The  issue  of 
these  notes  had  been  already  greatly  curtailed,  by  the  failure  of 
a  hundred  country  banks,  and  from  other  causes.  The  country 
banks  had,  at  this  time,  a  large  stock  of  gold  in  their  hands, 
drawn  from  the  bank  of  England.  They  had  found  it  necessary, 
for  their  own  safety,  to  lay  in  stores  both  of  gold  and  Bank  of 
England  notes.  Now,  therefore,  was  the  most  convenient  time 
for  providing,  by  law,  for  the  gradual  extinction  of  this  small- 
note  circulation.  If  the  House  waited  until  the  present  difficulties 
were  pased,  they  would  soon  find  that  those  notes,  which  were  at 
present  withdrawn,  would  speedily  be  re-issued.  The  bankers 
had  actually  got  the  gold  in  their  coffers.  It  was  in  the  country ; 
and  this  was  the  moment  to  provide  that  it  should  not  again  be 
so  readily  exported. 

The  House  should  also  bear  in  mind  the  difficulties  they  would 
have  to  encounter  from  these  country  banks,  in  any  attempts  to 
intermeddle  with  their  notes  and  profits,  in  case  the  issuing  of 


BANK  CHARTER— PROMISSORY  NOTES.  435 

these  small  notes  were,  to  any  considerable  extent,  resumed.  If 
they  now  postponed  the  commencement  of  this  salutary  measure, 
would  awy  honourable  gentleman  assure  him,  that  it  would  ever 
be  begun  1  A  more  favourable  opportunity  for  commencing  the 
good  work  than  the  present  they  could  not  expect.  If  they  allow- 
ed it  to  escape,  and  these  notes  were  again  extensively  circulat- 
ed, it  would  be  said —  why  did  you  not  resort  to  this  measure 
when  the  issues  of  these  notes  were  so  greatly  curtailed  ? — If  the 
adoption  of  measures  for  placing  the  Currency  upon  a  sound  and 
solid  foundation  were  to  be  resisted  by  such  arguments  as  he  had 
heard  that  evening,  there  was  an  end  of  all  hopes  of  ever  securing 
a  proper  coinage  and  standard  of  value. 

With  respect  to  the  extension  of  the  number  of  partners  in 
country  banks,  when  these  banks  were  limited  to  so  small  a 
number  as  six,  they  were  naturally  led,  by  private  views  of  inter- 
est, to  depart  from  the  just  principles  of  banking.  But  if  a  firm 
consisted  of,  suppose  two  hundred  partners,  and  their  business 
was  controlled  by  directors,  and  they  were  tied  down  by  rules 
which  would  not  admit  of  these  ruinous  speculations — he  did  then 
think  it  would  be  a  great  improvement,  if  chartered  banks  were 
established,  with  only  a  limited  liability.  It  would,  no  doubt,  in- 
duce many  persons  of  great  credit  and  fortune,  to  invest  their 
money  in  shares  of  such  banks.  But  the  Bank  of  England  ob- 
jected to  the  extension  of  this  limited  liability,  and  had  stipulated, 
that  the  banks  of  Scotland  and  Ireland  should  not  possess  this 
privilege. 

His  honourable  friend,  the  member  for  Taunton,  had  recom- 
mended the  giving  to  England  a  metallic  currency,  on  a  more 
extensive  basis  than  could  be  obtained  by  the  recall  of  the  one 
and  two-pound  notes.  He  agreed  with  his  honourable  friend,  that 
it  would  be  desirable  that  the  currency  should  be  rested  on  a  firm 
and  secure  basis.  For  himself,  he  was  bound  to  confess,  that  he 
entirely  differed  from  his  late  friend,  Mr.  Ricardo,  as  to  the  basis 
upon  which  the  currency  of  the  country  ought  safely  and  properly 
to  rest;  and  he  did  believe  that  if  that  gentleman,  ingenious  as 
he  was,  had  been  the  sole  director  of  the  Bank  of  England,  the 
country  would,  before  this,  have  witnessed  the  stoppage  of  that 
establishment.  He  had  paid  much  attention  to  the  subject  of 
currency  generally,  and  had  bestowed  some  labour  upon  it ;  and 
he  did  think  that  Mr.  Ricardo's  view  of  the  question  had  been  a 
wrong  one ;  and,  while  he  was  upon  the  subject,  he  might  as  well 
at  once  observe,  that  he  should  be  glad  to  ^pursue,  and  would 
pursue,  some  further  enquiry — perhaps  before  the  Board  over 
which  he  had  the  honour  to  preside — into  the  best  mode  of  im- 
proving the  suggestion  thrown  out  a  few  nights  since  by  the 
honourable  member  for  Taunton;  and  of  introducing,  in  some 


436        BANK  CHARTER— PROMISSORY  NOTE& 

shape  or  other,  silver  as  a  legal  tender,  so  as  to  give  an  additional 
security  to  the  country — as  far  as  human  prudence  and  foresight 
could  give  security — against  its  being  ever  again  placed  in  the 
dangerous  predicament  of  even  a  temporary  suspension  of  cash 
payments. 

He  had  very  little  more  to  address  to  the  House ;  but  upon  one 
point  a  few  words  ought  to  be  said  in  his  own  justification,  and 
in  justification  of  those  with  whom  he  had  acted.  An  honourable 
member  had  said,  in  rather  sweeping  terms,  that  for  much  of  the 
late  wild  speculation  which  had  been  carrying  on  throughout  the 
country,  ministers  were  chiefly  to  blame.  Now,  the  House  would 
recollect  when  it  was  that  the  great  bulk  of  these  speculations 
had  first  commenced.  It  was  in  the  spring  of  last  year.  Standing 
where  he  did,  to  refer  to  what  had  been  said  by  Lord  Liver- 
pool in  another  place,  would  be  contrary  to  order ;  but  he  had 
taken  the  trouble  to  refresh  his  memory  as  to  the  precise  terms 
of  what  he  had  said  himself.  In  February  last — in  the  very  com- 
mencement of  those  speculations — he  had  used  this  particular 
expression  in  speaking  of  them — "  that  the  lottery  was  a  safe  ad- 
venture, compared  with  the  mass  of  those  in  which  persons  were 
then  engaging."  Again,  in  the  month  of  March,  speaking  of  the 
speculations,  he  had  distinctly  declared  it  to  be  his  opinion,  that 
those  who  engaged  in  them  would  find  themselves  disappointed. 
Unfortunately,  those  to  whom  this  advice  had  been  addressed  had 
disregarded  all  warning.  They  had,  too  many  of  them,  rushed, 
in  contempt  of  all  caution,  on  to  their  own  undoing  and  destruc- 
tion. But,  although  it  would  be  irregular  in  him  to  refer  to  the 
precise  terms  in  which  Lord  Liverpool  had  spoken  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  those  unfortunate  speculations,  yet  he  might  say,  that  the 
opinions  delivered  by  that  noble  lord  had  neither  been  less  un- 
favourable to  them,  nor  less  strongly  expressed,  than  his  own ;  and, 
so  far  from  having  adopted  any  measures  calculated  to  foster  or 
assist  dealings  of  that  hazardous  character,  he  did  most  distinctly 
affirm,  that  Government  had  done  every  thing  in  its  power  to 
discourage  speculations,  and  remove  the  infatuation. 

The  debate  was  adjourned  to  the  following  day ;  when  Mr.  Baring  moved, 
by  way  of  amendment,  "  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  House,  that,  in  the 
present  disturbed  state  of  public  and  private  credit,  it  is  not  expedient  to 
enter  upon  the  consideration  of  the  Banking  System  of  the  country."  Upon 
which,  the  House  divided :  For  the  Amendment,  39.    Against  it,  222. 


(     437     ) 

EXPOSITION  OF 

THE  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 
ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE. 

FEBRUARY  24th,  1826. 

A  FEW  days  after  the  meeting  of  Parliament,  Mr.  Baring,  on  presenting  a 
Petition  from  Taunton  against  the  introduction  of  French  Silks,  expressed  a 
hope,  that  the  subject  would  undergo  a  discussion  at  an  early  period,  seeing 
that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  individuals  anticipated  ruin  and  starvation  from 
the  late  regulations.  He  was  anxious  to  see  whether  or  no  the  House  would 
support  ministers  in  their  desperate  resolution.  Mr.  Huskisson  said,  that 
whenever  the  subject  should  be  brought  forward  in  a  regular  and  formal 
manner,  he  should  be  prepared  to  meet  the  objections  to  the  regulations 
which  had  been  recently  adopted,  with  regard  to  the  Silk  Trade.  Accord- 
ingly, this  day,  Mr.  Ellice  moved,  "  That  a  Select  Committee  be  appointed 
to  inquire  into  and  examine  the  statements,  contained  ill  the  various  petitions 
from  persons  engaged  in  the  Silk  Manufacture,  and  to  report  their  opinion 
and  observations  thereon  to  the  House."  In  seconding  the  motion,  Mr. 
John  Williams  declared,  that  "  he  could  not  allow  the  existence  of  half  a 
million  of  persons  to  be  used  as  an  experiment  in  proving  the  correctness  of 
an  abstract  theory.  If  the  authors  of  this  measure  were  so  convinced  of  their 
principle,  that  they  were  prepared  to  make  that  sacrifice  in  carrying  it  into 
execution,  the  strength  of  their  resolution  would,  under  present  circumstances, 
only  prove  the  quality  of  their  hearts.  A  perfect  metaphysician,  as  Mr. 
Burke  had  observed,  exceeded  the  devil  in  point  of  malignity,  and  contempt 
for  the  welfare  of  mankind.  He  must  look  upon  their  perseverance,  in  this 
case  at  least,  as  a  proof  of  overweening  attention  to  the  principle  which  they 
might  have  adopted,  be  the  application,  in  experiment  or  result,  either  good 
or  bad.  Let  the  right  honourable  gentleman  opposite,  and  his  colleagues, 
take  one  admonition  from  him ; — the  responsibility  must,  in  any  event,  remain 
with  them.  From  that  responsibility  no  gentleman  or  set  of  gentlemen  in 
that  House  could  relieve  them.  The  House  might  divide  it  with  them  and 
lessen  it;  but  the  chief  burthen  must  remain  on  their  shoulders.  Such  was 
their  fate,  and  to  it  they  were  bound  by  the  constitution  of  the  country,  and 
by  their  acceptance  of  place ;  ahd  answer  they  must  to  the  country  for  the 
result,  however  great  or  little  the  discretion  which  had  directed  them.  If 
the  House  professed  any  community  of  feeling  with  the  public,  among  whom 
were  so  many  actual  sufferers  from  the  existing  evil,  ministers  would  be 
alarmed,  and  driven  from  their  purpose  l)y  the  vote  of  that  night" 
37* 


438  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

Mr.  HusKissox  rose,  and  spoke,  in  substance,  as  follows : — 

Sir; — Although  the  honourable  member  for  Coventry,  who 
introduced  the  present  motion,  may  be  supposed  to  be  under  the 
influence  of  suggestions  and  views,  which  have  been  furnished  to 
him  by  his  constituents,  and  from  other  sources  out  of  doors,  I 
am,  nevertheless,  ready  to  admit  that  the  circumstance  ought  not 
to  detract  from  the  weight,  which  is  fairly  due  to  the  honourable 
member's  statements  and  arguments,  in  support  of  the  motion 
which  he  has  submitted  to  the  House. 

But,  Sir,  however  true  this  may  be,  as  far  as  respects  the 
honourable  member  for  Coventry,  the  same  observation  applies 
not,  in  the  remotest  degree,  to  the  honourable  and  learned  gentle- 
man who  has  seconded  the  motion ;  and  who,  acting,  I  must  sup- 
pose, under  the  influence  of  a  connection,  certainly  not  political, 
but  the  more  binding,  perhaps,  as  having  been  more  recently 
formed,  has  thought  proper  to  take  a  wider  range,  and  to  indulge 
in  a  higher  tone  of  declamation: — or  it  may  be,  that  he  looks 
forward  to  the  expectation  of  becoming  the  colleague  of  the 
honourable  mover;  and,  by  his  speech  of  this  evening,  proposes 
to  declare  himself  a  joint  suitor  with  the  honourable  mover,  for 
the  future  favours  of  the  good  people  of  Coventry.  Whatever 
may  be  the  motives  of  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman,  I 
confess  that  I  have  listened  with  the  utmost  astonishment  to  the 
speech  which  he  has  just  delivered. 

Sir,  in  the  course  of  that  speech,  the  honourable  and  learned 
gentleman  repeatedly  told  us,  that  he  was  not  authorized  to  make 
certain  statements — that  he  was  not  at  liberty  to  admit  this,  and 
to  admit  that.  This,  I  presume,  is  a  mode  of  expression,  in  which 
gentlemen  of  the  legal  profession  are  wont  to  indulge,  to  mark 
that  they  keep  themselves  within  the  strict  limits  of  their  briefs, 
and  that  the  doctrines  which  they  advocate  are  those  prescribed 
to  them  by  their  instructions.  However  customary  and  proper 
such  language  may  be  in  the  courts  of  law,  it  certainly  sounds 
new  and  striking  in  the  mouth  of  a  member  of  this  House. 

With  regard  to  the  general  tone  of  the  honourable  and  learned 
gentleman's  speech — the  vehemence  of  his  declamation,  his  un- 
qualified censure,  and  his  attempts  at  sarcasm,  I  can,  with  perfect 
sincerity,  assure  the  House,  and  the  honourable  and  learned  gen- 
tleman, that  I  entertain  no  sentiment  bordering  upon  anger,  nor 
any  other  feeling,  save  one,  in  which  I  am  sure  I  carry  with  me 
the  sympathy  and  concurrence  of  all  those  who  entertain  sound 
and  enlightened  views  upon  questions  of  this  nature — a  feeling  of 
surprise  and  regret,  at  finding  that  honourable  and  learned  gen- 
tleman, now  for  the  first  time,  launching  forth  his  -denunciations 
and  invectives   against  principles   and  measures,   which  have 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  439 

received  the  support  of  men  the  most  intelligent  and  best  inform- 
ed,"  on  both  sides  of  this  House,  and  throughout  Europe. 

Having  said  thus  much,  I  leave  the  honourable  and  learned 
gentleman  to  the  full  enjoyment  to  be  derived  from  the  new  lights 
that  have  so  suddenly  broken  in  upon  him.  I  leave  to  him,  and 
to  his  honourable  friends  around  him,  to  settle,  among  themselves, 
the  taunts,  the  sneers,  and  the  sarcasms,  which  he  has  heaped 
upon  their  heads,  as  the  friends  of  those  principles  which  are 
involved  in  the  present  discussion — principles  which  it  has  been 
their  boast  that  they  were  the  first  to  recommend,  and  of  which 
they  have  uniformly  been  the  most  eager  advocates  in  this  House. 

In  whatever  quarter  the  statements  and  arguments  of  the 
honourable  member  for  Coventry  may  have  originated,  they  are 
entitled  to  the  serious  and  attentive  consideration  of  the  House ; 
more  especially  if  derived  from  individuals  now  suffering  distress 
from  want  of  employment,  and  who  may  have  been  led  to  believe, 
that  that  want  of  employment  has  been  caused  by  measures  which 
have  been  adopted  by  this  House.  This  circumstance  adds  to 
the  difficulty  in  which  I  am  placed,  in  rising  to  address  the  House 
on  the  present  occasion.  In  opposing  the  proposed  inquiry,  I  feel 
that  I  may  be  represented  as  insensible  or  indifferent  to  the  suf- 
ferings of  those  on  whose  behalf  it  is  called  for. 

Sir,  the  honourable  and  learned  member  for  Lincoln  has,  in- 
deed, given  countenance  to  this  unjust  imputation.  He  has  not 
only  chosen  to  assert,  that  I  am  mistaken  in  my  views — he  has 
not  scrupled  to  insinuate,  that  I  am  without  feeling  for  the  distress 
now  prevailing  amongst  the  manufacturing  classes.  [Mr.  Wil- 
liams here  denied  that  he  had  asserted  any  thing  of  the  kind.] 
What,  then.  Sir,  did  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  mean 
by  his  quotation  ?  To  whom  did  he  mean  to  apply  the  descrip- 
tion of  an  "  insensible  and  hard-hearted  metaphysician,  exceeding 
the  devil  in  point  of*  malignity?" — I  appeal  to  the  judgment  of  the 
House,  whether  the  language  made  use  of  by  the  honourable  and 
learned  gentleman,  with  reference  to  me,  was  not  such  as  to 
point  to  the  inference,  that  I  am  that  metaphysician  lost  to  every 
sentiment  of  humanity,  and  indifferent  to  every  feeling,  beyond 
the  successful  enforcement  of  some  favourite  theory,  at  what- 
ever cost  of  pain  and  suffering  to  particular  bodies  of  my  fellow- 
creatures  ?  When  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman  allows 
himself  to  talk  of  "  hard-hearted  metaphysicians,  exceeding  the 
devil  in  point  of  malip;nity,"  it  is  for  him  to  reconcile  such  lan- 
guage with  the  general  tenor  of  his  sentiments  on  other  occasions ; 
to  explain,  as  he  best  may,  to  those  around  him,  whether  they 
are  included  in  that  insinuation ; — and  it  is  for  me  to  meet  that 
insinuation  (as  far  as  it  was  levelled  at  me)  with  those  feelings  of 
utter  scorn  with  which  I  now  repel  it. 


440  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

Still,  Sir,  it  sits  heavily  on  my  mind,  that  any  individual,  or 
any  body  of  individuals,  should  in  any  quarter  be  impressed  with 
the  notion,  that  I,  or  any  of  my  right  honourable  colleagues,  could 
be  capable  of  that  v^^hich  has  been  imputed  to  us ;  and  it  is  but 
perfectly  natural  that  I  should  feel  anxious  to  show,  that  my 
own  conduct,  and  that  of  my  right  honourable  friends,  has  not 
been  such  as,  in  some  quarters,  it  has  been  represented  to  be. 

The  honourable  member  for  Coventry,  and  the  honourable  and 
learned  member  for  Lincoln,  have,  by  some  strange  perversion, 
argued  the  whole  case,  as  if  I,  and  those  who  act  with  me,  were 
hastily  and  prematurely  pressing  on  some  new,  and  till  this 
evening,  unheard-of  measure — as  if  we  were  attempting  to  en- 
force that  measure  by  all  the  influence  of  Government :  instead 
of  which  we  have  proposed  nothing,  and  are  lying  upon  our  oars, 
quietly  waiting  for  the  going  into  effect  of  an  Act  of  Parliament, 
passed  more  than  eighteen  months  ago,  with  the  unanimous  con- 
currence of  this  House ;  an  act  which  is  now  the  law  of  the 
land ;  and  of  the  enactments  of  which  all  the  parties  concerned 
were  as  fully  apprized  on  the  day  when  it  first  passed  this  House, 
as  they  can  be  at  this  moment. 

In  the  view  which  I  take  of  the  speech  of  the  honourable  mem- 
ber for  Coventry,  of  which  I  do  not  complain,  and  of  the  speech 
of  the  honourable  and  learned  member  for  Lincoln,  of  which  I 
do  complain,  the  greater  part  of  their  arguments  go  to  impugn 
those  principles  of  commercial  policy,  which,  under  the  sanction 
of  Parliament,  have  now  prevailed  in  this  country  for  the  last 
two  or  three  years ; — a  policy,  which  has  for  its  object  gradually 
to  unfetter  the  commerce  of  the  country,  by  the  removal  of  those 
oppressive  prohibitions  and  inconvenient  restrictions,  which  had 
previously  existed ;  and  to  give  every  facility  and  encouragement, 
consistent  with  vested  interests,  to  the  extension  of  the  skill,  the 
capital,  and  the  industry  of  the  people  of  England. 

This,  then,  being  the  real  drift  of  the  argument  especially 
brought  forward  by  the  honourable  and  learned  gentleman,  it  is, 
with  reference  to  a  much  greater  question,  that  I  find  myself 
called  upon  to  consider  the  present  motion.  The  point  at  issue 
is,  not  whether  we  shall  grant  the  Committee,  but  whether  we 
shall  re-establish  the  prohibitory  system?  If  we  re-establish  it 
in  one  instance,  we  shall  very  soon  be  called  upon  to  do  so  in 
many  others.  If  we  once  tread  back  our  steps,  we  shall  not  be 
able,  in  this  retrograde  motion,  to  stop  at  that  point  from  which 
we  first  set  out:  we  must  go  further,  and,  ere  long,  we  should 
have  in  this  country  a  system  of  commerce,  far  more  restrictive 
than  that  which  was  in  force  before  the  late  changes.  Anxious 
as  I  am  to  persevere  in  our  present  course,  I  say  that,  if  we  once 
depart  from  it,  we  must  at  least  be  consistent  in  bur  new  career ; 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  441 

and  that,  to  be  consistent,  we  must  impose  restrictions  and  pro- 
hibitions, far  beyond  those  which  have  been  lately  removed. 

The  present  question,  therefore,  is  not  simply  the  motion  before 
the  House — but  neither  more  nor  less  than,  whether  a  restrictive 
or  an  enlarged  system  of  commercial  policy  be  the  best  for  this 
country  ? 

In  order  to  come  to  a  sound  decision  upon  so  important  a  sub- 
ject, it  behooves  the  House  to  look  back  a  little  to  the  course  of 
eventSj  and  to  bear  in  mind  some  of  the  occurrences  which  have 
materially  contributed  to  those  relaxations  in  the  restrictive  sys- 
tem, of  which  it  is  now  the  fashion  to  complain. 

With  this  view,  I  must  ask  the  permission  of  the  House  to  call 
its  attention  to  a  Petition,  presented  to  the  House  in  the  month 
of  May,  1820,  a  period  which,  like  the  present,  was  one  of  great 
difficulty  and  public  distress.  The  Petition  is  somewhat  long, 
but  I  assure  the  House,  that  those  honourable  members  who  may 
favour  me  with  their  attention,  will  be  well  rewarded  by  hearing 
sound  principles  laid  down,  in  the  clearest  language,  not  "by  phi- 
losophers and  unbending  theorists — not  by  visionaries  and  hard- 
hearted metaphysicians,  with  the  feelings  of  demons  in  their 
breasts — but  by  merchants  and  traders ;  men  of  the  greatest  prac- 
tical experience  in  all  that  relates  to  commerce.  This  Petition, 
Sir,  is  a  document  of  no  ordinary  interest.  The  House  will  see 
how  decidedly  the  Petitioners  maintain  the  principles  upon  which 
his  Majesty's  Government  have  acted ;  and,  when  I  have  done 
reading  it,  I  am  sure  they  will  admit,  that  those  principles  are 
therein  expounded  in  words  far  more  apt  and  forcible  than  any 
which  I  can  command.  The  Petition,  as  I  have  already  said,  is 
not  the  exposition  of  any  speculative  doctrine.  It  conveys  to  the 
House  the  deliberate  judgment  of  the  Merchants  and  Traders  of 
the  City  of  London ;  the  result  of  their  daily  observation  of  the 
evils  inflicted  upon  the  country,  by  the  unnecessary  restrictions 
imposed  upon  their  industry  and  pursuits.   The  Petition  states, — 

"  That  Foreign  commerce  is  eminently  conducive  to  the  wealth  and  pros- 
perity of  the  country,  by  enabling  it  to  import  the  commodities  for  the  pro- 
duction of  which  the  soil,  climate,  capital,  and  industry  of  other  countries  are 
best  calculated,  and  to  export  in  payment  those  articles  for  which  its  own 
situation  is  better  adapted. 

"  That  freedom  from  restraint  is  calculated  to  give  the  utmost  extension  to 
foreign  trade,  and  the  best  direction  to  the  capital  and  industry  of  the 
country. 

"  That  the  maxim  of  buying  in  the  cheapest  market,  and  selling  in  the 
dearest,  which  regulates  every  merchant  in  his  individual  dealings,  is  strictly 
applicable,  as  the  best  rule  for  the  trade  of  the  whole  nation. 

"  That  a  policy,  founded  on  these  principles,  would  render  tbe  commerce 

3F 


442  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

of  the  world  an  interchange  of  mutual  advantages,  and  diffuse  an  increase 
of  wealth  and  enjoyments  among  the  inhabitants  of  each  state. 

"  That,  unfortunately,  a  policy,  the  very  reverse  of  this,  has  been,  and  is, 
more  or  less  adopted  and  acted  upon  by  the  Government  of  this  and  of  every 
other  country ;  each  trying  to  exclude  the  productions  of  other  countries, 
with  the  specious  and  well-meant  design  of  encouraging  its  own  productions ; 
thus  inflicting  on  the  bulk  of  its  subjects,  who  are  consumers,  the  necessity 
of  submitting  to  privations  in  the  quantity  or  quality  of  commodities ;  and 
thus  rendering,  what  ought  to  be  the  source  of  mutual  benefits,  and  of  har- 
mony among  states,  a  constantly  recurring  occasion  of  jealousy  and  hostility. 

"  That  the  prevailing  prejudices  in  favour  of  the  protective  or  restrictive 
system  may  be  traced  to  the  erroneous  supposition,  that  every  importation  of 
foreign  commodities  occasions  a  diminution  or  discouragement  of  our  own 
productions  to  the  same  extent;  whereas,  it  may  be  clearly  shown,  that 
although  the  particular  description  of  production  which  could  not  stand 
against  unrestrained  foreign  competition  would  be  discouraged ;  yet,  as  no 
importation  could  be  continued  for  any  length  of  time  without  a  correspond- 
ing exportation,  direct  or  indirect,  there  would  be  an  encouragement  for  the 
purpose  of  that  exportation  of  some  other  production,  to  which  our  situation 
might  be  better  suited ;  thus  affording  at  least  an  equal,  and  probably  a 
greater,  and  certainly  a  more  beneficial  employment  to  our  own  capital  and 
labour." 

I  will  not  trouble  the  House  with  reading  the  whole  of  this 
valuable  document. — [Cries  of  "  Read !  read !"]  I  will  then,  Sir, 
read  the  whole,  for  it  is  a  most  valuable  document ;  and,  indeed, 
so  it  was  thought  at  the  time,  for  it  is  one  of  a  few,  if  not  the 
only  one,  which  is  given  at  length  in  the  published  reports  of  our 
proceedings. 

"  That  of  the  numerous  protective  and  prohibitory  duties  of  our  commer- 
cial code,  it  may  be  proved,  that  while  all  operate  as  a  very  heavy  tax  on  the 
community  at  large,  very  few  are  of  any  ultimate  benefit  to  the  classes  in 
whose  favour  they  were  originally  instituted,  and  none  to  the  extent  of  the 
loss  occasioned  by  them  to  other  classes. 

"  That  among  the  other  evils  of  the  restrictive  or  protective  system,  not 
the  least  is,  that  the  artificial  protection  of  one  branch  of  industry,  or  source 
of  protection  against  foreign  competition,  is  set  up  as  a  ground  of  claim  by 
other  branches  for  similar  protection ;  so  that,  if  the  reasoning  upon  which 
these  restrictive  or  prohibitory  regulations  are  founded  were  followed  consis- 
tently, it  would  not  stop  short  of  excluding  us  from  all  foreign  commerce 
whatsoever. 

"  And,  the  same  strain  of  argument,  which,  with  corresponding  prohibitions 
and  protective  duties,  should  exclude  us  firom  foreign  trade,  might  be  brought 
forward  to  justify  the  re-enactment  of  restrictions  upon  the  interchange  of 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  443 

productions  (unconnected  with  public  revenue)  among  the  kingdoms  com- 
posing the  union,  or  among  the  counties  of  the  same  kingdom. 

"That  an  investigation  of  the  effects  of  the  restrictive  system  at  this  time' 
is  peculiarly  called  for,  as  it  may,  in  the  opinion  of  the  petitioners,  lead  to  a 
strong  presumption,  that  the  distress  which  now  so  generally  prevails  is  con- 
siderably aggravated  by  that  system ;  and  that  some  relief  may  be  obtained 
by  the  earliest  practicable  removal  of  such  of  the  restraints,  as  may  be  shown 
to  be  most  injurious  to  the  capital  and  industry  of  the  community,  and  to  be 
attended  with  no  compensating  benefit  to  the  public  revenue. 

"That  adeclaration  against  the  anti-commercial  principles  of  our  restric- 
tive system  is  of  the  more  importance  at  the  present  juncture,  inasmuch  as, 
in  several  instances  of  recent  occurrence,  the  merchants  and  manufacturers 
in  foreign  states  have  assailed  their  respective  Governments  with  applications 
for  further  protective  or  prohibitory  duties,  and  regulations,  urging  the  exam- 
ple and  authority  of  this  country,  against  which  they  are  almost  exclusively 
directed,  as  a  sanction  for  the  policy  of  such  measures:  and  certainly,  if  the 
reasoning  upon  which  our  restrictions  have  been  defended  is  worth  any  thing, 
it  will  apply  in  behalf  of  the  regulations  of  foreign  states  against  us ;  they 
insist  upon  our  superiority  in  capital  and  machinery,  as  we  do  upon  their 
comparative  exemption  from  taxation,  and  with  equal  foundation. 

"  That  nothing  would  more  tend  to  counteract  the  commercial  hostility  of 
foreign  states,  than  the  adoption  of  a  more  enlightened  and  more  conciliatory 
policy  on  the  part  of  this  country. 

"  That  although,  as  a  matter  of  mere  diplomacy,  it  may  sometimes  answer 
to  hold  out  the  removal  of  particular  prohibitions  on  high  duties,  as  depend- 
ing upon  corresponding  concessions  by  other  states  in  our  favour,  it  does  not 
follow,  that  we  should  maintain  our  restrictions,  in  cases  where  the  desired 
concessions  on  their  part  cannot  be  obtained ;  our  restrictions  would  not  be 
the  less  prejudicial  to  our  own  capital  and  industry,  because  other  govern- 
ments persisted  in  pursuing  impolitic  regulations. 

"  That,  upon  the  whole,  the  most  liberal  would  prove  to  be  the  most  politic 
course  on  such  occasions. 

"  That,  independent  of  the  direct  benefit  to  be  derived  by  this  country  on 
every  occasion  of  such  concession  or  relaxation,  a  great  incidental  object 
Would  be  gained  by  the  recognition  of  a  sound  principle  or  standard,  to  which 
all  subsequent  arrangements  might  be  referred ;  and  by  the  salutary  influence 
which  a  promulgation  of  such  just  views,  by  the  legislature  and  by  the  nation 
at  large,  could  not  faif  to  have  on  the  policy  of  other  states. 

"  That  in  thus  declaring,  as  the  petitioners  do,  their  conviction  of  the  im- 
policy and  injustice  of  the  restrictive  system,  and  in  desiring  every  practical 
relaxation  of  it,  they  have  in  view  only  such  parts  of  it  as  are  not  connected, 
or  are  only  subordinately  so,  with  the  public  revenue ;  as  long  as  the  neces- 
sity for  the  present  amount  of  revenue  subsists,  the  petitioners  cannot  expect 
so  important  a  branch  of  it  as  the  Customs  to  be  given  up,  nor  to  be  materi- 
ally diminished,  unless  some  substitute  less  objectionable  be  suggested :  but 


4i4  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

it  is  against  every  restrictive  regulation  of  trade  not  essential  to  the  revenue, 
against  all  duties  merely  protective  from  foreign  competition,  and  against  the 
excess  of  such  duties  as  are  partly  for  the  purpose  of  revenue,  and  partly  for 
that  of  protection,  that  the  prayer  of  the  present  Petition  is  respectfully  sub- 
mitted to  the  v^isdom  of  Parliament :  the  petitioners  therefore  humbly  pray, 
that  the  House  will  be  pleased  to  take  the  subject  into  consideration,  and  to 
adopt  such  measures  as  may  be  calculated  to  give  greater  freedom  to  foreign 
commerce,  and  thereby  to  increase  the  resources  of  the  State." 

It  will  be  clear  to  all  who  have  been  at  the  trouble  to  attend  to 
the  very  able  document  which  I  have  just  read,  that  it  embraces 
all  the  great  principles  of  commercial  policy,  upon  which  Parlia- 
ment has  since  legislated. 

Why  do  I  lay  so  much  stress  upon  this  Petition  ?  For  the  pur- 
pose of  showing ;  first,  that  if  the  Government  have  pursued  this 
course,  we  have  done  so,  not  on  the  recommendations  of  vision- 
aries and  theorists,  but  of  practical  men  of  business ;  secondly, 
that  the  merchants  of  the  City  of  London — the  great  mart  of  the 
commerce  and  wealth  of  the  country — felt  convinced,  in  1820, 
that  the  distress  of  that  period  was  greatly  aggravated  by  the 
narrow  and  short-sighted  system  of  restrictions  and  prohibitions 
which  then  prevailed;  and  that,  in  their  judgment,  the  alleviation, 
if  not  the  cure  of  that  distress,  was  to  be  sought  for  in  the  re- 
moval of  those  restrictions  and  prohibitions. 

And,  because  we  have  followed  up,  cautiously  and  circum- 
spectly, the  recommendations  of  the  'mercantile  community,  are 
we  to  be  told  by  men  who  know  nothing  of  commerce,  that  we 
are  unfeeling  projectors  and  metaphysicians,  insensible  to  the 
wants  and  the  miseries  of  our  fellow-creatures?  If  this  be  a 
just  charge  against  us,  what  are  we  to  think  of  the  parties  who 
could  sign,  or  of  the  member  who  could  present,  such  a  petition 
as  this?  This  morning  I  took  the  trouble  to  look  at  the  names 
of  the  merchants  who  signed  it ;  and  the  first  signature  I  read  is 
that  of  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  that  class  in  the  City  of 
London  ;  a  gentleman  who  was  many  years  ago  Governor  of  the 
Bank  of  England,  who  is  now  one  of  the  Directors  of  that 
establishment,  and  who  was,  for  a  long  time,  a  valuable  member 
of  this  House ;  a  gentleman  who,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word, 
is  a  practical  man,  and  one  whose  conduct  in  private  life  would 
protect  him  (if  any  man  can  be  protected  by  his  conduct)  from 
the  suspicion  of  being  a  "  wild  and  unfeeling  theorist" — a  "  hard- 
hearted metaphysician" — "  ahke  indifferent  to  the  wants  and  the 
miseries  of  his  fellow-creatures" — I  mean  Mr.  Samuel  Thornton. 
And,  besides  his  name,  the  list  contains  the  names  of  others,  who, 
like  him,  have  been  Governors  of  the  Bank  of  England;  of 
several  who  are  now  in  the  Direction  of  that  great  establishment ; 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTITHE.  445 

and  of  many  who  hold  the  highest  rank  in  the  commercial 
world. 

Let  it  not,  however,  be  supposed,  that  I  offer  this  Petition  to 
the  House,  in  the  way  of  an  apology  for  myself  and  my  right 
honourable  colleagues — in  the  way  of  extenuation  of  any  thing 
which  we  may  have  done,  to  excite  the  wrath  of  the  honourable 
and  learned  member  for  Lincoln.  Sir,  1  think  now,  as  I  have 
always  thought,  that  our  measures  require  no  apology.  I  believe 
now,  as  I  have  always  believed,  that  they  are  calculated  to  pro- 
mote the  best  interests  of  the  people.  I  say  now,  as  I  have  always 
said,  that  those  who,  either  by  their  speeches  in  Parliament,  or 
the  exertions  of  their  talents  out  of  it,  have  contributed  to  bring 
the  people  of  England  to  look  with  an  eye  of  favour  on  the 
principles  recommended  in  this  Petition,  have  done  themselves 
the  greatest  honour,  and  the  country  an  essential  benefit. 

If,  however,  I  refrain  from  troubling  the  House  with  apologies, 
where  I  feel  that  they  are  not  required,  neither  do  I  wish  to  claim 
for  His  Majesty's  Government,  any  participation  in  the  merit  of 
these  measures,  beyond  what  really  belongs  to  us.  By  a  reference 
to  many  other  petitions  and  proceedings  of  a  like  nature  with 
those  to  which  I  have  already  adverted,  I  could  show  that,  in  all 
these  matters,  the  first  impulse  was  not  given  by  the  Government, 
We  claim  for  ourselves  no  such  credit.  The  changes  hitherto 
made  have  been  the  result  of  public  opinion,  sanctioned  by  the 
concurrence  of  practical  men,  and  confirmed  by  the  proceedings 
and  inquiries  of  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament.  We  did  not  create 
that  opinion :  we  did  not  anticipate  it :  we  did  not  even  act  upon 
it,  until  it  was  clearly  and  distinctly  manifested.  And,  in  what 
we  have  done,  we  have  not  exceeded  the  sober  limits,  prescribed 
by  the  authority  of  those,  who  by  the  habits  and  pursuits  of  their 
lives,  were  most  competent  to  form  a  sound  judgment.  But,  when 
that  judgment  was  pronounced  and  recorded,  it  was  our  duty  to 
act  upon  it.  From  those  who  fill  responsible  situations,  the  coun- 
try has  a  right  to  expect,  not  that  they  should  be  slow  of  convic- 
tion to  important  truths  in  matters  of  political  economy;  but  that 
they  should  be  cautious  in  deliberating,  before  they  attempt  to 
give  them  a  practical  application.  The  goad,  which  is  used  to 
give  increased  impetus  to  the  machine,  is  an  instrument  more 
properly  placed  in  other  hands :  the  care  of  Government  should 
rather  be  to  regulate  the  drag,  so  as  not  to  check  the  advance, 
but  to  maintain  a  safe  and  steady  progress  towards  improve- 
ment 

Has  this  been  the  principle  of  our  policy  on  the  subject  now 
under  consideration  ?  Before  I  sit  down,  I  think  I  shall  prove,  Sir, 
that  the  system  upon  which  his  Majesty's  Government  have 
acted,  has  uniformly  been  guided  by  that  principle.     Need  I  re- 


446  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

mind  the  House,  how  frequently,  and  with  what  asperity,  we 
have  been  charged,  from  the  opposite  Benches,  with  reluctance 
and  tardiness  in  carrying  into  execution  those  principles  of  an 
enlarged  and  enlightened  policy,  in  matters  of  commerce,  upon 
which  all  parties  were  said  to  be  agreed.  Year  after  year  have 
we  been  urged,  by  the  force  of  public  opinion  out  of  doors,  and 
by  the  earnest  remonstrances  of  honourable  members  within,  to 
adopt  the  very  measures,  against  which  a  senseless  clamour  is 
now  attempted  to  be  excited. 

Who  were  the  first,  and  the  most  earnest,  in  suggesting  these 
measures  —  ay,  and  in  wishing  to  push  them  to  extremes — but 
some  of  those  very  persons  whom  we  now  find  arrayed  against 
us,  and  against  those  principles  which  they  formerly  supported  ? 
By  whom  was  the  petition  which  I  have  just  read  to  the  House 
presented  ?  By  whom  was  the  prayer  of  it  advocated  ? 

After  great  note  of  preparation — after  a  formal  notice  of  what 
was  about  to  come — ^this  Petition,  Sir,  was  brought  down,  on  the 
8th  of  May  1820,  by  the  honourable  member  for  Taunton,* 
whom  I  now  see  in  his  place.  He  it  was.  Sir,  who  introduced  it 
to  the  attention  of  the  House,  in  a  long,  but  able  and  elaborate 
speech ;  too  long  to  be  read  by  me  now,  as  I  have  read  the  Peti- 
tion ;  although,  by  so  doing,  I  should  add  a  most  luminous  com- 
mentary, in  support  of  the  doctrines  of  that  Petition,  and  should 
best  show,  by  what  force  of  argument  and  weight  of  authority, 
the  honourable  member  then  contended  for  those  measures,  which 
the  House  is  now  called  upon  to  condemn,  and  in  which  condem- 
nation he  himself  appears  disposed  to  concur. 

After  mentioning  the  Petition,  and  the  great  respectability  of 
the  gentlemen  by  whom  it  was  signed ;  and  after  regretting,  that 
"  there  was  in  the  then  circumstances  of  public  embarrassment 
much,  to  which  no  remedy  could  be  applied,  at  least,  no  Parlia- 
mentary remedy,"  the  honourable  gentleman  went  on  to  say,  that 
the  first  desideratum  was  such  security  and  tranquillity  in  the 
country,  as  would  enable  the  possessor  of  capital  to  employ  it 
without  apprehension." 

The  House  will  recollect,  that  the  period  at  which  this  Petition 
was  laid  upon  our  table,  was  one  of  great  public  distress ;  and,  in 
that  respect,  it  but  too  much  resembled  the  present  time.  Now, 
however,  though  the  country  is  again  visited  with  pecuniary 
pressure,  and  though  the  labouring  classes  (many  of  them)  are 
suffering  great  privations  from  the  want  of  employment,  I  feel 
confident  that  we  shall  not  witness  the  same  danger  to  property, 
or  the  same  disposition  to  violence,  which  at  that  time  prevailed 
in  the  manufacturing  districts.     I  feel  confident,  that  the  unfor- 

*  Mr.  Baring 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  447 

tunate  individuals  who,  in  1820,  allowed  themselves  to  be  misled 
by  unprincipled  agitators,  will  recollect  how  much  their  sufier- 
ings  were  increased  by  listening  to  pernicious  counsels — counsels, 
which  may  prolong  and  aggravate,  but  which  can,  in  no  case, 
abridge  or  relieve  their  privations — and  that  they  will  not,  a 
second  time,  lend  a  willing  ear  to  those  who  would  lead  them  on 
to  their  destruction.  I  trust  they  will  so  conduct  themselves 
under  their  present  difficulties,  as  to  conciliate  the  regard  and 
sympathy  of  every  other  class,  and  to  excite  in  the  bosoms  of 
those  from  whom  alone  they  can  expect  assistance,  no  other  feel- 
ings than  those  of  kindness  and  benevolence. 

Sir,  after  "  security  and  tranquillity,"  the  honourable  member 
for  Taunton  proceeded  to  say,  that  "  the  second  desideratum  was, 
as  great  a  Freedom  of  Trade  as  was  compatible  with  other  and 
important  considerations."  In  the  opinion  of  the  honourable 
member,  at  that  time,  a  free  trade  was  the  very  essence  of  com- 
mercial prosperity;  and,  therefore,  he  pressed  us  to  adopt,  all  at 
once,  the  system  which  we  have  since  gradually  introduced. 

The  honourable  member  then  proceeded — as  he  has  since  done, 
upon  several  occasions,  and  done,  indeed,  this  session — to  tax  my 
Tight  honourable  friend,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  (who 
then  filled  the  situation  which  I  now  hold),  and  the  other  members 
of  his  Majesty's  Government,  with  apathy,  and  a  total  indifference 
to  the  distressed  state  of  the  manufacturing  districts.  "  So  far 
were  they,"  said  the  honourable  member,  "  from  being  sensible 
of  the  necessity  of  some  exertion,  that  they  went  on,  from  year 
to  year,  trusting  that  the  next  year  would  be  spontaneously  pro- 
ductive of  some  favourable  change,  and,  apparently,  with  very 
indistinct  notions  of  what  the  real  condition  of  the  country  was. 
Whenever  a  question  arose  between  two  classes  of  the  com- 
munity. Government,  without  seeming  to  have  any  opinion  of 
their  own,  stood  by,  until  they  ascertained  which  party  could  give 
them  the  most  effectual  support.  If  the  House  looked  back  to  an 
earlier  period  of  those  which  were  still  our  own  times,  they  would 
behold  a  different  picture ;  they  would  find  Mr.  Pitt  engaged  in 
framing  a  Commercial  Treaty;  and  amidst  difficulties  of  every 
description,  boldly  taking  whatever  steps  appeared  to  him  to  be 
best  calculated  to  advance  our  commercial  prosperity.  He  wished 
that  he  could  see  a  little  of  the  same  spirit  in  the  present  day ; 
but,  instead  of  that,  his  Majesty's  Ministers  were  balancing  one 
party  against  another,  and  trying  how  they  could  keep  their 
places  from  year  to  year ;  neglecting,  in  the  meanwhile,  all  those 
great  commercial  and  national  questions,  to  which  their  most 
lively  attention  ought  to  be  directed." 

The  honourable  member  for  Taunton  then  went  on  to  say — 
and  I  perfectly  agree  with  him — that,  "  the  first  doctrine  which 


448  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

the  Petitioners  wished  to  combat,  was  that  fallacious  one  which 
had,  of  late  years,  arisen,  that  this  country  ought  to  subsist  on  its 
own  produce  ;  that  it  was  wise  on  the  part  of  every  country,  to 
raise  within  itself  the  produce  requisite  for  its  consumption." — "  It 
was  really  absurd  to  contend,"  continued  the  honourable  member, 
"  that  if  a  country,  by  selling  any  article  of  manufacture,  could 
purchase  the  produce  which  it  might  require,  at  one  half  the 
expense  at  which  that  produce  could  be  raised,  it  should  never- 
theless be  precluded  from  doing  so." 

This  is  unquestionably  sound  doctrine,  and  I  readily  admit  it. 
But,  how  is  it  to  be  reconciled  with  the  doctrine,  which  is  now 
maintained  by  great  authorities  out  of  doors,  as  that  which  ought 
to  be  the  rule  of  our  commercial  policy?  According  to  these 
authorities,  to  which  we  have  now  to  add  that  of  the  honourable 
and  learned  seconder  of  the  present  motion.  Prohibition  is  the 
only  effectual  protection  to  trade:  duties  must  be  unavailing 
for  this  purpose,  because  the  influence  of  soil  and  climate,  the 
price  of  labour,  the  rate  of  taxation,  and  other  circumstances,  are 
constantly  varying  in  different  countries,  and  consequently,  the 
scale  of  protection  would  require  to  be  varied  from  month  to 
month.  But,  what  is  the  legitimate  inference  to  be  drawn  from 
this  exclusive  system  ?  Can  it  be  other  than  this — that  all  inter- 
change of  their  respective  commodities,  between  different  coun- 
tries of  the  world,  is  a  source  of  evil,  to  the  one  or  the  other? — 
that  each  country  must  shut  itself  up  within  itself,  making  the 
most  of  its  own  resources,  refusing  all  commerce  with  any  other 
country,  barbarously  content  to  suffer  wants  which  this  com- 
merce might  easily  supply,  and  to  waste  its  own  superfluous  pro- 
ductions at  home  ;  because,  to  exchange  them  for  the  superfluities 
of  that  other  country,  instead  of  being  an  exclusive  advantage  to 
either  party,  would  afford  an  equivalent  benefit  to  both.  This  is 
the  short  theory  of  Prohibitions,  which  these  sage  declaimers 
against  all  theory,  are  so  anxious  to  recommend  to  the  practical 
merchants  of  this  country. 

But,  if  this  system  be  wise  and  just  in  itself;  if,  for  the  reasons 
alleged  in  its  support,  it  be  necessary  for  the  protection  of  British 
industry,  let  us  see  to  what  it  leads.  Can  this  country  command 
labour,  on  the  same  terms  as  Ireland?  Is  the  scale  of  taxation 
the  same  ?  Are  the  poor  rates  the  same,  in  the  two  countries  ? 
Is  there  any  country  in  Europe  which,  more  than  Ireland,  differs 
from  Great  Britain  in  these  and  many  other  particulars,  affecting 
their  commercial  relations  ?  Does  it  not  follow,  that,  if  we  admit 
the  system  of  prohibitions,  now  recommended  to  us  by  the 
honourable  and  learned  member  for  Lincoln,  we  must  prohibit  all 
commercial  intercourse  with  Ireland — we  must  revive  those  laws 
which  forbade  the  manufactures,  and  repelled  the  productions  of 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  449 

her  soil — we  must  sacrifice  the  mutual  benefits,  which  both  parts 
of  the  empire  now  derive  from  the  unrestricted  freedom  of  inter- 
course— we  must  again  revert  to  the  prejudices  of  our  ancestors? 

And,  for  what? — because,  from  prejudices  certainly  less  par- 
donable, if  not  from  motives  less  sincere,  than  those  of  our  ances- 
tors, a  senseless  clamour  has  recently  been  raised,  against  the 
present  system  of  our  commercial  policy.  I  have  no  desire  to 
disturb  the  partizans  of  the  opposite  system,  in  the  enjoyment  of 
their  favourite  theory.  All  I  ask  of  them  is,  a  similar  forbearance 
towards  us.  Let  each  system  be  fully  and  fairly  tried.  For  the 
sake  of  Freedom  of  Trade  and  Industry,  and  for  the  sake  of 
England,  let  England  be  the  field  of  trial  for  our  system.  For 
the  sake  of  Prohibition  and  Monopoly,  let  the  system  of  our 
adversaries  also  be  fairly  tried ; — only  let  the  trial  be  made  upon 
some  other  country. 

But,  can  Prohibition  ever  be  tried  under  circumstances  of 
greater  favour,  than  it  now  experiences  in  Spain  ?  In  that  flour- 
ishing country,  prohibition  has  been  carried  to  the  very  extreme. 
There,  restriction  has  been  added  to  restriction, — there,  all  the 
fruits  of  that  beautiful  system  are  to  be  seen,  not  yet,  perhaps,  in 
full  maturity,  but  sufficiently  mature,  to  enable  every  one  to  judge 
of  their  qualities.  Spain  is  the  best  sample  of  the  prohibitory 
system ;  the  most  perfect  model  of  fallen  greatness  and  of  internal 
misery,  of  which  modern  civilization  affords  an  example  —  an 
example  to  be  traced,  not  only  in  the  annihilation  of  her  com- 
merce and  maritime  power,  but,  in  her  scanty  revenue,  in  her 
bankrupt  resources,  in  the  wretchedness  of  her  population,  and  in 
her  utter  insignificance  among  the  great  powers  of  the  world. 
The  commercial  policy  of  Spain  is  simply  this — to  admit  nothing 
from  other  countries — except  what  the  smuggler  brings  in.  And 
the  commercial  wisdom  of  the  honourable  and  learned  seconder 
of  the  present  motion  is  equal  to  that  of  Spain. 

I  must  now  beg  of  the  House  to  indulge  me  for  a  little,  while  I 
endeavour  to  go  through  the  detail  of  the  specific  measures 
recommended,  in  the  Speech  of  the  honourable  member  for 
Taunton,  on  presenting  the  London  Petition.  It  will  be  perceiv- 
ed, how  false  and  unfounded  are  all  those  clamours,  which  have 
been  heaped  upon  me  and  my  right  honourable  colleagues,  for 
having  unnecessarily  made  those  alterations  in  our  system  of 
Commercial  Policy,  which,  if  I  am  to  believe  certain  gentlemen, 
have  plunged  this  country  into  misery  and  ruin. 

The  honourable  member  for  Taunton,  who  is  so  great  a  prac- 
tical authority, — the  greatest,  perhaps,  this  country  affords — did 
not  content  himself  in  his  speech  with  stating  general  principles. 
He  referred  to  details;  and,  as  I  have  just  observed,  he  proposed 
measures  of  relief  of  a  specific  and  particular  nature.  These 
38*  3G 


450  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

propositions  the  House,  I  hope,  will  permit  me  to  go  over,  one  by 
one,  in  order  to  show  that  his  Majesty's  Government  have  not 
been  wanting  in  attention  to  the  suggestions  of  the  Merchants  of 
the  City  of  London,  nor  backward  in  adopting  their  remedies, 
and  recommending  them  to  the  consideration  of  the  House. 

The  first  measure  pointed  out,  upon  that  occasion,  and  recom- 
mended in  the  warmest  terms,  to  the  attention  of  his  Majesty's 
Ministers,  for  the  relief  of  the  country,  was  "  an  alteration  of  the 
duty  on  the  importation  of  Wool."  "  What  can  be  so  absurd," 
said  the  honourable  member,  "  as  a  tax  on  the  raw  materials  of 
our  manufactures  ?"  Accordingly,  he  urged  the  abolition  of  the 
duty  on  the  importation  of  Foreign  Wool,  dyeing  drugs,  and  such 
other  articles  as  are  used  in  the  great  manufactures  of  this  coun- 
try. What,  at  that  time,  was  our  answer  to  this  proposition  1 
Why,  this — "  We  have  no  objection  to  take  off  the  duty  on  the 
importation  of  Foreign  wool,  provided  you  will  consent  to  allow 
the  free  exportation  of  British  wool." — "  No,"  said  the  woollen 
manufacturers,  *•  take  off  the  duty  on  Foreign  wool,  if  you  please ; 
but  keep  in  force  the  law  which  prohibits  the  exportation  of 
British  wool  from  this  country."  To  this  proposal  we  would  not 
agree.  We  could  not,  upon  any  principle  of  justice,  open  our 
markets  to  an  untaxed  article  of  foreign  growth,  unless  the  manu- 
facturer would  concede  his  monopoly  over  the  like  article  of  our 
own  growth.  After  years  and  years  of  struggle  and  conflict,  we 
at  last  succeeded  in  convincing  our  opponents,  that  the  duty  on 
Foreign  wool  might  be  taken  off,  and  the  prohibition  to  export 
British  wool  be  repealed,  without  endangering  their  interests. 

And  what  has  been  the  result  ?  Where  is  the  ruin  that  was  so 
confidently  predicted  ?  I  own  I  am  more  and  more  distrustful 
of  the  predictions  of  these  practical  authorities.  Instead  of  our 
manufactures  being  ruined — instead  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  assu- 
rances, that  all  the  British  wool  would  be  exported,  to  the  utter 
destruction  of  our  manufacturers,  and  that  from  their  destruction 
the  Foreign  wool  would  no  longer  be  wanted  in  this  country — 
what  has  been  the  real  effect  of  this  measure?  Why,  that  since 
the  removal  of  the  restrictions  on  the  export,  we  have  sent  abroad 
the  amazing  quantity  of  100,000  lbs.  weight  of  British  wool ; 
while,  of  Foreign  wool,  we  have  imported  no  less  a  quantity 
than  40,000,000  lbs.  weight.  This,  Sir,  is  not  speculation.  It  is 
practice  and  result  against  speculation.  We  removed  the  restric- 
tive and  prohibitory  duties,  and  the  consequences  were,  that  we 
imported  an  excess  of  the  foreign  raw  material,  while  we  export- 
ed, comparatively,  none  of  native  growth — because,  we  had  a 
better  market  for  it  at  home.  Good  or  bad,  therefore,  the  first 
measure  recommended  to  the  attention  of  his  Majesty's  Ministers 
by  the  honourable  member  has  been  carried  into  complete  effect 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTXJRE.  451 

The  second  measure  proposed  for  out  adoption,  by  the  honour- 
able member  for  Taunton,  was  a  general  revision  of  the  Revenue 
Laws,  with  a  view  to  their  simplification.  The  honourable  mem- 
ber stated — and  he  stated  truly — that  those  laws  were  so  numer- 
ous, so  compHcated,  and  so  contradictory,  that  mercantile  men 
could  not  understand  them — that  they  were  at  once  a  great  im- 
pediment to  trade,  and  a  source  of  vexation  and  oppression  to  all 
who  were  engaged  in  it — that  no  man,  however  innocent  his 
intention,  could  escape  their  penalties ;  that,  therefore,  it  was  the 
bounden  duty  of  his  Majesty's  Government  to  simplify  and  con- 
solidate them. 

The  task  was  one  of  great  magnitude  and  difficulty;  but  we 
did  not  shrink  from  it.  My  right  honourable  friend,  the  Chancellor 
of  the  lilxchequer,  devoted  a  great  deal  of  time  and  attention  to 
the  subject :  but,  I  am  free  to  admit,  that  we  never  could  have 
succeeded  in  our  undertaking,  without  the  assistance  of  an  official 
gentleman,  in  the  service  of  the  Customs,  a  gentleman*  of  the 
most  unwearied  diligence,  and  who  is  entitled,  for  his  persevering 
exertions,  and  the  benefit  he  has  conferred  on  the  commercial 
world,  to  the  lasting  gratitude  of  the  country.  Of  the  difficulties 
of  the  undertaking,  the  House  will  be  enabled  to  judge,  when  I 
state,  that  there  were  no  fewer  than  five  hundred  statutes,  relative 
to  the  Customs  alone,  to  wade  through ;  independently  of  the 
numerous  enactments  concerning  Smuggling,  Warehousing,  the 
Plantations,  &c.  In  the  performance  of  this  duty,  we  had 
innumerable  difficulties  to  encounter,  and  battles  without  end  to 
fight.  And  now.  Sir,  in  one  little  volume,f  which  I  hold  in  my 
hand,  are  comprised  all  the  Laws  at  present  in  existence,  on  the 
subject  of  the  management  and  the  revenue  of  the  Customs,  of 
Navigation,  of  Smuggling,  of  Warehousing,  and  of  our  Colonial 
Trade,  compressed  in  so  clear  and  yet  so  comprehensive  a  man- 
ner, that  no  man  can  possibly  mistake  the  meaning  or  the  applica- 
tion of  them.  I  do  not  say  this  to  boast  of  the  successful  result 
of  our  labours.  It  was  the  duty  of  Government  to  do  what  it 
has  done.  I  only  adduce  it  to  show,  that  this,  the  second  recom- 
mendation of  the  honourable  member,  as  the  organ  of  the  Com- 
mercial world,  has  not  been  disregarded. 

Then  comes  the  third  recommendation  of  the  honourable  mem- 
ber for  Taunton ;  namely,  that  we  should  do  away  with  Prohibi- 
tions altogether ;  and  substitute,  in  all  cases,  protecting  for  pro- 
hibitory duties.  I  will  beg  leave  to  read  a  short  extract  from 
what  I  consider  a  very  accurate  report  of  this  part  of  the  hon- 

*  J.  D.  Hume,  Esq.,  Comptroller  of  His  Majesty's  Customs  in  the  Port  of 
London. 

t  Laws  of  the  Customs,  by  J.  D.  Hume,  Esq. 


452  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

Durable  member's  speech.  "Another  desirable  step,"  said  he, 
"  would  be  to  do  away  totally  prohibitions,  as  much  as  possible." 
To  be  sure,  Sir,  it  may  be  difficult  to  reconcile  "totally,"  and 
"as  much  as  possible;"  but,  I  have  no  doubt  the  honourable 
member's  meaning  was  to  express  his  thorough  detestation  of  the 
prohibitory  principle.  "Where,"  he  continues,  "protection  for 
particular  manufactures  is  considered  to  be  necessary,  it  ought  to 
be  in  the  form  of  duty,  and  not  in  that  of  prohibition.  Prohibi- 
tions had,  no  doubt,  seriously  injured  the  Revenue,  by  the  en- 
couragement which  they  gave  to  smuggling.  The  Customs  had 
fallen  off  a  million  and  a  half,  in  the  course  of*  the  last  year.  He 
was  sure  that  a  good  deal  of  that  defalcation  might  be  ascribed 
to  Prohibitions." 

I  intreat  the  House  to  attend  to  what  follows  in  the  Speech  of 
the  honourable  member: — "Nothing  could  be  more  absurd  than 
to  suppose,  that  any  prohibition  would  prevent  the  introduction 
of  the  articles  which  were  in  demand.  The  fact  was,  that,  at  an 
advance  of  twenty  or  twenty-five  per  cent.,  all  light  prohibited 
articles  might  be  had  at  our  doors.  He  would  not  say  which  sex 
was  most  to  blame,  but  such  was  the  fact."  Now,  here  we  have 
the  opinion  of  a  practical  man,  who  had  come  to  this  conclusion, 
after  collecting  the  best  evidence  upon  the  subject,  during  his 
repeated  visits  to  Paris.  Indeed,  I  cannot  help  thinking,  that  the 
honourable  member  had  Silk,  and  nothing  but  Silk,  in  his  view, 
at  the  time  when  he  made  these  allusions.  The  honourable  mem- 
ber has  long  been  a  professor  of  those  doctrines,  which  he  now 
reprobates  me  for  upholding,  as  much  as  he  then  censured  the 
Government  for  not  more  readily  adopting.  Even  in  the  year 
1817 — also  a  period  of  distress — I  find  the  honourable  member 
declaring  to  the  House,  that,  "in  the  article  of  Silk,  smuggling 
was  carried  on  to  a  very  great  extent ;  a  proof  of  which  was  to 
be  found  in  the  fact,  that  although  silks  were  in  much  greater  use 
now  than  formerly,  yet  that  the  British  manufacturer  was  ruin- 
ed." So  that  it  appears.  Sir,  that  in  the  year  1817,  the  Silk  manu- 
facture, which,  according  to  the  doctrines  of  the  present  day,  can 
only  flourish  under  a  system  of  prohibition,  was,  in  that  year,  in 
a  state  of  ruin,  owing  to  prohibition. 

The  stagnation  and  embarrassment  of  1816  and  1817  were 
followed  by  a  state  of  unusual  commercial  activity.  In  like 
manner,  the  depression  of  1822  and  1823  terminated  in  the  ex- 
traordinary spirit  of  speculation,  which  marked  the  autumn  of 
1824,  and  the  spring  and  summer  of  1825.  It  is  not  irrelevant 
to  the  present  discussion  to  compare  these  two  periods,  each  com- 
mencing with  commercial  distress,  and  each  ending  in  over-trad- 
ing— each  marked,  in  its  first  stage,  by  a  great  contraction  of 
our  paper  circulation,  and  the  accumulation  of  a  vast  amount  of 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  453 

gold  in  the  coffers  of  the  Bank,  and,  in  its  second,  by  a  great 
expansion  of  our  circulating  credit,  and  by  the  re-exportation  of 
most  of  the  gold  which  the  Bank  had  previously  accunriulated. 
This  comparison,  whilst  it  connects  itself  with  the  question  now 
under  our  immediate  consideration,  is  calculated  to  throw  some 
light  on  the  equally  important  question  of  the  Currency,  which, 
at  this  moment,  occupies  so  much  of  the  attention  of  Parliament 
and  of  the  country. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  year  1817,  "the  Bank,"  as  we  are  in- 
formed by  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  1819,  "possessed  a 
larger  amount  of  cash  and  bullion  in  their  coffers,  than  they  had 
been  in  the  possession  of,  at  any  former  period  since  their  establish- 
ment." With  this  accumulation,  they  gave  notice  of  a  partial 
resumption  of  cash  payments,  engaging  to  pay  in  gold  all  notes 
under  5/.  From  the  beginning  of  1817  till  the  month  of  July  in 
that  year,  the  whole  demand  for  gold  coin,  under  this  notice,  did 
not  exceed  38,000/. ;  but,  in  consequence  of  a  great  augmentation 
of  Bank  paper  in  August  1817  (exceeding,  by  upwards  of  three 
millions,  the  amount  of  the  corresponding  month  in  the  preceding 
year),  and  of  a  like  augmentation  of  country  paper,  the  foreign 
exchanges  were  turned  against  this  country ;  and,  from  that  mo- 
ment, the  gold  was  withdrawn  from  the  Bank  with  much  greater 
rapidity.  In  the  course  of  the  following  eighteen  months,  many 
millions  of  coin  were  thus  put  into  circulation,  without  any  corre- 
sponding diminution  in  the  amount  of  Bank  notes ; — or  rather,  to 
speak  more  accurately,  these  millions,  as  soon  as  they  were  taken 
from  the  Bank,  were  sent  to  France,  and  other  parts  of  the  Con- 
tinent, till  the  treasure  of  the  Bank  was  very  much  reduced  at  the 
beginning  of  1819;  and  then  the  amount  of  their  notes  was  again 
contracted.  This  contraction  was  followed  by  a  great  depression 
of  commerce,  and  of  prices,  in  the  subsequent  years.  During 
this  depression,  the  Government  were  frequently  called  upon,  as 
they  are  now  called  upon,  to  give  relief,  by  an  issue  of  com- 
mercial Exchequer  Bills;  but  our  first  object,  then,  was  per- 
manently to  restore — as  our  first  object,  now,  is  effectually  to 
secure — a  system  of  cash  payments ;  the  success  of  which  might 
have  been  endangered  by  this  mode  of  relief.  So  much  for  the 
first  period,  as  far  as  relates  to  our  Currency. 

In  the  first  stage  of  the  second  period — 1822,  1823,  and  a  part 
of  1824 — the  Bank  again  accumulated  an  amount  of  gold,  greater 
even  than  what  it  possessed^at  the  beginning  of  1817.  Between 
September  1824  and  November  1825,  that  gold  was  again  taken 
out  of  the  Bank,  under  all  the  like  circumstances  of  the  foreign 
Exchanges  being  against  this  country,  and  with  the  like  results 
as  had  occurred  in  1818.  Again,  notwithstanding  the  issue  of  so 
many  millions  of  coin,  the  amount  of  Bank  notes  and  of  country 


454  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

paper  was  increased :  again,  these  millions  so  issued  were,  for 
the  greatest  part,  exported  ;  and  again,  in  the  autumn  of  1825, 
the  Bank  was  driven  to  take  precautions,  by  contracting  its  cir- 
culation, in  order  to  protect  its  remaining  treasure.  What  has 
since  occurred  is  known  and  felt  by  all. 

So  much  for  the  Currency ;  now  for  the  Trade. 

In  1816  and  1817,  during  the  first  absorption  of  treasure  by 
the  Bank,  the  amount  of  Silk  imported  was,  upon  the  average  of 
the  two  years,  1,150,807  lbs.; — in  1818,  during  the  first  flight  of 
our  coin  to  the  Continent,  that  importation  was  raised  to  2,101,618 
lbs.,  being  an  increase  of  81  per  cent. — Of  Sheep's  Wool,  the 
average  importation  of  the  first  two  years  was  11,416,853  lbs.: 
— in  the  year  1818  alone  the  quantity  was  26,405,486  lbs.,  being 
an  increase  of  130  per  cent. — -Of  Cotton  Wool,  the  average  of  the 
two  first  years  was  423,580  bales: — the  amount  in  1818  was 
660,580  bales,  being  an  increase  of  57  per  cent. 

Let  us  now  compare  the  import  of  the  same  articles  in  the 
years  1823  and  1824,  with  the  import  of  1825.  It  will  turn  out 
as  follows:  — Silk,  average  import  of  1823  and  1824,  2,780,600 
lbs.:  —  import  of  1825,  4,231,673  lbs.,  being  an  increase  at  the 
rate  of  50  per  cent.  Sheep's  Wool,  average  import  of  1823  and 
1824,  19,225,306  lbs.:— import  of  1825,  38,705,682  lbs.,  being  an 
increase  at  the  rate  of  100  per  cent.  Cotton  Wool,  average 
import  of  1823  and  1824,  167,120,065  lbs. :— import  of  1825, 
222,457,616  lbs.,  being  an  increase  at  the  rate  of  33  per  cent. 

I  will  not  go  more  at  length  into  this  subject.  It  would  lead 
me  too  far  away  from  other  topics,  growing  more  immediately 
out  of  this  debate,  to  which  I  have  still  to  advert;  but  I  have  said 
enough  to  point  out,  to  those  who  take  an  interest  in  these  matters, 
the  intimate  relation  that  exists  between  our  Currency  and  our 
Trade ;  to  show  in  what  manner  the  expansion  of  our  paper  cir- 
culation, combined  with  an  unfavourable  foreign  Exchange,  leads 
to  overtrading,  till  overtrading  again  forces  a  contraction  of  the 
currency :  thus  producing  those  alternations  of  extravagant  ex- 
citement and  of  fearful  depression,  which  this  country  has  so 
often  experienced  of  late  years ;  alternations,  of  which  the  conse- 
quences are  at  once  so  dangerous  to  men  of  capital,  so  distressing 
to  the  labourers  who  depend  for  employment  on  that  capital,  and 
so  subversive  of  those  principles  of  security  to  property,  on  which 
the  prosperity  of  every  commercial  state  must  ultimately  rest. 

The  immediate  inference  which  I  draw  from  this  comparison 
is,  that  the  present  stagnation  in  the  Silk  Trade  is  more  produced 
by  the  late  alternation,  than  by  any  effect  of  the  Law  which  will 
come  into  operation  next  July. 

To  return,  Sir,  to  the  Speech  of  the  honourable  member  for 
Taunton.     The  fourth  point  to  which  he  called  the  attention  of 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  455 

Government,  was,  the  state  of  the  Navigation  Laws.  The  change 
which  the  honourable  member  recommended  would,  in  fact,  have 
amounted  to  the  total  repeal  of  those  Laws.  He  thought,  "  that 
no  restriction  ought  to  be  held  on  foreign  ships  importing  into 
this  country,  whether  the  produce  was  of  their  own,  or  any  other 
country."  Accustomed  to  look  on  these  laws  as  the  prop  of  our 
maritime  power,  and  to  watch  with  a  jealous  eye  any  encroach- 
ment upon  them,  we  could  not  consent  to  this  sweeping  principle 
of  innovation.  On  the  other  hand,  we  professed  ourselves  ready 
to  inquire,  how  far  some  of  their  regulations,  inconvenient  for 
trade,  might  be  dispensed  with,  without  prejudice  to  the  higher 
political  objects,  for  which  those  Laws  were  originally  enacted. 
This  inquiry  was  gone  into  with  great  care,  by  a  Committee, 
over  the  labours  of  which,  my  right  honourable  friend,  the  Master 
of  the  Mint,  presided ;  and  the  result  has  been  that,  by  his  zeal 
and  diligence,  several  measures  have  been  introduced  to  the 
House,  which  have  led  to  a  relaxation  in  those  Laws,  highly 
beneficial  to  the  commerce  of  the  country,  and  in  no  way  injuri- 
ous to  our  strength  as  a  maritime  power.  But  the  principle  of 
those  Laws  is  still  retained.  In  this  instance,  certainly,  we  have 
not  been  able  to  go  all  the  lengths  recommended  by  the  practical 
men ;  but,  be  it  recollected,  that  the  charge,  against  which  I  am 
now  upon  my  defence,  is  that  we  are  theorists. 

The  fifth  point  which  was  strongly  recommended  by  the 
honourable  member  for  Taunton,  was  the  removal  of  the  Transit 
Duties  on  German  Linens,  and  some  other  articles  of  foreign  pro- 
duce. At  the  very  time  that  the  honourable  member  was  press- 
ing for  this  removal,  he  must  have  been  aware,  that  his  Majesty's 
ministers  were  sensible  of  the  impolicy  of  these  restrictions,  and 
that  they  were  desirous,  not  only  to  get  rid  of  them,  but  also  to 
revise  the  whole  system  of  Bounties  and  Drawbacks.  But  he 
could  not  be  ignorant  of  the  complication  of  interests,  and  the 
difficulty  of  detail,  which  we  had  to  encounter,  in  every  stage  of 
this  undertaking.  He  could  not  be  ignorant  of  the  prejudices,  by 
which  this  system  was  upheld.  For  the  abatement  of  those  pre- 
judices, we  thought  it  more  safe  and  more  expedient,  to  trust  to 
the  influence  of  time  and  reason,  than,  at  all  hazards,  to  encounter 
them  at  once  by  an  act  of  power.  This  was  our  theory  in  1820; 
and,  I  am  now  happy  to  add,  that,  by  adhering  to  it,  we  have 
been  completely  successful.  The  Transit  Duties  have  been  all 
removed ;  and  the  system  of  Bounties  and  Drawbacks  has  under- 
gone an  entire  revision,  and  been  remodelled  on  an  improved 
plan. 

To  come  to  the  sixth  recommendation  of  the  honourable  mem- 
ber for  Taunton.  He  told  us,  that  "  it  was  of  importance  that  we 
should  alter  our  Commercial  Regulations  with  respect  to  France. 


456  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

It  was  desirable,"  added  he,  "  that  restrictive  regulations  between 
the  trade  of  England  and  France  should  be  removed ;  but,  to  do 
so,  we  must  begin  at  home.  It  would  be  unfair  to  attempt  a 
negotiation  for  a  commercial  intercourse,  while  we  kept  our  ports 
shut  against  them.  Let  it  be  considered,  that  it  was  not  by  a 
restrictive  system,  that  this  country  had  grown  to  such  a  pitch 
of  greatness ;  but  on  the  contrary,  that  such  a  system  was  a  bar 
to  that  greatness.  It  was  necessary  also  to  remove  an  impression 
which  our  system  of  commerce  had  made  abroad.  We  were 
looked  up  to  as  the  first  commercial  nation  in  the  world ;  and  it 
was,  therefore,  believed,  that  we  had  adopted  our  restrictive  or 
protecting  system,  from  a  conviction  of  its  beneficial  effects  on 
our  commerce.  This  impression  it  was  our  interest,  as  well  as 
our  duty,  to  remove,  by  altering  our  Commercial  Regulations 
with  foreign  powers." 

This  advice  of  the  honourable  member  for  Taunton,  his  Ma- 
jesty's Government  have  also  attended  to.  What  have  we  done 
in  this  case  ?  We  have  "  begun  at  home."  We  have  set  an  ex- 
ample to  the  nations  of  the  Continent.  We  have  put  an  end  to 
the  restrictive  system  affecting  France,  as  far  as  we  could  put  an 
end  to  it.  And,  we  have  invited  France  to  follow  in  our  track, 
by  doing  away  with  the  obstacles  existing  on  her  part  to  a 
greater  freedom  of  trade.  France  has  taken  a  first  step  towards 
placing  the  intercourse  between  the  two  countries  upon  a  footing 
of  greater  facility.  This  is  a  practical  approximation,  on  her 
part,  to  the  principle  of  a  more  enlarged  system  of  commerce ;  a 
principle,  equally  recognized  by  the  most  enlightened  statesmen, 
and  the  most  leading  merchants,  of  that  country;  a  principle 
which  cannot  fail  to  make  its  way  in  France,  as  it  has  made  its 
way  in  this  country,  by  discussion  and  inquiry,  and  which,  in  pro- 
portion as  it  gains  ground,  will  confer  advantages  upon  France, 
and,  by  her  and  our  example,  furnish  a  salutary  lesson  to  the  rest 
of  the  world. 

As  I  have  adverted  to  this  subject,  I  will  beg  leave  to  say  one 
word,  as  to  the  Convention  of  Navigation  recently  concluded 
between  the  two  countries ;  upon  which  a  misconception  appears 
to  have  gone  abroad.  I  allude  to  the  Decree  of  the  French 
Government  against  the  introduction  of  the  produce  of  Asia, 
Africa,  and  America,  through  this  country,  into  France,  for  home 
consumption.  The  Regulation  of  this  Decree  has  been  mistakenly 
considered,  as  the  effect  of  a  stipulation  under  the  Convention. 
This  I  beg  leave  to  deny.  The  Decree  is  an  act  of  the  French 
government,  quite  independent  of  the  Convention.  It  might,  and 
probably  would,  have  teen  passed,  had  no  such  Convention  been 
made  between  the  two  countries.  A  similar  law  was  proposed 
to  the  Chambers  last  year,  and  then  only  postponed.     It  is  a 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE  457 

Regulation  of  which  we  have  no  right  to  complain,  and  against 
which  we  have  no  right  to  stipulate ;  because,  the  like  restriction 
exists  in  this  country.  That  for  which  we  had  a  right  to  stipulate, 
and  for  which  we  have  stipulated,  is,  that  if,  in  relaxation  of  this 
Decree,  any  of  the  productions  of  Asia,  Africa,  or  America,  are 
admitted  into  France  for  home  consumption,  from  this  country, 
they  shall  be  equally  admitted,  and  upon  the  same  duties,  in 
British  as  in  French  vessels. 

I  do  not  deny  that,  beyond  what  is  provided  for  by  this  Con- 
vention, much  might  be  done  to  improve  the  commercial  relations 
of  this  country  and  France ;  but,  the  basis  is  laid  down,  and  the 
contracting  parties  have  expressly  reserved  to  themselves  "  the 
power  of  making,  by  mutual  consent,  such  relaxations  in  the 
strict  execution  of  the  article,  as  they  may  think  useful  to  the 
respective  interests  of  the  two  countries,  on  the  principle  of  mutual 
concessions,  affording  each  to  the  other  reciprocal  or  equivalent 
advantages."  The  development  and  further  application  of  this 
principle  must  be  left  to  time,  and  to  an  improved  state  of  public 
opinion  in  France.  But,  I  confidently  appeal  to  the  House,  and 
to  the  honourable  member,  to  say,  whether  the  best  course  for 
doing  away  with  prejudices,  and  unfavourable  impressions  on  the 
Continent,  would  be  for  us  to  retrace  our  steps ;  to  re-enact  the 
old  prohibitions  and  restriction;  and  to  exclude  foreign  mer- 
chandize and  foreign  shipping,  as  we  had  formerly  done. 

Seventhly,  and  lastly,  the  honourable  member  for  Taunton  re- 
commended to  his  Majesty's  Government,  "  an  extension  of  our 
trade  with  British  India."  In  answer  to  this  suggestion  it  is  only 
necessary  for  me  to  say,  that  our  attention  has  been  incessantly 
directed  towards  that  desirable  object  We  have  left  no  steps 
untried,  to  prevail  on  the  East-India  Company  to  consent  to  an 
enlargement  of  the  Private  Trade.  To  a  certain  point  we  have 
succeeded,  though  not  to  the  extent  of  our  wishes.  If  all  that  the 
honourable  member  sought  for  has  not  been  done,  the  fault  is  not 
ours ;  we  have  no  means  of  compelling  the  company  to  comply 
with  the  wishes  of  the  merchants.  The  vested  rights  of  that  cor- 
poration have  been  conferred  upon  them  by  Parliament;  and, 
inconvenient  or  not,  we  are  bound  to  respect  those  rights,  till  the 
expiration  of  that  period  for  which  they  have  been  granted. 

These  are  the  principal  improvements  which  were  urged  on 
the  Government  of  the  country,  in  the  year  1820,  by  the  honour- 
able member  for  Taunton  ;  speaking — be  it  always  remembered 
— in  the  name,  and  on  the  behalf,  of  the  Merchants  of  London. 
To  all  of  these  suggestions,  I  say,  his  Majesty's  Ministers  have 
attended.  My  right  honourable  friend,  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  who  then  filled  the  situation  which  I  now  hold,  replied 
to  the  Speech  of  the  honourable  member,  on  that  occasion.  He 
39  dH 


458  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

repelled  the  accusation  of  the  honourable  member,  that  the 
Government  were  insensible  to  the  sufferings  of  the  people.  He 
avowed  his  desire  to  proceed  in  the  course  that  was  recommend- 
ed; but  he,  at  the  same  time,  represented  the  difficulties  by  which 
his  endeavours  had,  till  then,  been  opposed.  Did  the  honourable 
member  acknowledge  himself  satisfied  with  the  assurance  and 
explanation  of  my  right  honourable  friend  ?  By  no  means.  Sir. 

So  eager  was  the  honourable  member  for  Taunton  for  the  im- 
mediate enforcement  of  these  important  changes,  that  he  con- 
cluded his -reply  to  my  right  honourable  friend,  in  the  following 
terms :  "  as  to  the  Petition  itself,  the  principles  which  it  contained 
had  met  with  so  unanimous  a  support,  that  he  wondered  whence 
that  opposition  could  come,  by  which  the  right  honourable  the 
President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  seemed  to  be  deterred  from 
attempting  any  reform  of  our  Commercial  System ;  and  he  could 
not  help  expressing  a  hope,  that,  for  the  future,  that  right  honour- 
able gentleman  would  not  listen  entirely  to  the  suggestions  of 
others,  but,  in  treating  the  subject,  would  rely  on  his  own  excellent 
understanding." 

With  this  admonition,  the  debate  closed.  The  recommenda- 
tions of  the  honourable  member — the  great  authorities  from  which 
they  originated — convinced  the  Government,  that  the  time  was 
come,  when  they  might  go  forward  with  measures,  to  which  they 
had  long  before  avowed  a  friendly  dispositioji..  The  consequence 
w^as,  a  determination,  on  their  part,  to  institute  an  inquiry  before 
a  Committee  of  this  House,  in  order  to  ascertain,  how  far,  and 
by  what  course  of  proceeding,  the  steps  recommended,  and  any 
others  founded  upon  the  same  principles,  could  be  acted  upon,  for 
the  general  improvement  of  the  Commerce  of  the  Country. 

In  the  other  House  of  Parliament,  a  Committee  was  sitting, 
whose  labours  were  directed  to  the  same  object.  This  Commit- 
tee had  been  appointed  upon  the  motion  of  a  noble  Marquis  ;* 
who  had,  at  all  times,  taken  the  liveliest  interest,  in  whatever 
relates  to  the  Trade  and  Commerce  of  the  country;  and  whose 
principles,  in  these  matters,  unlike  to  the  grasshopper  on  the  Royal 
Exchange,  do  not  veer  about,  with  every  change  of  wind,  or  with 
every  fluctuation  in  the  speculations  of  those  who  transact  busi- 
ness in  that  Exchange. 

One  of  the  subjects  which  particularly  engaged  the  attention  of 
the  noble  Marquis,  and  of  the  Committee  over  which  he  presided, 
was,  the  state  of  the  Silk  Trade.  They  heard  evidence ;  they 
called  for  papers;  and  they  examined  witnesses,  from  every 
quarter.  What  was  the  result  of  their  investigation  ?  Why,  Sir, 
they  state  in  their  Report,  that,  "it  appears  to  the  Committee, 

*  The  Marquis  of  Lansdowne. 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  459 

that  ther6  are  no  bounds  to  Smuggling,  under  the  prohibitive  sys- 
tem ;  and  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Committee,  protecting  duties 
might,  advantageously,  be  substituted  for  prohibitive  ones." 

Such  was  the  view^  taken  by  the  Committee  of  the  House  of 
Lords,  in  1821.  I  will  not  detain  the  House,  by  going  at  length 
into  the  course  of  inquiry,  by  which  they  arrived  at  this  conclu- 
sion. But,  some  attempt  has  been  made  this  night  to  undervalue 
the  Evidence  of  two  merchants  from  the  United  States,  who  were 
examined  before  the  Committee;  and  examined,  be  it  recollected, 
upon  oath.  These  two  merchants  came  to  Europe,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  purchasing  Silks.  They  first  visited  France ;  and  then 
they  came  to  England.  They  could  be  actuated  by  no  other 
interest,  than  that  of  procuring  Silks  on  the  cheapest  terms. 

And  what  was  their  evidence  ?  On  being  asked,  as  to  the  rela- 
tive cost  of  the  silks  of  France  and  the  silks  of  England,  one  of 
them  said,  that  "  he  had  bought  goods  in  France  and  in  England; 
and  that  the  difference,  when  the  quality  was  equal,  was  from 
twenty  to  twenty-five  per  cent. ;"  and  the  other  said,  that  "  the 
difference  did  not  exceed  twenty  per  cent. :"  but,  both  of  them 
stated,  that,  in  the  article  of  Silk  hosiery,  price  and  quality  con- 
sidered, they  greatly  preferred  the  English  manufacture  to  that 
of  France. 

The  Report  containing  this  evidence,  recommended  an  altera- 
tion of  the  laws  relative  to  the  Silk  Trade,  by  the  removal  of  the 
duty  on  the  raw  material,  and  of  the  prohibition  on  raw  silks. 
Honourable  members,  however,  are  aware,  that  the  House  of 
Lords  could  not,  from  the  nature  of  the  proposed  change,  initiate 
a  measure,  to  carry  into  effect  the  object  of  this  Report. 

Nothing  further  took  place  till  the  year  1823 ;  when  the  honour- 
able member  for  the  city  of  London,*  came  down  to  this  House 
with  a  Petition  from  the  Master  Manufacturers  of  Spital-Fields, 
praying  for  a  repeal  of  what  is  generally  called  "the  Spital- 
Fields*  Act."  This,  as  the  House  wells  knows,  was  a  law  for 
regulating  the  mode  of  working  in  that  district ;  and  for  enabling 
the  magistrates  to  fix  the  rate  of  wages  to  be  given  for  each 
description  of  work.  In  short,  a  most  unfit  law  to  remain  upon 
the  Statute  Book ;  but  the  professed' object  of  which  was,  to  pro- 
tect the  Men  against  the  exactions  of  their  Masters.  The  only 
possible  excuse  for  having  ever  passed  such  a  law  is  that,  when 
it  was  passed,  the  Masters  had  a  monopoly  of  the  Silk  manufac- 
ture in  this  country. 

I  will  tell  the  House  why  I  state  this.  A  deputation  of  the 
Weavers  of  Spital-Fields  waited  upon  me,  and  my  right  honour- 
able friend,  the  other  day.     They  are  a  sincere,  well-meaning, 

*  Mr.  Thomas  Wilson. 


460  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

and,  certainly,  a  well-behaved  body  of  men.  After  hearing  their 
representations,  I  was  satisfied,  that  if  I  had  put  it  to  them,  to 
make  their  choice  between  the  revival  of  the  Spital-Fields'  Act, 
or  of  the  prohibitory  system — if  I  had  said  to  them,  "  You  cannot 
have  both  a  Prohibition  and  the  Spital-Fields'  Act,  but  you  may 
have  either  the  one  or  the  other — take  your  choice !" — they  would 
have  instantly  said,  "  Give  us  the  Spital-Fields'  Act,  and  let  the 
prohibition  go  to  the  winds."  So  much  for  practical  feeling; 
which  is  now  urged  in  opposition  to  what  is  called  theory ! 

And  here  I  must  beg  leave  shortly  to  refer  to  the  doctrine  laid 
down  in  the  Petition  presented  in  1823,  by  the  honourable  mem- 
ber for  the  City  of  London,  to  which  I  have  just  alluded.  The 
Petitioners  state,  "  that  with  our  unlimited  supply  of  Silk  from  our 
territories  in  India,  we  might  be  independent  of  the  rest  of  the 
world ;  that  with  our  great  command  of  capital,  and  the  unrivalled 
skill  of  our  artisans,  the  manufacturers  did  not  fear  the  competi- 
tion of  any  foreigners :  and  that,  with  a  Free  Trade,  Silk  would 
become,  like  Cotton,  one  of  the  staple  manufactures  of  the 
country." 

I  do  not  mean  to  accuse  these  Petitioners  of  making  this  state- 
ment, in  order  to  entrap  the  public,  and  to  induce  the  Parliament 
to  take  measures,  which  they  knew  would  involve  their  own 
manufacture  in  distress;  but,  I  have  a  right  to  refer  to  their  Peti- 
tion, as  well  as  to  the  more  general  Petition  of  the  Merchants  of 
London,  to  show,  that  the  measures  which  his  Majesty's  Minis- 
ters have  taken,  are  neither  the  offspring  of  theory,  nor  measures 
which  they  carried  in  opposition  to  the  prevaiHng  opinion  of  the 
country,  or  of  the  Trade.  They  brought  forward  these  measures, 
because  they  were  convinced  that  they  were  founded  in  sound 
policy ;  but  not  till  they  were  satisfied,  that  they  would  meet  with 
the  concurrence  and  support  of  those  who  had  a  more  immediate 
interest  in  their  result.  So  far  was  Government  from  any  precipi- 
tation in  carrying  them  into  effect,  that  it  was  not  till  the  year 
1824  that  they  determined  to  propose  the  repeal  of  the  duty  on 
the  raw  material,  and  to  permit  the  importation  of  the  foreign 
manufactured  Silk,  subject  to  a  protecting  duty.  They  were 
aware  that,  without  taking  the  duty  oflf  the  raw  material,  they 
could  not  attempt  this  improvement ;  but,  as  soon  as  my  right 
honourable  friend,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  was  enabled, 
by  the  flourishing  state  of  the  finances,  to  reduce  taxation,  he  did 
not  hesitate  to  remit  this  duty,  as  the  necessary  preliminary  to 
the  removal  of  the  prohibition. 

From  that  moment,  we  lost  the  support  of  the  honourable 
member  for  Taunton,  to  whom  I  have  so  often  alluded ;  and  his 
voice  was  only  heard  in  opposition  to  measures,  which  he  had 
so  long  been  recommending  for  our  adoption. 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  461 

My  right  honourable  friend,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
having,  on  the  23d  of  February,  1824,  stated  generally  to  the 
House,  what  it  was  our  intention  to  do ;  it  fell  to  my  lot,  on  the 
8th  of  March,  to  open  the  measure  more  in  detail.  Then  it  was 
that  I  heard,  for  the  first  time,  of  the  serious  opposition  which  the 
proposed  measure  would  receive  from  the  honourable  member  for 
Taunton.  Then  it  was,  that,  seconded  by  the  honourable  mem- 
ber for  Coventry,  who  opened  the  debate  of  this  evening,  he 
declared  that,  by  the  end  of  the  two  years,  which  I  proposed  to 
allow  before  the  prohibition  should  finally  cease,  the  Silk  trade 
would  be  destroyed. 

This  delay  I  now  consider  to  have  been  the  greatest  error  that 
was  then  committed,  and  the  origin  of  our  present  difficulty ;  £fs 
far  as  this  trade  is  concerned.  "  Those,"  said  the  honourable 
member  for  Taunton,  "who  propose  this  new  plan,  are  com- 
pletely ruining  the  Silk  manufacture  of  England.  The  moment 
this  plan  is  promulgated,  the  great  object  of  all  who  have  capitals 
embarked  in  the  manufacture  will  be,  to  disentangle  those  capi- 
tals ;  and  those  who  have  no  capital,  except  their  labour,  will  be 
left  to  struggle  for  themselves,  and  probably  to  perish,  for  want 
of  employment." 

Such,  in  1824,  were  the  gloomy  forebodings  of  the  honour- 
able member  for  Taunton.  Experience  has  made  me  rather 
obdurate  to  all  such  prophecies ;  for  so  many  are  daily  made  by 
individuals,  whose  fears  are  excited,  or  who,  when  they  suppose 
their  particular  interests  to  be  at  stake,  attempt  to  excite  fear  in 
others,  that  I  must  have  abandoned  every  measure  which  I  have 
brought  forward  for  improving  our  Commercial  Policy,  had  I 
allowed  myself  to  be  acted  upon  by  such  forebodings. 

Last  y^ar,  for  instance,  I  received  representations  from  the 
Iron  trade — day  after  day,  and  month  after  month :  but,  I  could 
not  share  in  their  alarms.  I  must  state  this,  however,  with  one 
exception.  There  exists  in  this  country  one  considerable  estab- 
lishment, in  which  iron  is  smelted  by  charcoal  in  great  perfection, 
but  at  a  heavy  expense.  This  iron  is  held  in  equal  estimation 
with  the  best  from  Sweden ;  but  there  was  reason  to  apprehend, 
that  it  could  not,  under  the  reduced  duty,  maintain  itself  in  com- 
petition with  the  latter.  The  establishment  in  question  belongs 
to  a  most  respectable  and  scientific  gentleman,  well  known  to 
many  members  of  this  House, — Dr.  Ainslie.  Having  heard  his 
statement,  I  told  him  that,  although  I  could  not  alter  a  general 
measure  to  meet  one  particular  case,  I  would  endeavour  to  de- 
vise some  other  mode  of  relief,  if  he  should  be  overwhelmed  by 
the  competition. 

And  what  does  the  House  think  has  been  the  result  ?  Sir, 
within  the  last  fortnight,  that  respectable  individual  has  sent  me 
39* 


462  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

word,  through  an  honourable  member  of  this  House,  not  only 
that  his  fears  have  not  been  realized,  but  that  my  most  sanguine 
hopes  had  been  confirmed — that  his  trade,  in  fact,  had  in  no  de- 
gree suffered  by  those  very  measures  which  he  apprehended 
would  have  been  fatal  to  it ;  and  that  it  was,  upon  the  whole,  in 
a  very  flourishing  state. 

Let  us  now  seenow  far  the  predictions  of  the  honourable  mem- 
ber for  Taunton,  and  the  honourable  member  for  Coventry,  have 
been  reahzed.  These  predictions  were  that  the  Silk  Trade  would 
be  annihilated  in  the  course  of  the  two  years  allowed  to  the  manu- 
facturers to  prepare  for  the  change. 

The  bill  passed  this  House  in  the  spring  of  1824;  and  during 
the  rest  of  that  year,  the  Silk  Trade  went  on  flourishing  and 
increasing  in  the  face  of  this  threatened  annihilation.  In  the 
spring  of  1825,  there  prevailed  a  degree  of  excitement — a  spirit 
of  speculation — an  extension  of  demand  in  this  manufacture — to 
a  greater  degree  than  ever  had  been  witnessed  before,  in  almost 
any  branch  of  trade.  It  was  in  1825,  that  so  many  new  factories 
were  erected;  so  many  new  mills  set  at  work;  so  many  new 
looms  occupied.  The  old  mills  were  not  sufficient :  many  new 
ones  were  raised  ;  the  erection  of  each  of  which,  I  am  assured,  did 
not  cost  less  than  from  10,000/.  to  15,000/. :  and  several  of  these 
new  mills  have  not  even  yet  been  roofed  in. 

Thus,  at  the  very  time  when,  to  satisfy  the  prediction  of  the 
honourable  member  for  Taunton,  this  trade  should  have  been  in 
a  state  of  rapid  decline,  the  manufacturers  were  building  to  an 
excess,  that  had  never  been  equalled  in  the  periods  of  their  great- 
est prosperity. 

The  honourable  and  learned  member  for  Lincoln  has  alluded 
to  the  present  condition  of  the  town  of  Macclesfield.  I  know  what 
misfortunes  and  bankruptcies  have  occurred  there,  and  I  feel  the 
deepest  and  most  undissembled  sorrow  for  the  sufferings  of  that 
population.  lam  aware  of  their  distressed  state  at  this  moment. 
But  I  cannot  help  thinking,  that  the  honourable  and  learned  mem- 
ber, in  stating  their  situation,  should  also  have  stated  some  of  the 
circumstances  which  have  aggravated,  if  not  created,  their 
present  difficulties ;  for  certain  it  is,  that  the  spirit  of  specula- 
tion has,  in  that  town,  been  carried  to  the  greatest  extrava- 
gance. According  to  the  last  census,  in  1821,  the  whole 
population  of  Macclesfield,  amounted  to  17,746  souls.  Now,  I 
will  suppose  that,  between  that  year  and  the  year  1825,  it 
increased  to  20,000.  What  then,  in  that  year,  was  the  demand 
for  additional  labour,  in^the  Silk  manufacture  alone,  of  that  town? 
I  have  seen,  and  many  other  gentlemen  have  no  doubt  seen,  in  a 
Macclesfield  newspaper,  of  the  19th  of  February,  1825,  the  fol- 
lowing Advertisement : — "  To  Overseers,  Guardians  of  the  Poor, 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  463 

and  Families  desirous  of  settling  in  Macclesfield.  Wanted 
immediately,  from  four  to  five  thousand  persons," — [Loud  cries 
of  hear,  hear  !] — The  House  may  well  express  their  surprise ;  but 
I  beseech  their  attention  to  the  description  of  persons  required  by 
this  advertisement — "  from  seven  to  twenty  years  of  age" — so 
that  the  Silk  manufacturers  were  content  to  receive  children  of 
the  tender  age  of  only  seven  years — "  to  be  employed  in  the 
throwing  and  manufacturing  of  silk.  The  great  increase  of  the 
trade  having  caused  a  great  scarcity  of  Workmen,  it  is  suggested, 
that  this  is  a  most  favourable  opportunity  for  persons  with  large 
families,  and  Overseers  who  wish  to  put  out  children" — [children 
of  seven  years  of  age  !] — "  as  apprentices,  to  ensure  them  a  com- 
fortable livelihood.  Application  to  be  made,  if  by  letter  post  paid, 
to  the  printer  of  this  paper." 

Humanity  is  not  the  least  remarkable  part  of  this  precious 
document ;  and  the  House  will  not  fail  to  observe,  how  admirably 
the  cruelty  of  confining  children  of  seven  years  of  age  to  labour 
in  a  Silk  mill,  for  twelve  or  fifteen  hours  out  of  the  four-and- 
twenty,  is  tempered,  by  the  inducement  to  parents  to  provide  for 
their  families  for  life.  What  sort  of  provision  that  has  been,  the 
present  wretched  state  of  these  helpless  infants  will  best  evince. 
And  here  I  cannot  help  observing,  that,  at  the  very  time  such  an 
invitation  was  sent  forth  to  overseers  and  parents,  by  the  owners 
of  Silk  mills,  this  House  was  very  properly  occupied  in  passing  a 
bill  to  prevent  the  Employment  of  Children  under  nine  years  of 
age  in  cotton  factories. 

Very  soon  after  this  Advertisement,  and  before  the  Mills  were 
finished,  in  which  these  children  were  to  be  immured,  there  ap- 
peared, I  have  been  assured,  another  Advertisement,  nearly  in  the 
same  extravagant  style : — "  Wanted  to  be  built  immediately,  one 
thousand  houses !" — doubtless,  to  contain  the  five  thousand  new 
inhabitants. 

Yet,  all  this  took  place  in  the  year  1825 ;  just  one  year,  accord- 
ing to  the  honourable  member  for  Taunton,  before  the  Silk  Trade 
was  to  expire  for  ever.  I  ask,  then,  what  weight  can  be  given 
to  the  predictions  of  those,  who,  in  the  face  of  these  striking  facts, 
continue  to  assert,  that  the  Silk  Trade  of  this  country  will  be 
annihilated,  before  the  end  of  the  next  twelve  months?  Can  any 
man  wonder,  after  such  an  enormous  extent  of  speculation — after 
such  inhuman  efforts  to  induce  so  many  destitute  children  to  flock 
into  the  manufactories — after  such  an  influx  of  population — can 
any  man,  I  say,  wonder — all  branches  of  this  trade  being  now  in 
a  stagnant  state — at  most  of  these  newcomers  being  out  of  work 
at  Macclesfield — or  at  the  fact  stated  by  the  honourable  and 
learned  member  for  Lincoln — his  hair  almost  standing  on  end 


464  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

with  horror — "  that  eleven  orders  for  the  removal  of  as  many 
paupers,  had  been  made  out  in  one  week  ?" 

Under  ordinary  circumstances,  it  could  scarcely  have  been 
expected,  that  the  Silk  manufacture  alone  could  have  formed  an 
exception  to  the  general  re-action  which  has  followed  over-trad- 
ing and  speculation,  in  every  other  branch  of  commerce ;  but, 
under  the  circumstances  of  peculiar  excitement,  which  I  have 
now  stated,  it  would,  indeed,  have  been  matter  of  surprise,  had 
it  escaped  its  full  share  of  the  common  pressure. 

Sir,  I  feel  that,  upon  this  occasion,  a  heavy  burden  is  imposed 
upon  me.  I  feel  that  I  have  not  only  to  defend  myself  from  the 
attack  of  the  honourable  member  for  Lincoln,  but  to  say  some- 
thing in  behalf  of  my  right  honourable  colleagues ; — something 
in  vindication  of  the  House  itself,  for  the  course  which  they  have 
pursued,  in  the  adoption  of  the  system  of  Commercial  Policy 
which  we  recommended. 

As  the  whole  of  that  system  has  been  so  vigorously  attacked, 
I  shall,  I  trust,  be  excused,  if  I  touch,  very  briefly,  upon  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  last  session  of  Parhament, — when,  in  furtherance 
of  that  system,  and  with  the  cordial  concurrence  of  this  House, 
I  brought  forward  measures  of  a  more  general  nature  than  the 
Silk  Bill  of  the  preceding  session ;  inasmuch  as  they  went  to 
effect  an  important,  and  more  extensive,  change  in  the  Colonial, 
as  well  as  in  the  Commercial  Policy  of  the  country.  The  Colonial 
part  of  the  subject  had  not,  I  admit,  been  much  pressed  upon  his 
Majesty's  Government,  either  by  representations  in  this  House,  or 
in  discussion  out  of  doors.  But  there  are  occasions  in  which  it 
is  the  duty  of  a  vigilant  Government,  instead  of  waiting  for  such 
pressure,  to  watch  the  signs  of  the  times,  and  to  accommodate 
their  policy  to  those  changes  in  the  world,  under  the  continued 
operation  of  which  a  blind  adherence  to  our  former  system  would 
no  longer  be  either  safe  or  expedient.  Upon  this  principle,  I  shall 
be  ready  to  vindicate  the  alterations,  great  as  they  are,  in  the 
policy  of  our  Colonial  Commerce,  whenever  those  alterations 
may  be  called  in  question ;  but  as,  hitherto,  they  have  not  been 
attacked  in  this  House,  and  as  they  received  the  special  approba- 
tion of  the  honourable  member  for  Taunton,  I  shall  now  say  no 
more  upon  that  part  of  the  subject. 

With  respect  to  the  alterations  in  our  general  Commercial 
system,  however  extensive  in  their  application,  what  w^ere  the 
objects  which  they  embraced  ?  They  went  to  the  removal  of 
useless  and  inconvenient  restrictions,  to  the  doing  away  of  pro- 
hibitions, and  to  the  lowering  of  duties  so  excessive,  as  to  be  in 
fact  prohibitory  on  the  productions  of  other  countries — restric- 
tions, prohibitions,  and  duties,  which,  without  benefit,  nay,  highly 
mischievous  to  ourselves,  have  produced  all  the  evil  effects,  and 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  465 

given  rise,  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  to  the  retaliatory  efforts 
of  foreign  Governments,  to  put  down  the  commerce  of  this  coun- 
try. These  were  some  of  the  bad  consequences  justly  attributed 
to  our  exclusive  system,  by  the  honourable  member  for  Taunton 
and  the  merchants  of  London,  in  the  speech  and  petition  to  which 
I  have  so  often  referred. 

And  here  I  cannot  but  express  my  astonishment,  that  gentle- 
men (I  am  now  speaking  of  persons  out  of  doors) — who  must  be 
better  informed — whose  sincerity  I  cannot  doubt — but  whose 
judgment,  in  this  respect,  seems  to  be  most  unaccountably  per- 
verted, impute  all  the  prevailing  distress,  as  well  as  the  derange- 
ment in  the  foreign  exchanges,  which  preceded,  and,  in  a  great 
degree,  produced  that  distress,  to  this  lowering  of  excessive 
duties,  and  removal  of  unnecessary  prohibitions. 

I  have  called  for  the  production  of  a  paper,  which  has  not  yet 
been  printed,  but  which  will,  1  hope,  in  the  course  of  twenty-four 
hours,  be  in  the  hands  of  every  honourable  member — for  the  pur- 
pose of  showing,  what  have  been,  during  the  last  year,  the  actual 
imports  of  most  of  the  principal  articles,  the  duty  on  which  has 
been  most  materially  reduced.  From  this  document,  it  will  be 
manifest,  that,  although  there  has  been  some  increase  of  import 
in  most  of  those  articles,  in  none  has  it  been  carried  to  any  great 
extent.  In  manufactured  goods,  —  Cottons,  Woollens,  Linens, 
&c.,  the  increased  import  of  the  whole  does  not  exceed  a  few 
thousand  pounds.  And  yet,  in  opposition  to  this  decisive  evi- 
dence, there  are  those,  I  understand,  who  had  dealings  for  mil- 
lions in  foreign  Loans,  who,  to  facilitate  the  payments  of  those 
Loans,  and  other  financial  operations  of  foreign  Governments, 
have  sent  million  after  million  of  our  gold  coin,  drawn  from  the 
Bank  of  England,  to  the  Bank  of  Paris,  and  who,  in  the  face  of 
such  gigantic  operations,  the  benefit  of  which  to  this  country 
(whatever  it  may  be  to  themselves)  it  is  difficult  to  conceive — 
have  been  pleased  to  attribute  the  unfavourable  state  of  the  foreign 
Exchanges  during  the  last  summer  and  autumn,  to  the  commer- 
cial measures  adopted  by  Parliament  in  the  preceding  session. 

I  am  happy  to  say,  that  where  the  duties  have  been  lowered 
upon  articles  of  consumption,  the  result  has  hitherto  fully  borne 
me  out  in  all  my  anticipations.  In  the  six  months  which  im- 
mediately followed  the  reduction  of  the  duty  on  Coffee,  the  con- 
sumption of  that  article  has  nearly  doubled,  without  occasioning 
any  decrease  in  the  consumption  of  Tea.  In  Wine,  the  duty 
upon  which,  we  were  told,  ought  not  to  have  been  reduced,  with- 
out  some  reciprocity  to  the  productions  of  this  country,  the  con- 
sumption has  also  increased  in  an  equal  degree.  And  thus  it  will 
appear,  that  the  same  amount  of  revenue  has  been  attained  by 

31 


466  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

the  Government  from  diminished  burthens ;  thereby  leaving  the 
greater  means  of  comfort  and  enjoyment  to  the  people. 

I  come  nov^  to  the  real  jist  of  the  Silk  question ;  and  v^hich — 
I  say  it  with  all  due  deference  to  the  honourable  mover  and 
seconder  of  the  present  motion — has  not  been,  in  the  slightest 
degree,  touched  upon  by  either  of  them. 

It  is  admitted  on  all  hands,  that  Silk  is  an  article  which  can  be 
easily  smuggled;  and  that  it  is  now  smuggled,  to  a  very  con- 
siderable extent,  in  spite  of  all  the  preventive  measures  that  have, 
from  time  to  time,  been  adopted.  Now,  the  object  of  the  British 
manufacturer  is,  as  much  as  possible,  to  shut  out  the  competition 
of  his  foreign  rival.  If  smuggling  could  be  prevented,  I  would 
concede  to  hirh,  that  prohibition  would  be  most  effectual  to  this 
object ;  but,  if  it  cannot,  "vvhat  is  the  advantage  of  prohibition, 
over  a  protecting  duty  of  30  per  cent.  ?  I  say,  of  30  per  cent., 
because  I  never  yet  conversed  with  a  single  merchant  or  manu- 
facturer, who  did  not  admit,  that  if  a  higher  protecting  duty  were 
imposed,  the  supply  of  foreign  Silk  goods  would  be  thrown  into 
the  hands  of  the  smuggler. 

The  question,  then,  looking  at  it  practically,  is  this : — In  what 
degree  is  Prohibition  better,  as  against  smuggling,  than  a  well- 
regulated  duty  ? — ^^by  which  I  mean,  a  duty  sufficient  to  protect 
the  Britivsh  manufacturer,  without  being  so  high  as  to  afford  a 
premium  to  the  smuggler. 

In  the  first  place,  it  cannot  be  denied,  that  the  feelings  of  man- 
kind are  more  likely  to  restrain  them  from  committing  a  fraud, 
than  from  violating  a  Custom-House  prohibition.  I  am  sure  it 
will  be  conceded  to  me,  that  many  honourable  persons,  who 
would  not,  for  any  temptation,  be  parties  to  a  contrivance  to 
evade  a  tax,  and  thereby  to  rob  the  public  revenue,  would  feel 
very  little  scruple,  in  wearing  an  article  that  is  absolutely  pro- 
hibited, and  the  introduction  of  which  is  not  in  opposition  to  any 
moral  duty. 

So  far,  then,  the  argument,  in  support  of  the  assertion,  that  a 
prohibitory  law  is  the  best  check  upon  smuggling,  makes  directly 
the  other  way,  and  is  in  favour  of  protecting  duties. 

But  the  great,  indeed  the  only,  argument  in  favour  of  Prohibi- 
tion, in  preference  to  a  protecting  duty,  is  this — that  after  the  for- 
bidden goods  have  been  landed  in  this  country,  and  when  they 
are  in  the  possession  of  individuals,  even  for  their  own  use  or 
consumption,  you  may  follow  them  into  private  dwellings,  nay, 
into  the  very  pockets  of  the  wearers,  and  seize  them  upon  their 
persons,  in  the  King's  name,  at  the  bare  suggestion  of  any  com- 
mon informer. 

To  what  does  this  power  of  seizing  and  examining  all  who 
may  be  suspected  of  possessing  prohibited  articles  amount '(    Sir, 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  467 

.t  amounts  to  this — that  if  any  man — no  matter  what  may  be  his 
rank,  be  he  the  humblest  peasant,  or  the  highest  peer  in  the  realm 
— be  suspected  of  wearing,  or  possessing,  a  Sill^  handkerchief  of 
foreign  manufacture,  he  is  liable  to  have  it  taken  from  his  neck  or 
his  pocket,  and  to  have  his  house  ransacked,  from  the  garret  to 
the  cellar,  in  quest  of  contraband  articles.  If,  without  such  a 
subsidiary  regulation  as  this — a  regulation  which  encourages  the 
worst  passions,  engenders  the  most  appalHng  perjury  and  crime, 
and  which  opens  so  wide  a  door  either  to  fraud  and  collusion,  or 
to  intimidation  and  personal  violence — prohibition  cannot  be  sus- 
tained ;  then.  Sir,  I  say,  in  preference  to  such  a  system,  let  us,  in 
God's  name,  have  a  well-regulated  duty. 

And  here  I  hope  I  may  be  permitted  to  digress  for  one  moment, 
to  ask,  how  a  great  constitutional  lawyer — a  staunch  advocate 
for  the  popular  character  of  our  constitution — a  zealous  stickler 
for  the  inalienable  rights  of  the  people — a  watchful  guardian  of 
the  sanctity  of  an  Englishman's  private  abode ; — how  he  could  so 
entirely  discipline  and  subdue  his  warm  and  boasted  feelings  for 
the  Liberty  of  the  Subject,  as  to  pour  forth  the  declamatory 
harangue,  which  we  have  heard  this  night  from  the  learned  mem- 
ber for  Lincoln,  in  favour  of  this  system  of  prohibition? 

But,  even  with  the  aid  of  this  power  of  search  and  seizure,  is 
prohibition  an  effectual  remedy  against  Smuggling?  I  have 
lately  taken  some  pains  to  ascertain  the  quantity  of  smuggled 
Silks  that  has  been  seized,  inland,  throughout  the  kingdom,  during 
the  last  ten  years:  and  I  find,  that  the  whole  does  not  exceed 
6,000/.  a  year.  I  have  endeavoured,  on  the  other  hand,  to  get  an 
account  of  the  quantity  of  Silk  goods  actually  smuggled  into  this 
country.  Any  estimate  of  this  quantity  must  be  very  vague;  but, 
I  have  been  given  to  understand,  that  the  value  of  such  goods  as 
are  regularly  entered  at  the  Custom-Houses  of  France,  for  expor- 
tation to  this  country,  is  from  100,000/.  to  150,000/.  a  year:  and 
this,  of  course,  is  exclusive  of  the  far  greater  supply  which  is 
poured  in,  through  all  the  channels  of  smuggling,  without  being 
subjected  to  any  entry.  In  fact,  to  such  an  extent  is  this  illicit 
trade  carried,  that  there  is  scarcely  a  haberdasher's  shop,  in  the 
smallest  village  of  the  kingdom,  in  which  prohibited  Silks  are 
not  sold ;  and  that  in  the  face  of  day,  and  to  a  very  considerable 
extent. 

The  honourable  member  for  Coventry  has  mentioned  the  Silk 
goods  from  India,  as  those  against  which  any  thing  but  prohibi- 
tion would  prove  an  unavailing  protection.  Now,  in  my  opinion, 
it  is  scarcely  possible  to  conceive  a  stronger  case,  than  those 
very  silks  furnish,  against  the  honourable  member's  own  argu- 
ment. I  believe  it  is  universally  known,  that  a  large  quantity  of 
Bandana  handkerchiefs  are  sold,  every  year,  for  exportation,  by 


468  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

the  East  India  Company.  But,  does  any  gentleman  suppose,  that 
these.  Bandanas  are  sent  to  the  continent,  for  the  purpose  of 
remaining  there?  No  such  thing f  They  are  sold,  at  the  Com- 
pany's Sales,  to  the  number  of  800,000  or  a  million  of  handker- 
chiefs each  year,  at  the  rate  of  about  four  shillings  each.  They 
are  immediately  shipped  off  for  Hamburgh,  Antwerp,  Rotterdam, 
Ostend,  or  Guernsey — and  from  thence,  they  nearly  all,  illicitly, 
find  their  way  back  to  this  country. 

Mark,  then,  the  effect  of  this  beautiful  system — this  system,  so 
lauded  by  the  learned  member  for  Lincoln.  These  Bandanas, 
which  had  previously  been  sold,  for  exportation,  ^tfour  shillings, 
are  finally  distributed,  in  retail,  to  the  people  of  England,  at  the 
rate  of  about  eight  shillings  each ;  and  the  result  of  their  prohibi- 
tion is  to  levy  upon  the  consumer  a  tax,  and  to  give  to  those  who 
live  by  the  evasion  of  your  law  a  bounty  oi  four  shillings  upon 
each  handkerchief  sold  in  this  country. 

That  nearly  all  the  Bandanas  sold  for  exportation  are  re-im- 
ported and  used  in  this  country,  is  a  fact  not  denied,  even  by 
those  who  are  now  most  clamorous  for  prohibition.  In  a  printed 
Letter  from  a  manufacturer  of  Macclesfield  to  the  Marquis  of 
Lansdowne,  I  find  the  following  anecdote : — "  It  is  the  custom,  in 
the  parterres  of  the  theatres  of  France,  to  secure  the  place,  by 
tying  a  pocket  handkerchief  on  the  seat.  I  had  the  curiosity  at 
the  Theatre  Francois,  to  notice  the  appearance  of  them  ;  and,  out 
of  twenty-five,  immediately  around  me,  there  was  not  one  Silk 
handkerchief"  I  should  have  little  doubt,  if  a  similar  custom 
prevailed  in  the  pit  of  our  theatre,  that  this  accurate  observer 
would  find  most  of  the  seats  decorated  with  handkerchiefs  of 
prohibited  Silk.  Nay,  Sir,  if  strangers  were,  at  this  moment, 
ordered  to  withdraw  from  the  gallery;  and  every  member  were 
called  upon  (of  course  in  secret  committee)  to  produce  his  hand- 
kerchief, with  the  understanding,  that  those  who  had  not  pro- 
hibited handkerchiefs  in  their  pockets  were  obliged  to  inform 
against  those  who  had — I  am  inclined  to  believe,  that  the  inform- 
ers would  be  in  a  small  majority.  Upon  every  information  laid 
under  this  prohibitory  law%  the  chances  are,  that  the  informer  and 
the  constable  have  Bandanas  round  their  necks,  and  that  the 
magistrate,  who  hears  the  charge,  has  one  in  his  pocket ! 

Upon  the  motion  of  this  evening,  then,  we  have  to  make  our 
choice  between  a  moderate  protecting  duty,  which  can  be  col- 
lected, and  is  likely  to  be  available ;  and  the  going  back  to  the 
system  of  Prohibition,  which  I  have  shown  to  be  productive  of 
such  mischievous  consequences,    j 

But,  since  the  repeal  of  the  olH  law,  a  further  difficulty  has 
occurred  in  respect  to  prohibition.  Two  years  ago,  when  a  piece 
of  silk  was  seized  as  foreign,  the  British  manufacturer  could,  upon 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  409 

inspecting  it,  at  once  say,  "  I  know,  and  can  prove,  that  this  is  not 
the  manufacture  of  this  kingdom."  If  asked,  "what  is  your 
proof?*  ho  would  reply,  "  the  superior  quality  and  workmanship 
of  the  article :  it  is  quite  impossible,  that  any  thing  equal  to  it 
should  have  been  manufactured  in  England :  it  wants  that  stamp 
of  slovenliness  and  indifference  to  improvement,  which  is  the  sure 
characteristic  of  all  silk  goods  made  at  home."  This  is  a  very 
.  natural  answer  for  Monopoly  to  make ;  but  it  comes  with  a  bad 
grace  from  a  British  manufacturer. 

But,  it  may  be  asked,  if  excellence  of  fabric  was,  at  that  time, 
the  proof  that  the  article  was  not  British,  why  is  it  not  so  still?  I 
shall  give  the  best  answer  to  this  question,  by  stating  what  has 
recently  occurred. 

Soon  after  the  alteration  of  our  Law,  an  extensive  French 
manufacturer  removed  from  Lyons  to  this  country.  He  brought 
with  him  his  looms  and  his  patterns.  Under  his  management  and 
superintendence,  two  Establishments  were  formed,  one  in  Spital- 
Fields,  the  other  at  Manchester.  At  both  of  these  places  he  set 
weavers  to  work;  fully  satisfied  that  a  duty  of  30  per  cent,  would 
afford  him  sufficient  protection.  His  improved  methods — with 
sorrow  I  state  it — excited  the  jealousy,  and  drew  down  upon  him 
the  persecution,  of  the  English  manufacturers.  They  charged 
this  industrious  foreigner,  boldly,  and  rashly,  and — as  in  the  end 
it  was  proved — most  unjustly,  with  carrying  on  his  trade  here, 
merely  as  a  cloak  to  cover  the  smuggling  of  foreign  manufactured 
goods.  In  their  mortification  at  his  success,  they  even  went  the 
length  of  charging  my  honourable  friend,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  the  whole  Board  of  Customs,  with  being  cognizant 
of  the  fact,  and  parties  to  this  nefarious  scheme  for  ruining  the 
Silk  Trade  of  England.  This  accusation  was  not  merely  insinuated 
in  whispers :  it  was  contained  in  a  published  report,  inserted  in 
the  newspapers,  and  thus  conveyed  from  one  end  of  the  kingdom 
to  the  other. 

This  was  not  to  be  endured.  The  Treasury  determined  to  sift 
the  matter  to  the  bottom.  They  knew  that,  neither  at  the  Board 
of  Treasury,  nor  at  the  Board  of  Customs,  could  any  countenance 
or  facility  have  been  given  to  smuggling ;  but,  they  thought  it  not 
impossible,  that  this  French  house  might  have  been  guilty  of  the 
irregularities  imputed  to  them,  and  that  these  irregularities  might 
have  been  connived  at  by  some  of  the  inferior  officers.  The  ac- 
cusers, therefore,  were  called  upon  to  substantiate  their  charge, 
and  were  distinctly  told,  that  the  inquiry  should  be  directed  in 
whatever  mode  they  might  point  out  as  most  effectual.  They 
said,  the  clearest  proof  would  probably  be  found  in  the  Books  of 
the  party  accused,  if  they  could  be  got  at.  The  Books  could  not, 
certainly,  be  inspected  without  his  consent.  Did  he  hesitate  on 
40 


470  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

this  point?  So  far  from  it,  that  his  immediate  reply  was, — "  You 
are  welcome  to  inspect  all  the  Books  of  our  house;  and,  that 
there  may  be  no  suspicion  of  garbling  or  concealment,  let  an 
officer  go  with  me  instanter,  and  they  shall  all  be  brought  here" 
(to  the  Treasury)  "  in  a  hackney  coach." 

This  was  accordingly  done.  His  books  were  subjected  to  a 
rigid  examination.  Every  transaction  connected  with  his  business 
was  found  regular — the  names  of  the  weavers  employed  by  him, 
the  work  which  they  had  in  hand,  and  their  places  of  residence, 
were  all  duly  entered.  Taking  with  them  a  plan  of  Spital-Fields, 
and  without  the  possibility  of  previous  notice  or  concert,  proper 
persons  went  round  to  the  particular  houses,  which  these  books 
had  pointed  out ;  and,  in  every  instance,  they  found  the  names  of 
the  men  at  work,  and  the  goods  upon  which  they  were  working, 
to  correspond  with  the  entries  in  the  books. 

All  this  was  most  satisfactory  to  the  Treasury,  and  the  Customs. 
But,  the  accusers  persevered  in  their  charge.  They  insisted,  that 
the  whole  was  a  concerted  plot ;  and  that  many  pieces  of  silk  in 
the  warehouse  of  this  foreigner,  which  he  asserted  that  he  had 
manufactured  here,  were,  in  truth,  the  productions  of  France. 

The  Treasury,  in  consequence,  resolved  to  sift  the  matter  still 
farther;  and  again,  it  was  left  to  the  accusers  to  point  out  the 
mode.  In  order  to  prosecute  the  inquiry,  they  selected  from  their 
own  body,  the  person  whom  they  considered  the  most  skilled  in 
the  knowledge  requisite  for  the  detection  of  such  articles  as  might 
be  contraband.  And  what,  towards  him,  was  the  conduct  of  the 
party  accused?  "Go  to  my  warehouse,"  said  the  Frenchman, 
"  turn  over  all  my  goods ;  select  from  among  them  whatever 
pieces  you  please :  and,  on  the  proof  of  their  being  of  English  or 
of  French  manufacture,  let  my  guilt  or  innocence  be  finally 
established." 

The  offer  was  accepted.  The  person  employed  by  the  British 
manufacturers  turned,  over  and  over,  several  hundred  pieces  of 
Silk;  and  at  length,  after  the  whole  ordeal  was  passed,  the  Board 
of  Customs  made  known  the  result,  in  an  official  Report  which 
they  transmitted  to  the  Treasury.  That  Report  I  hold  in  my 
hand.  What  is  the  substance  of  it  ?  Why,  that  thirty-seven  pieces 
had  been  selected  by  this  agent  of  the  accusers,  as  being,  beyond 
all  doubt,  of  French  manufacture.  What  followed?  These  thirty- 
seven  pieces  were  seized,  and  the  Frenchman  was  put  upon  his 
proof,  that  they  were  made  in  this  country.  How  did  he  prove 
it  ?  By  producing,  one  after  another,  the  very  men,  by  whom 
every  one  of  these  thirty-seven  pieces  had  been  made;  who 
proved,  upon  their  oaths,  in  the  most  irrefragable  manner,  that 
every  inch  of  these  goods  had   been  woven  by  themselves — 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  471 

Where?-  Not  at  Lyons — not  in  France — Ibut  in  Spital-Fields  and 
Manchester ! 

I  have  stated  these  facts  with  feelings,  I  own,  bordering  on 
disgust.  I  cannot  but  think  it  humiliating,  if  not  discreditable,  to 
my  countrymen,  that  an  unprotected  foreigner  should  have  been 
maligned  and  persecuted,  instead  of  receiving  countenance  and 
encouragement,  for  having  transported  his  capital  and  skill  to  this 
country,  and  for  being  the  first  to  ^t  the  example  of  great  and 
successful  improvement  in  our  silk  manufacture. 

But  how  does  this  detail,  into  which  I  have  entered,  bear  upon 
the  present  argument  ?  It  shows,  in  the  clearest  manner,  that  if 
you  continue  to  seize  Silk  goods  in  private  houses,  in  shops,  or 
upon  individuals,  you  have  now  lost  your  former  test,  by  which 
you  could  prove  them  to  be  of  foreign  origin.  The  most  expert 
judge  of  such  articles,  it  is  now  legally  proved,  cannot  discrimi- 
nate between  the  British  and  the  foreign  manufacture.  Prohibi- 
tion, therefore,  has  lost  its  only  recommendation :  it  retains  no 
advantage  over  a  well-regulated  duty. 

But  appeals  have  been  made  to  our  compassion;  and  our  feel- 
ings have  been  alarmed  by  the  statement,  that  above  500,000 
individuals  are  at  present  engaged  in  the  Silk  trade,  and  that  ruin 
must  inevitably  be  entailed  on  this  large  and  meritorious  class  of 
the  community,  if  the  old  law  be  not  restored. 

Now,  supposing  the  number  of  persons  employed  in  the  Silk 
manufactory  to  amount  to  500,000, — their  wages,  I  assume,  can- 
not be  less,  one  with  another,  than  IO5.  a  week  for  each  person. 
I  have  been  told,  indeed,  that  a  considerable  portion  of  this  num- 
ber are  children,  some  of  whom  do  not  receive  more  than  Is.  6d. 
a  week ;  and  for  this  pittance,  the  hours  of  work  in  the  mills, 
when  the  trade  was  brisk,  I  have  been  assured,  were,  from  five 
in  the  morning,  till  eight  or  nine  at  night. 

If  this  be  so,  let  us  not  talk  of  the  difference  in  the  expense  of 
labour,  between  this  country  and  France.  Will  it  be  said,  that  a 
French  child  cannot  earn  in  the  Silk  manufactory,  one  shilling 
and  sixpence  a  week ;  and  that,  without  working  from  fourteen 
to  fifteen  hours  out  of  the  four-and-twenty  ?  Certainly  not.  Suppos- 
ing, however,  the  average  earnings  of  these  500,000  persons — 
(an  exaggerated  number,  I  am  convinced) — to  be  ten  shillings  a 
week,  thirteen  millions  of  money  would  then  be  the  annual  amount 
of  wages  alone  in  this  manufacture.  To  this  are  to  be  added  the 
interest  on  capital,  and  the  price  of  the  raw  material :  so  that  the 
value  of  the  goods  sold  could  not  be  less  than  eighteen  or  twenty 
millions  sterling.  This,  however,  I  consider  too  high  a  calcula- 
tion. The  Lords*  Report  estimates  the  whole  amount  at  only  ten 
millions;  but,  allowing  for  increased  consumption  since  1821,  it 


472       EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

may,  perhaps,  be  fairly  rated  at  twelve  or  fourteen  millions,  ex- 
clusive of  the  quantity  smuggled  in  from  the  continent. 

If,  then,  fourteen  millions  of  Silk  goods  are  about  the  annual 
consumption  of  this  kingdom,  what  would  happen,  if,  according 
to  the  predictions  of  the  honourable  member  for  Taunton,  the 
British  manufacture  should  be  annihilated  after  nektJuly?  We 
should  not,  I  take  it  for  granted,  consume  a  less  quantity  of  Silk 
goods:  the  only  change  would  be,  that  we  should  have  them,  as  it  is 
alleged,  of  a  better  quality,  and  at  a  less  price.  But,  all  the  goods 
so  consumed  would,  in  this  supposition,  have  paid  a  duty  of  thirty 
per  cent,  on  their  importation ;  and  the  produce  of  that  duty,  con- 
sequently, would  exceed  four  millions  sterling.  This  large  sum 
would  be  levied,  without,  in  the  smallest  degree,  abridging  the 
comfort  or  enjoyment  of  any  other  class  of  the  community.  It 
would  bring  with  it  no  increase  of  burthen  upon  the  consumer  of 
Silk  goods,  and  consequently  no  diminution  of  his  means  of  con- 
suming other  articles.  It  would  simply  be  the  premium  of  mono- 
poly transferred  to  the  Exchequer ;  and  the  capital,  for  which  this 
monopoly  was  created,  would  be  set  free,  to  give  employment  to 
other  branches  of  industry. 

Such,  certainly,  would  be  the  ultimate  result,  if  the  speculative 
fears  of  the  Silk  Trade  should  be  realized.  But,  of  such  an  issue, 
I  am  persuaded,  there  is  no  risk.  The  whole  consumption  of  Silk 
goods  in  France  is  not  equal  to  the  consumption  in  England. 
Now,  supposing,  when  the  Bill  comes  into  operation,  there  should 
be  a  greatly  increased  demand  in  this  country  for  French  Silks 
— this  new  and  additional  demand  would  produce  a  corresponding 
advance  in  the  price  of  the  goods,  and  in  the  wages  of  labour,  in 
France.  To  a  certain  extent,  there  may  be  such  a  demand, 
especially  at  the  first  opening  of  the  Trade ;  but  I  am  convinced 
that,  with  the  attention  to  economy  which  competition  excites, 
with  our  improved  machinery,  our  industry  and  ingenuity,  and 
perhaps  with  the  lowered  prices  of  labour  and  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence—  a  protecting  duty  of  30  per  cent  will  be  found  to  be 
sufficient. 

The  House  is  called  upon,  by  the  motion  of  the  honourable 
member  for  Coventry,  "  to  inquire."  Has  it  never  inquired  before? 
Has  the  House  of  Lords  entered  into  no  investigation  of  the  sub- 
ject ?  And  did  not  that  investigation  take  place  at  a  period,  when 
taxation  and  prices  were  very  considerably  higher  than  at  present? 
The  country,  too,  at  that  time,  was  labouring  under  much^  dis- 
tress ;  and  the  Silk  manufacture  was  suffering  its  full  share  of  the 
existing  difficulties.  Was  that  inquiry  loosely  conducted  ?  Cer- 
tainly not,     A  noble  Marquis*  presided  over  the  labours  of  the 

*  The  Marquis  of  Lansdowne. 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  473 

Committee,  alike  distinguished  for  talent,  for  diligence,  and  for 
the  soundness  of  his  views,  on  all  subjects  connected  with  the 
Commercial  policy  of  the  country.  It  was  the  opinion  of  that 
Committee,  after  taking  a  mass  of  evidence  on  oath,  that  a  duty 
of  fifteen  per  cent,  would  be  an  adequate  protection,  instead  of  a 
duty  of  double  that  amount,  under  which  the  experiment  is  now 
to  be  made. 

I  have  stated,  too  much  at  length,  I  fear,  the  grounds  on  which 
it  appears'to  me,  that  this  House  ought  not  to  entertain  the  present 
motion.  This  statement,  I  feel,  must  have  appeared  unnecessary, 
to  those  who  think  with  me  on  the  subject  of  our  Commercial 
Policy ;  and  I  dare  not  hope,  that  it  has  made  much  impression 
on  those  who  are  the  declared  advocates  of  the  restrictive  system; 
— those  who  belong  to  the  same  school  of  political  economy  as 
the  honourable  baronet,  the  member  for  Staffordshire.  In  his 
enmity  to  all  improvement,  he  told  us,  the  other  evening,  that  the 
ministers  of  the  present  day  were  only  fit  to  form  a  Council  for 
the  Island  of  Laputa.  Since  this  intimation  of  the  honourable 
Baronet's  wish  to  see  us  banished  to  that  island,  I  have  turned  in 
my  own  mind  what  recommendation  I  could  take  with  me  to  that 
land  of  philosophers.  Not  a  Letter  from  the  honourable  Baronet, 
I  can  assure  him ;  for  he  has  given  us  to  understand,  that  in 
mind,  at  least,  he  belongs  to  the  Brobdignagian  age  of  this  coun- 
try. But,  I  think  I  have  hit  upon  that  which  would  infallibly 
make  my  fortune  at  Laputa ; — I  will  tell  the  honourable  Baronet 
what  it  is. 

At  the  time  of  the  great  Bullion  controversy  in  1810-1811, 
the  main  question  in  dispute  turned  upon,  what  was  the  real 
Standard  of  our  money.  We  wild  theorists  said,  as  our  simple 
forefathers  had  always  said  before  us,  that  the  standard  was,  and 
could  be,  nothing  else  than  the  weight  and  fineness  of  the  gold  or 
silver  in  the  coin  of  the  realm,  according  to  the  commands  of  the 
Sovereign,  specified  in  the  indentures  of  the  Mint.  Had  this  de- 
finition been  admitted  by  the  practical  men,  there  would  at  once 
have  been  an  end  of  the  contested  point — whether  our  then  cur- 
rency was  or  was  not  depreciated  ?  But,  for  that  very  reason, 
this  definition  was  denied,  by  all  who  maintained  the  negative  of 
that  question.  More  than  a  hundred  pamphlets  were  published 
on  that  side,  containing  as  many  different  definitions  of  the  stand- 
ard. Fifteen  of  these  definitions,  most  in  vogue  at  the  time,  I 
have  since  retained,  as  a  curiosity  to  laugh  at :  but  they  may  now, 

rrhap^,  be  turned  to  a  more  valuable  purpose.     Of  that  number 
only  recollect  three  at  this  moment.     The  first  defined  the 
standard  to  be,  "  the  abstract  pound  sterling."     This  had  great 
success,  till  another  practical  writer  proved,  that  the  standard 
was  the  "  ideal  unit."    These  two  practical  standards  were,  how- 
40*  3K 


474  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREE  TRADE  SYSTEM 

ever,  finally  superseded  by  a  third,  of  which  the  definition  was, 
"  a  sense  of  value  in  currency  (paper),  in  reference  to  comnno- 
dities."  This  last  standard  was  at  once  so  perfectly  tangible,  and 
clearly  intelligible,  that  I  consider  it  as  the  parent  of  the  famous 
Resolution  of  this  House,  by  which  the  question  was  to  be  finally 
set  at  rest. 

Now,  if  I  should  take  with  me  to  Laputa,  this  little,  but  in- 
valuable, collection  of  Definitions,  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt^ 
that  my  pretensions  to  have  the  whole  monetary  system  of  that 
island  placed  under  my  direction  —  to  be  Master  of  the  Mint — 
Governor  of  the  Bank — and  Superintendent  of  all  the  Country 
Banks — would  be  immediately  and  generally  admitted.  It  is  true, 
we  have  had  no  authentic  account  of  the  progress  of  political 
science,  in  that  celebrated  island,  for  about  a  century  past ;  but, 
it  is  scarcely  to  be  imagined,  that  it  can  have  been  so  rapid,  as 
to  enable  their  greatest  philosophers  to  challenge  the  preeminence 
of  these  Definitions,  on  the  score  of  abstraction,  metaphysics,  and 
absurdity:  and,  at  any  rate,  if  the  philosophers  should  cabal 
against  me,  the  practical  men  could  not  fail  to  be  on  my  side. 

I  am  not  aware.  Sir,  that  I  have  omitted  to  notice  any  of  the 
objections,  which  have  been  urged  against  the  important  changes, 
lately  made  by  Parliament  in  our  Commercial  System.  That 
these  changes  are  extensive,  as  well  as  important,  1  readily  admit. 
Whether  they  will  work  ultimately,  for  good,  or  for  evil,  it  be- 
comes not  fallible  man  to  pronounce  an  over-peremptory  opinion. 
That  the  expectation  of  those  who  proposed  them  was,  that  they 
would  work  for  good,  no  man  will  do  us  the  injustice  to  deny. 
That,  up  to  this  hour,  I  am  fortified  in  that  expectation,  by  the 
deductions  of  reason  in  my  own  mind,  by  the  authority  of  all 
who  are  most  competent  to  form  a  dispassionate  opinion  upon 
the  subject,  by  the  beneficial  result  of  every  thing  which  has 
hitherto  been  done,  for  giving  greater  freedom  to  Commerce  in 
this  country,  and  by  the  experience  of  the  opposite  eflfect  which 
vexatious  and  unnecessary  restraints  are  daily  producing  in  other 
'  countries, — is  what  I  can  most  solemnly  affirm. 

I  make  this  declaration,  I  can  assure  you,  Sir,  in  all  sincerity 
of  heart,  and,  as  far  as  I  know  myself,  without  any  mixture  of 
false  pride,  or  any  mistaken  feeling  of  obstinate  adherence  to 
consistency.  I  am  the  more  anxious  to  make  this  declaration,  in 
the  face  of  the  House,  and  of  the  world,  because,  of  late,  I  have 
been  assailed,  and  distressed,  I  will  own,  by  ungenerous  appeals 
to  my  feelings,  calling  upon  me  to  commune  with  my  conscience 
and  my  God,  and  to  say,  whether  I  am  under  no  visitations  of 
compunction  and  remorse,  at  having  thrown  so  many  persons  out 
of  bread,  in  the  trial  of  a  rash  experiment,  and  in  tlie  pursuit  of 
a  hollow  theory.     Good  God !  Sir,  that  man  must  have  a  heart 


ON  THE  SILK  MANUFACTURE.  475 

of  stone,  who  can  witness  without  sympathy  and  the  greatest 
pain,  the  distress,  which  now,  unfortunately,  exists  in  most  of  our 
other  great  manufactures,  as  well  as  in  that  of  Silk.  But,  whilst 
I  hope  that  I  am  not  wanting  in  the  duties  and  feelings  of  a  man 
— I  have  also  a  duty  to  perform  as  a  Minister.  If  immediate 
relief  be,  in  a  great  degree,  out  of  our  power,  it  the  more  be- 
comes us,  as  the  guardians  of  all  that  is  most  valuable  in  civihzed 
society,  to  trace  the  causes  of  the  present  calamities,  and  to  pre- 
vent, if  possible,  their  recurrence.  It  is  on  this  principle,  that  I 
am  anxious  to  put  an  end  to  a  System  of  Currency,  which  leads 
to  ruinous  fluctuations  in  trade,  and  in  the  price  of  all  commodi- 
ties ;  which,  whether  in  excitement  or  depression,  is  alike  under- 
mining the  sober  habits,  and  the  moral  feelings,  of  the  community ; 
which  confounds  honest  industry  with  unprincipled  gambling ; 
which  injures  the  poor  man  in  the  earnings  of  his  labour,  and 
takes  from  the  rich  man  all  security  in  his  property — a  System, 
which  creates  delusive  hopes,  only  to  terminate  in  aggravated 
disappointments — of  which  every  succeeding  convulsion  must 
add  to  our  inability  to  bear  it — and  of  which  the  inevitable  ten- 
dency is,  to  drive  capital  and  industry  to  other  countries;  not  in 
Europe  only,  but  even  across  the  Atlantic.  The  growing  dread 
of  instability  here,  the  growing  assurance  of  increased  stability 
in  those  countries,  would  ultimately  produce  this  transfer;  and, 
with  it,  the  further  transfer  of  the  rank  and  power,  which  Eng- 
land Jias  hitherto  maintained  among  the  nations  of  the  world. 

If  I  have  ventured  to  intrude  upon  the  House  by  any  allusion 
to  my  personal  feelings,  they  will,  I  trust,  make  some  allowance 
for  the  provocation  which  I  have  received.  This  is  the  only 
place  in  which  I  can  properly  reply  to  the  unmanly  appeals  which 
nave  been  made  to  me  through  other  channels.  Such  appeals, 
however  painful  to  receive,  have  no  influence  on  my  conduct : 
neither  can  they  detract  from  the  sanguine  hope  which  I  entertain 
of  better  prospects  and  increased  happiness  for  my  country.  I 
hailed  with  great  delight,  the  other  evening,  the  assurance  of  the 
right  honourable  member  for  Knaresborough,*  that  he  saw  no- 
thing in  our  present  diflficulties  to  create  despondency  or  alarm. 
In  this  sentiment  I  most  entirely  concur.  The  existing  pressure 
may,  for  a  short  time,  bear  heavily  upon  the  springs  of  our  pros- 
perity; but  if  we  pursue  a  temperate  course,  there  is  nothing  to 
fear,  and  every  thing  to  hope,  for  our  future  progress.  With 
confidence  I  cling  to  that  cheering  hope ;  and,  without  looking 
forward  to  a  long  life,  I  trust  that  I  shall  witness  its  realization. 

Whether  in  a  public  station,  or  in  retirement,  my  greatest 
happiness « will  be,  to  feel  assured,  that  the  power  and  resources 

*  Mr.  Tiemey. 


476  EFFECTS  OF  THE  FREB  TRADE  SYSTEM. 

of  this  country  have  been  increased,  by  those  measures  of  Com- 
mercial Policy,  which  it  has  fallen  to  my  lot  to  submit  to  Parlia- 
ment. 

That  such  will  be  their  ultimate  result  is  my  firm  and  con- 
scientious conviction ;  and,  in  that  conviction,  I  claim  for  those 
measures  the  continued  support  of  this  House. 

On  Mr.  Huskisson's  resuming  his  seat,  Mr.  Baring  rose ;  but  the  cries  of 
"  adjournment"  and  "  go  on"  were  so  general,  that  the  honourable  gentleman 
seemed  unwilling  to  proceed.  Upon  which,  Mr.  Canning  observed,  that  if 
the  question  before  the  House  were  confined  merely  to  the  motion  of  the 
honourable  member  for  Coventry,  there  could  be  no  difficulty  in  disposing  of 
it  on  that  night ;  but  as  the  eloquent  and  powerful  speech  of  his  right  honour- 
able friend  had — most  happily  for  the  country — involved  the  whole  of  the 
principles  on  which  the  commerce  of  the  country  was  to  be  conducted  in 
future,  he  would  move  that  the  debate  be  adjourned  till  to-morrow.  An 
adjournment  accordingly  took  place  to  the  24th ;  when  the  motion  was  sup- 
ported by  Mr.  Canning,  Mr.  Baring,  Mr.  Davenport,  Mr.  Dickenson,  Mr.  Peter 
Moore,  and  Mr.  Egerton,  and  opposed  by  Mr.  Grant,  Mr.  Warre,  Mr.  Palmer, 
and  Lord  John  Russell. 

The  House  divided :  For  Mr.  EUice's  motion,  40.  Agamst  it,  222.  Ma- 
jority, 182. 


(    477     ) 


EXPOSITION  OF  THE  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 
OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM. 

MAY  12th,  1826. 

A  Petition  from  the  Ship  Owners  of  North  Shields  having  been  presented 
to  the  House,  on  the  27th  of  April,  complainini?  of  the  Alterations  recently- 
made  in  the  Navigation  Laws,  Mr.  Huskisson  took  occasion  to  give  notice, 
that  he  would,  on  an  early  day,  enter  into  an  Exposition  of  the  present  State 
of  the  Navigation  of  the  United  Kingdom.     Accordingly,  this  day, 

Mr.  HusKissosr  rose,  and  spoke  in  substance,  as  follows  :-^ 
Sir  : — In  the  course  of  the  last  session  of  Parliament,  the  hon- 
ourable member  for  Grampound*  frequently  took  occasion  to 
indulge  himself  in  certain  oracular  denunciations,  foreboding  the 
ruin  of  this  country,  as  the  result  of  the  Commercial  and  Foreign 
Policy  of  the  Government.  At  that  period,  the  commerce  of  the 
country,  it  must  be  allowed,  was  at  least  sufficiently  active,  and 
the  demand  for  mercantile  Shipping  greater,  perhaps,  than  had 
ever  before  occurred.  Whether  from  these  circumstances,  or 
from  the  solemn  tone  of  mystery  in  which  the  honourable  mem- 
ber's denunciations  were  delivered,  they  did  not,  at  the  time, 
make  any  considerable  impression,  either  in  this  House  or  out  of 
doors. 

Recently,  however,  a  variety  of  Petitions  have  been  presented 
to  Parliament,  from  persons  connected  with  the  Port  of  London, 
and  with  several  other  commercial  towns,  expressing  their  appre- 
hensions, that  the  Shipping  Interest  is  in  a  state  of  decay,  and 
that  the  foundations  of  the  prosperity  and  security  of  the  country 
are,  in  consequence,  likely  to  be  undermined.  When  such  im- 
pressions have  been  created  in  quarters,  where  the  authority  of 
the  Petitioners,  so  far  as  their  observations  go,  is  entitled  to  the 
greatest  consideration,  I  trust  that  no  apology  will  be  requisite, 
for  claiming  the  attention  of  the  House — or  at  least  of  that  por- 
tion of  it  who  are  now  present — to  a  subject  of  such  vital  import- 
ance to  the  maritime  power  and  greatness  of  the  country.  I  am 
well  aware  of  the  reluctance  which  honourable  gentlemen  must 
feel  to  a  statement,  from  its  nature  necessarily  dry  and  tedious ; 

*  Mr.  Robertaon. 


478  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

but,  I  am  also  aware,  that  the  matter  involved  in  it  is  of  too  much 
importance  not  to  demand  the  deepest  attention ;  for,  if  the  fears 
expressed  in  the  petitions  on  the  table  of  the  House  be  well  founded, 
it  is  scarcely  necessary  for  me  to  say  that  the  sooner  an  inquiry 
takes  place  the  better. 

The  House,  Sir,  is  aware,  that  our  Navigation  Laws  have  a 
two-fold  object.  First,  to  create  and  maintain  in  this  country  a 
great  commercial  Marine ;  and  secondly  (an  object  not  less  im- 
portant in  the  eyes  of  statesmen),  to  prevent  any  other  nation 
from  engrossing  too  large  a  portion  of  the  navigation  of  the  rest 
of  the  world. 

Acting  upon  this  system,  the  general  rule  of  our  policy  has  been 
to  limit  as  much  as  possible,  the  right  of  importing  the  productions 
of  foreign  countries  into  this  country,  either  to  ships  of  the  pro- 
ducing country,  or  to  British  ships. 

There  certainly  have  been  exceptions  to  this  general  rule,  but 
it  is  the  broad  principle  upon  which  the  navigation  system  of  this 
country  was  founded ;  and  it  is  obvious,  that  the  motives  for 
adopting  that  system  were,  first,  that  such  portion  of  the  carry- 
ing trade  of  foreign  countries  as  does  not  devolve  to  British  ship- 
ping should  be  divided,  as  equally  as  possible,  amongst  the  other 
maritime  states,  and  not  engrossed  by  any  one  of  them  in  par- 
ticular; and  secondly,  that  countries  entertaining  relations  of 
commerce  with  this  country,  and  not  possessing  shipping  of  their 
own,  should  export  their  produce  to  England  in  British  ships  only, 
instead  of  employing  the  vessels  of  any  third  power. 

But,  w^hen  I  state  that  the  first  object  of  our  Navigation  System 
was  to  create  and  uphold  a  great  commercial  marine,  I  think  I 
may  add,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that  that  object  could  not 
have  been  effected  solely  by  regulations,  restrictions,  or  prohibi- 
tions, however  judiciously  devised.  The  only  true  and  durable 
foundation  of  a  large  commercial  marine  is  to  be  laid  in  the 
means  of  affording  to  it  beneficial  employment.  Without  such 
employment,  without,  in  short,  extensive  commerce,  and  great 
capital,  to  sustain  and  invigorate  that  commerce,  no  laws,  merely 
protective,  will  avail.  Whatever,  therefore,  contributes  to  extend 
the  general  commerce  of  the  country  must,  incidentally,  I  may 
almost  say  directly,  contribute  also  to  improve  and  extend  its 
navigation.  These  two  great  elements  of  our  power  and  wealth 
are,  of  necessity,  closely  and  intimately  connected.  I  do  not 
mean  to  say  that  their  interests  are  always  identified.  I  know 
they  are  not  so.  I  know  full  well,  that  every  thing  which  inter- 
feres with  the  freedom  of  commerce  is  more  or  less  disadvantage- 
ous to  the  capitals  which  are  employed  in  it.  I  am  ready  to  ad- 
mit, as  consistent  with  this  general  principle,  that  the  regulations 
of  our  Navigation  System,  however  salutary  they  may  be,  must, 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  479 

more  or  less,  act  as  a  restraint  on  that  freedom  of  commercial 
pursuit,  which  it  is  desirable  should  be  open  to  those  who  have 
capital  to  employ.  I  am,  however,  at  the  same  time,  bound  to 
say,  that  those  regulations  are  founded  on  the  first  and  paramount 
law  of  every  state,  the  highest  ground  of  political  necessity,  the 
necessity  of  providing  for  our  t)wn  safety  and  defence  ;  the 
necessity  of  being  prepared  to  afford  security  to  our  numerous 
colonial  possessions  scattered  throughout  all  the  seas  of  the  world; 
the  necessity  of  protecting  the  different  branches  of  our  widely 
spread  commerce,  against  all  the  risks  attendant  on  a  state  of 
war ;  and,  lastly,  the  necessity  of  preserving  our  ascendancy  on 
the  ocean,  and  thereby  sustaining  the  high  station  in  the  rank  of 
nations,  which  that  ascendancy,  more  than  any  other  circum- 
stance, has  given  to  this  country.  '■ 

Entertaining  these  opinions,  I  am  as  ready  as  any  man  can 
possibly  be,  to  say  that  it  is  our  duty,  on  all  occasions,  to  look  to 
the  peculiar  nature  of  this  State  necessity; — and  that,  whenever 
the  interests  of  commerce  and  navigation  cannot  be  reconciled, 
the  feeling  which  ought  to  be  uppermost  in  our  minds  should  be, 
-^(I,  Sir,  have  no  hesitation  in  stating  it  to  be  my  feeling) — that 
the  interests  of  Commerce,  in  all  such  instances,  ought  to  give 
way,  and  those  of  navigation  to  have  the  preference. 

I  trust  that  I  have,  in  this  brief  statement,  now  placed  myself 
fairly  before  the  House.  And,  if  the  measures,  recently  adopted 
by  his  Majesty's  Government,  have  laid  this  country  open  to  the 
danger,  with  which,  according  to  some,  it  is  threatened,  certainly 
I  have  imposed  on  myself  no  light  task,  in  attempting  to  vindi- 
cate and  defend  those  measures. 

I  begin  with  laying  it  down  as  a  general  position,  that,  in  look- 
ing to  the  interest  of  the  Ship-owner,  we  ought  not  to  cramp 
commerce  beyond  the  degree  which  state  necessity  requires  for 
the  protection  of  our  navigation.  I  say  that,  apart  from  the  con- 
siderations upon  which  the  Navigation  Laws  were  founded,  we 
are  bound  not  to  depress  one  branch  of  industry,  in  order  to  give 
undue  encouragement  to  another. 

The  questions,  therefore,  which  we  have  to  consider,  are  these — 

First ;  whether  the  Alterations  which  have  been  made  in  the 
system  of  our  Navigation  Laws  have,  or  have  not,  exposed  the 
great  public  interests,  for  the  support  of  which  that  system  was 
established,  to  jeopardy  and  hazard? 

Secondly;  whether  those  alterations  are  such  as  to  have  placed 
any  particular  branches  of  the  Shipping  interest  of  the  country 
in  a  situation  of  difficulty,  such  as  to  entitle  them  to  specific  con- 
sideration ? 

Thirdly;  whether,  in  the  alterations  which  have  been  adopted, 
his  Majesty's  Government  have  been  actuated  by  a  mere  gratui- 


480  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

tous  desire  to  make  experiments,  and  to  try  the  effect  of  innova- 
tion; or  whether  those  alterations,  even  if  attended  with  some 
inconvenience  to  particular  interests,  were  not  called  for  by  cir- 
cumstances, in  order  to  obviate  greater  inconvenience,  which 
might  have  arisen  to  the  general  interest,  if  we  had  rigidly  per- 
sisted in  the  course  which  we  formerly  pursued  ? 

Now,  Sir,  before  I  join  issue  with  those  who  call  in  question 
the  necessity  or  expediency  of  the  alterations  which  have  been 
made  in  the  system  of  our  navigation  laws,  the  House  will,  per- 
haps, permit  me  shortly  to  recall  to  their  recollection  the  principal 
outlines  of  that  system ; — a  course  which  is  necessary,  in  order 
to  mark  more  distinctly  the  alterations  which  have  been  made 
in  it. 

The  Great  Charter  of  the  Navigation  System  of  this  country 
is  the  act  of  the  twelfth  of  Charles  the  Second.  The  different 
modes  which  that  act  provided  for  the  encouragement  of  ship- 
ping, may  be  arranged  under  the  five  following  heads : — 

First,  the  Fisheries.  The  ocean  is  a  common  field,  alike  open 
to  all  the  people  of  the  earth.  Its  productions  belong  to  no  par- 
ticular nation.  It  was,  therefore,  our  interest  to  take  care  that  so 
much  of  those  productions  as  might  be  wanted  for  the  consump- 
tion of  Great  Britain,  should  be  exclusively  procured  by  British 
industry,  and  imported  in  British  ships.  This  is  so  simple  and 
reasonable  a  rule,  that,  in  this  part  of  our  navigation  system,  no 
alteration  whatever  has  been  made ;  nor  do  I  believe  that  any 
will  ever  be  contemplated. 

The  second  object  which  the  Navigation  Laws  had  in  view 
was  to  give,  to  the  shipping  of  this  country,  employment  in  what 
is  called  the  Coasting  Trade.  When  those  laws  were  first  pass- 
ed, that  trade  was  confined  to  England  only,  but,  since  we  have 
become  legislatively  united  with  Scotland  and  with  Ireland,  it  has 
embraced  the  whole  of  the  British  Islands.  In  this  important 
part  of  our  policy  also  there  appears  to  be  no  motive  for  altera- 
tion. I  shall,  therefore,  dismiss  it  with  a  single  observation.  The 
law,  in  this  respect,  remains  unchanged,  and  will  remain  un- 
changed, so  long  as  we  have  a  desire  to  maintain  a  great  com- 
mercial marine. 

The  third  object  of  our  Navigation  System  was  the  European 
Trade.  The  rule  laid  down,  with  regard  to  that  trade,  was — 
that  the  ships  of  the  other  states  of  Europe  were  to  be  at  liberty 
to  bring,  from  any  port  in  Europe,  any  article  of  European  pro- 
duction, with  the  exception  of  certain  articles,  since  known  in 
trade  by  the  name  of  the  "  enumerated  articles."  They  amount 
in  number  to  twenty-eight,  and  include  those  commodities  which, 
being  of  the  most  bulky  nature,  employ  the  greatest  quantity  of 
shipping.     With  respect  to  these  "  enumerated  articles,"  the  ex- 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  481 

ception  was  this — that  they  should  not  be  brought  to  our  ports  in 
any  other  than  British  ships,  or  ships  of  the  country  in  whichA 
they  were  produced,  proceeding  directly  from  such  country  ta* 
this.  This  was  the  general  state  of  the  law,  in  respect  to  Euro- 
pean Commerce,  from  the  time  of  its  enactment,  in  the  twelfth 
of  Charles  the  Second,  down  to  a  recent  period.  Its  provisions, 
however,  were  more  rigorous  and  exclusive  towards  Holland  and 
the  Low  Countries.  The  regulations  of  that  period  were  not 
framed  merely  for  the  preservation  and  encouragement  of  our 
own  commerce,  but  also  to  weaken  the  powerful  marine  of  Hol- 
land. Guided  by  this  poHcy,  our  ancestors  applied  more  severe 
measures  towards  the  I)utch>  than  they  thought  necessary  towards 
any  other  nation.  In  this  spirit  it  was  that  they  prohibited  the 
importation,  generally,  of  the  productions  of  the  other  countries 
of  Europe  from  Holland;  instead  of  confining  that  prohibition  to 
the  twenty-eight  enumerated  articles. 

The  fourth  object  of  our  Navigation  System  was  to  regulate 
our  commerce  tiith  Asia,  Africa,  and  America,  The  rule  of  law 
on  this  head  was,  that  no  article,  the  produce  of  either  of  those 
three  quarters  of  the  globe,  should  be  allowed  to  be  brought  into 
an  English  port,  except  in  a  British  ship. 

The  fifth  and  last  part  o^  the  System  of  our  Navigation  Laws 
related  to  our  Colonies.  The  principle  on  which  we  acted  to- 
wards those  Colonies  was  strictly  to  confine  them,  in  all  matters 
of  trade,  to  an  intercourse  with  the  Mother  Country.  They  were 
not  allowed  to  dispose  of  any  of  their  produce,  otherwise  than 
by  sending  it  in  British  vessels  to  this  country.  They  were 
equally  restricted  from  receiving  any  articles  necessary  for  their 
consumption,  except  from  this  country,  and  in  British  bottoms. 

This,  I  apprehend,  is  a  fair  summary  of  the  main  points  of 
encouragement  to  the  Shipping  Interest  of  Great  Britain,  and  of 
repression  of  the  shipping  of  other  states,  aimed  at  by  our  Navi^ 
gation  laws,  as  those  laws  existed  from  the  twelfth  of  Charles 
the  Second  down  to  the  year  1783.  In  mentioning  this  latter 
period,  I  advert  to  it  now  as  the  commencement  of  that  mighty 
change  in  the  state  of  the  world,  the  foundation  of  which  had  - 
been  then  laid  in  the  progress,  and  unfortunate  issue,  of  the 
American  war.  But,  before  I  state  what  that  change  has  been, 
so  far  as  relates  to  Navigation  and  Commerce,  I  shall,  perhaps, 
be  permitted  briefly  to  notice  some  of  the  circumstances  which 
had  prepared  the  way  for  this  calamitous  contest : — the  result  of 
which,  as  I  shall  show  presently,  rendered  the  revision  of  our 
navigation  system  a  matter  no  longer  of  choice  but  of  necessity; 
— a  result,  which,  in  its  consequences,  in  less  than  half  a  century* 
has  dragged  after  it  nearly  the  whole  colonial  system  of  the  Old 
World, 

41  3L 


482  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

Sir,  the  war  which  began  in  the  year  1756,  commonly  called 

te  Seven  Years'  War,  was,  strictly  speaking,  so  far  as  relates 
this  country  and  to  the  Bourbon  governments  of  France  and 
Spain,  a  war  for  colonial  privileges,  colonial  claims,  and  colonial 
ascendency.  In  the  course  of  that  war,  British  skill  and  British 
valour  placed  in  the  hands  of  this  country  Quebec  and  the  Ha- 
vannah.  By  the  capture  of  these  fortresses.  Great  Britain  be- 
came mistress  of  the  colonial  destinies  of  the  Western  world. 
What  use  we  made  of  our  successes  in  that  quarter,  I  will  not 
now  stop  to  inquire. 

But  if  the  proceedings  of  the  Government  of  this  country,  after 
the  peace  of  1763,  be  closely  examined,  we  shall  find,  that  many 
of  the  causes  which,  ten  years  afterwards,  led  to  the  unfortunate 
rupture  with  our  then  colonies,  now  the  United  States  of  America, 
may  be  traced  to  our  unseasonable  attempts  to  enforce,  in  their 
most  rigid  and  exclusive  application,  our  Colonial  and  Navigation 
System.  Every  complaint,  every  petition,  every  remonstrance, 
(against  the  oppressive  tendency,  and  vexatious  consequences,  of 
that  system,  on  the  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  New  England, — 
every  temperate  effort  made  by  them  to  obtain  some  slight  relaxa- 
tion of  the  trammels  that  shackled  their  disposition  to  engage  in 
commercial  enterprize, — were  only  met,  on  the  part  of  the  British 
Government,  by  a  constant  succession  of  new  laws,  enforcing 
still  more  restrictive  regulations,  framed  in  a  spirit  of  still  more 
vexatious  interference.  One  instance  of  the  character  of  that 
legislation  will  be  sufficient ;  and  I  give  it,  as  a  slight  specimen 
of  the  commercial  jealousy  which  prevailed  in  our  Councils,  in 
reference  both  to  the  colonies  and  to  Ireland. 

A  ship  from  our  American  possessions,  laden  with  their  pro- 
duce, was  stranded  on  the  coast  of  Ireland.  It  will  naturally  be 
supposed  that  the  cargo  was  landed,  and  the  ship  repaired  in  that 
country.  No  such  thing.  The  law  compelled  the  owners  to  send 
another  English  ship  from  England,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing 
away  the  cargo :  a  cargo  which,  not  improbably,  might  then  be 
wanted  in  the  Irish  market,  and  which  was,  perhaps,  destined  to 
be  ultimately  consumed  there,  after  having  been  trans-shipped  in 
a  port  of  that  country,  landed  in  an  English  port,  and  again  re- 
shipped  to  Ireland. 

This  is  a  sample  of  the  real  grievances  under  which  our 
American  colonies  laboured.  Such  a  state  of  law  could  not  fail 
to  engender  great  dissatisfaction,  and  much  heart-burning.  It  is 
generally  believed,  that  the  attempt  to  tax  our  American  colonies, 
without  their  consent,  was  the  sole  cause  of  the  separation  of 
those  Colonies  from  the  mother  country.  But,  if  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  period  between  the  year  1763  and  the  year  1773  be 
attentively  examined,  it  will,  I  think,  be  abundantly  evident,  that. 


OF  1HE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  4^ 

however  the  attempt  at  taxation  may  have  contributed  somewhat 
to  hasten  the  explosion,  the  train  had  been  long  laid,  in  the  severe 
and  exasperating  efforts  of  this  country,  to  enforce,  with  inop- 
portune and  increasing  vigour,  the  strictest  and  most  annoying 
regulations  of  our  Colonial  and  Navigation  Code.  Every  petty 
adventure  in  which  the  colonists  embarked,  was  viewed,  by  the 
merchants  of  this  country,  and  the  Board  of  Trade  of  that  day, 
as  an  encroachment  on  the  commercial  monopoly  of  Great 
Britain.  The  professional  subtlety  of  Lawyers,  and  the  practical 
ingenuity  of  Custom-house  Officers,  were  constantly  at  work  in 
mmistering  to  the  jealous  but  mistaken  views  of  our  sea-ports. 
Blind  to  the  consequences  elsewhere,  they  persevered  in  their 
attempts  to  put  down  the  spirit  of  commercial  enterprize  in  the 
people  of  New  England,  until  those  attempts  roused  a  very  dif- 
ferent spirit; — that  spirit  which  ventured  to  look  for  political 
independence  from  the  issue  of  a  successful  rebellion. 

The  result  is  well  known.  The  country  found  itself  engaged 
in  a  civil  war.  That  war,  in  its  progress,  involved  us  in  the 
greatest  difficulty  and  embarrassment  It  was  terminated  by  sub- 
mitting to  humiliations  such  as,  I  trust  to  God,  the  Crown  of 
Great  Britain  will  never  again  be  exposed  to. 

America  was  not  the  only  part  of  our  dominions  in  which  we 
were  called  to  pay  the  penalty  of  humiliation.  Ireland,  towards 
which  we  had  acted  in  the  same  spirit  of  commercial  jealousy  as 
towards  our  American  colonies,  took  advantage  of  our  difficul- 
ties, and  refused  any  longer  to  hold  her  industry  and  trade  sub- 
ject to  our  system  of  exclusion.  To  the  Parliament  and  Volunteers 
of  Ireland  we  had  also  to  capitulate.  If  the  capitulation  was 
mortifying  to  the  pride  of  England,  fortunately  it  neither  com- 
promised our  honour,  nor  involved  any  concession  beyond  what 
was  strictly  a  debt  of  justice  to  Ireland.  The  benefits  of  our 
Commercial  and  Navigation  System  were  extended  to  her.  She 
Was  permitted  to  trade  direct  to  the  Colonies,  and  placed  rather 
upon  the  footing  of  a  partner  than  that  of  a  dependent,  in  the  con- 
cerns of  the  British  empire. 

If  I  have  gone  into  this  detail,  I  have  done  so,  because  it  ap- 
peared to  me  necessary,  as  bearing,  in  a  peculiar  manner,  upon 
the  question  now  before  the  House.  The  immediate  lesson  which 
I  draw  from  it  is  this,^that  it  is  a  part  of  political  wisdom, 
when  danger  is  foreseen,  not  supinely  to  wait  for  its  approach, 
but,  as  far  as  possible,  to  take  timely  measures  for  its  pre- 
vention. 

The  peace  with  America  gave  the  first  great  blow  to  the 
Navigation  System  of  this  country.  There  had  now  arisen  an 
independent  state  in  the  New  World.  Our  colonies  had  fought 
fo*,  and  had  taken,  a  station  in  the  rank  of  nations.    They  had 


484  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

now  interests  in  navigation  to  attend  to,  and  a  commerce  of  their 
own  to  protect.  It  tnerefore  became  imperative  on  this  country, 
unless  we  were  prepared  to  relinquish  all  trade  with  America,  to 
conform  to  circumstances.  It  was  impossible  for  us,  in  this  new 
state  of  things,  to  enforce  the  system  of  our  Navigation  Laws, 
which,  until  then,  we  had  so  rigidly  insisted  upon.  That  part  of 
the  system  which  provided,  that  none  of  the  productions  of  Asia, 
Africa,  or  America,  should  be  imported  into  England,  except  in 
British  vessels,  could  no  longer  be  adhered  to. 

After  the  peace  of  1783,  and  before  the  General  Congress  of 
America  had  established  that  system  of  government,  under  which 
the  people  of  the  United  States  now  live, — a  work  which  was 
not  completed  until  the  year  1787, — each  of  the  different  States, 
then  composing  the  Union,  was  at  liberty  to  act  independently  of 
the  others  in  matters  relating  to  its  trade  with  foreign  countries. 
Accordingly,  almost  every  State  established  a  different  rule  of 
commercial  intercourse  with  this  country.  The  general  charac- 
ter, however,  of  their  legislation,  was  conceived  in  a  spirit  of 
peculiar  hostility  (not  unnatural,  perhaps,  so  soon  after  the  exas- 
peration excited  by  civil  discord)  against  trade  with  Great 
Britain.  In  some  of  those  states,  indeed,  British  merchants  were 
prohibited  from  trading  with  them  altogether :  in  others,  heavier 
duties  were  specifically  imposed  upon  British  merchandize ;  and 
in  all,  a  desire  was  manifested  to  give  a  decided  preference  to 
the  goods  of  other  countries. 

This  state  of  things  continued  until  the  year  1787,  when  the 
General  Congress  met,  and  one  uniform  system  of  commercial 
policy  was  laid  down.  By  that  system,  a  heavy  blow  was  aimed 
at  the  Navigation  of  this  country.  It  was  resolved,  that  all  foreign 
ships,  trading  to  America,  should  pay  half  a  dollar,  which  was 
afterwards  raised  to  a  dollar  per  ton  duty,  beyond  what  was  paid 
by  national  ships.  And  further,  that  goods  imported  in  foreign 
vessels  should  pay  a  duty  of  ten  per  cent.,  over  and  above  what 
.  was  demandable  on  the  same  description  of  goods  imported  in 
American  vessels. 

This  system, — in  the  adoption  of  which  the  Americans  had,  in 
a  considerable  degree,  followed  the  example  of  their  English 
ancestors, — was  likely  to  become  seriously  prejudicial  to  the  com- 
merce and  navigation  of  this  country.  The  proper  authorities, 
therefore,  set  about  considering  what  was  to  be  done,  in  order  to 
counteract  it.  The  Board  of  Trade  had  recourse,  for  advice,  to 
the  most  eminent  merchants  and  practical  men;  and  various 
projects  were  started  on  the  occasion.  One  plan  proposed  to  give 
a  bounty  on  all  goods  exported  to  America  in  British  ships. 
Another,  to  impose  a  duty  on  all  articles  carried  out  of  this  coun- 
try in  American  ships.    A  third,  to  retaliate  upon  the  Americans, 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  485 

and,  following  their  exanaple,  to  lay  a  specific  duty  on  American 
ships,  and  on  goods  imported  in  those  ships.  These  and  various 
other  plans,  having  the  same  object  in  view,  on  being  silted  and 
examined,  were  found  to  be  open  to  insuperable  objections.  It 
was  shown  that,  without  attaining  their  object,  they  would  prove 
injurious  to  the  manufactures  and  commerce  of  this  country  ;  and 
all  of  them  were,  in  consequence,  abandoned. 

After  this  inquiry,  and  a  long  struggle  to  counteract  the  Navi- 
gation System  of  America,  without  in  any  degree  relaxing  our 
own,  this  country  found  it  necessary  to  adopt  the  system  of  Reci- 
procity, on  which,  since  the  year  1815,  the  comnn^ercial  inter- 
course between  the  two  countries   has   been   placed;  namely, 
equality  of  all  charges  upon  the  ships  belonging  to  either  country 
in  the  ports  of  the  other,  and  a  like  equality  of  duty  upon  all 
articles  the  production  of  the  one  country,  imported   into   the 
other,  whether  such  importation  be  made  in  the  ships  of  the  one 
or  the  other.    In  the  practical  consequences  of  this  arrangement, 
our  adherence  to  another  part  of  our  navigation  laws,  instead  of 
serving,  appears  to  me  to  have  shackled  the  shipping  interest  of 
this  country.     Our  law  still  provides  that  goods,  the  produce  of 
Asia,  Africa,  or  America,  shall  not  be  imported  in  foreign  ships, 
unless  they  be  the  ships  of  the  country  of  which  the  goods  are 
the  produce.     The  Americans  retaliate  this  restriction  by  apply- 
ing it  to  all  goods  the  produce  of  Europe.     An  American  ship 
trading  to  this  country  has,  in  consequence,  a  great  advantage  H 
over  a  British  ship  trading  to  America.     The  American  vessel,  ''^ 
on  her  voyage  to  England,  is  freighted  with  a  cargo  wholly  pro-  .^ 
duced  in  the  United  States.     She  has  nothing  else  to  bring  here. 
For  her  return  to  America  she  may  load  in  the  ports  of  this  coun- 
try with  a  cargo,  partly  the  produce  or  manufacture  of  Great 
Britain,  and  partly  of  any  other  country.     The  British  ship  is 
debarred  from  this  advantage.     Her  cargo,  when  trading  to  the 
United  States,  must  be  exclusively  of  British   origin.     For   in- 
stance, an  American  vessel,  at  the  port  of  Liverpool,  may  take 
nine-tenths  of  her  cargo,  in  articles  the  produce  of  Lancashire, 
and  the  remainder  may  be  made  up  of  brandies,  wines,  or  the 
produce  of  any  other  part  of  the  world,  to  be  procured  at  Liver- 
pool.    But,  if  an  English  ship,  proceeding  to  the  United  States, 
were  to  take  a  single  cask  of  brandy,  or  a  single  pipe  of  wine, 
she  would  be  liable  to  seizure  and  forfeiture.     Is  it  not,  therefore, 
fairly  to  be  presumed,  that  a  further  relaxation  of  our  System,  to 
the  extent  of  allowing  the  importation,  from  the  United  States, 
of  goods,  the  produce  of  any  part  of  the  world,  in  American 
shipping,  on  condition  of  the  like  privilege  being  granted  to  British 
ships  in  the  ports  of  the  United  States, — however  departing  from 
41* 


486  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

the  policy  of  our  ancestors, — would  be  rather  an  advantage  than 
an  injury  to  the  shipping  interest  ? 

Shortly  after  the  commercial  legislation  of  the  United  States 
had  assumed,  in  1787,  a  regular  shape,  and  an  uniform  character, 
the  war  of  the  French  Revolution  broke  out ;  a  war  which  last- 
ed nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century.  The  course  of  this  war  was 
marked  by  so  many  strange  and  anomalous  circumstances,  both 
by  land  and  upon  tne  ocean ; — so  large  a  portion  of  the  continent 
of  Europe,  including  nearly  all  its  trading  and  maritime  com- 
munities, became  subjected  to  the  despotism  of  one  great  military 
power ; — that  despotism  was  exerted  in  so  extraordinary  a  man- 
ner to  crush  maritime  commerce ; — that  it  would  be  vain  to  enter 
upon  the  history  of  our  Navigation  System,  or  of  that  of  other 
countries,  during  this  long  contest.  It  is,  however,  certain  that 
the  commerce  of  the  United  States  of  America,  which  was  the 
only,  at  least  almost  the  only,  neutral  power  that  could  trade  in 
safety,  was  greatly  benefited  by  the  war.  It  is  equally  true,  that 
Great  Britain,  being  well  able  to  protect  her  commercial  marine, 
in  consequence  of  her  vast  naval  superiority,  did  extend  that 
commercial  marine,  in  spite  of  all  difficulties,  whilst  that  of  the 
other  countries  of  Europe  was  greatly  reduced.  It  is  unneces- 
sary for  me,  as  the  facts  are  so  w^ell  known,  to  dwell  further  on 
the  circumstances  of  that  war.  We  may,  therefore,  as  far  as 
relates  to  the  present  question,  pass  over  the  period  between  1792 
and  1815. 

At  the  latter  period,  peace  being  restored,  and  with  it  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  states  which  had  been  incorporated  with  France, 
the  commerce  of  the  world  began  to  revert  to  its  ancient  chan- 
nels. The  nations  of  Europe,  whose  flags  had,  for  so  long  a 
series  of  years,  disappeared  from  the  ocean,  were  now  naturally 
anxious  that  their  own  trade  should  be  carried  on  in  their  own 
ships.  This  gave  a  check  to  the  shipping  of  the  United  States, 
which  was  also  felt  by  the  shipping  of  this  country.  Perhaps  in 
a  greater  degree  by  our  own  shipping,  in  consequence  of  the 
restitution  of  several  extensive  and  valuable  colonies,  which  we 
had  captured  and  held  during  the  war. 

^^iBesides  this  material  circumstance,  there  were  others,  to  which 
I  will  briefly  advert,  which  had  a  natural  and  inevitable  tendency 
to  interfere  with,  and  diminish,  the  employment  for  shipping  in 
this  country. 

The  first  to  which  I  shall  allude  is  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave 
Trade.  They  who  are  old  enough  to  remember — and  I  am  one 
of  the  number, — the  early  debates  which  took  place  on  this  sub- 
ject will  recollect,  that  the  arguments  in  opposition  to  the  mea- 
sure were  grounded  chiefly  on  the  danger  with  which  it  threaten- 
ed the  Shipping  Interests  of  the  country.     The  necessity  of  kid- 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  487 

napping  cargoes  of  slaves  on  the  coast  of  Africa  was,  at  that 
time,  as  coolly  defended,  on  the  score  of  encouragement  to  our 
marine,  as  the  taking  of  cod-fish  on  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland 
could  be  at  the  present  day.  That  traffic  was,  however,  abolish- 
ed in  1806;  and,  happy  I  am,  that  the  interests  of  humanity,  and 
the  honour  of  the  English  name,  were,  from  that  year,  no  longer 
sacrificed  to  the  plea  of  the  shipping  interest ;  though  I  may,  I 
think,  fairly  adduce  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  as  having 
taken  away  one  source  of  employment. 

After  the  general  pacification  of  Europe,  but  before  we  dis- 
mantled our  fleet,  we  insisted  on  the  powers  of  Barbary  desisting 
from  the  practices  of  maritime  warfare,  carried  on  by  cruizers 
under  their  flags,  in  the  Mediterranean.  These  corsairs  were 
constantly  taking  prisoners,  either  for  the  sake  of  ransom,  or  for 
the  purpose  of  carrying  them  into  slavery.  Whilst  this  system 
w^as  tolerated,  scarcely  any  trading  vessels,  those  of  Great  Britain 
excepted,  could  navigate  that  sea  in  safety.  In  this  state  of  things, 
it  was  highly  honourable  to  this  country  to  have  used  her  naval 
power, — the  dread  of  which  had  constantly  ensured  respect  for 
her  own  flag, — for  the  purpose  of  procuring  an  equal  degree  of 
security  for  the  navigation  of  all  christian  states.  This  was  no 
positive  duty  which  we  were  bound  to  perform.  We  were  not 
called  upon  by  any  international  engagement,  nor  by  any  moral 
obligation,  as  in  the  case  of  the  slave  trade.  The  act  was  one 
of  spontaneous  generosity.  But,  however  high-minded  in  prin- 
ciple, it  is  not  the  less  true  that  the  result  of  our  interference  was 
injurious  to  the  shipping  interest  of  this  country,  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean. Since  the  bombardment  of  Algiers,  the  flag  of  every 
petty  state,  bordering  on  that  sea,  floats  in  equal  security  with 
our  own.  I  am  not  accurately  informed  what  was  the  quantity 
of  British  shipping  employed  in  the  carrying  and  coasting  trade 
of  those  states  before  this  change,  but  I  have  heard  it  stated,  in 
this  House,  by  one  likely  to  be  well  informed, — the  late  Mr. 
Marryatt, — that  from  eight  to  ten  thousand  British  seamen,  and 
from  seven  to  eight  hundred  British  vessels,  were  engaged  in  that 
commerce.  Consequently,  to  that  extent  has  the  employment  for 
British  ships  been  diminished  in  the  Mediterranean. 

But  these  were  not  the  only  circumstances,  at  the  close  of  the 
late  war,  which  had  a  tendency  to  reduce  the  amount  of  our 
Shipping.  With  the  termination  of  hostilities,  there  was  neces- 
sarily a  diminished  demand  for  ships  in  the  public  service.  The 
greatest  proportion  of  those  which  had  been  taken  up  as  hired 
transports  was  discharged.  I  have  obtained  a  statement  of  their 
number  and  tonnage,  as  they  stood  at  the  termination  of  the  war 
— and  of  the  number  and  tonnage  of  those  employed  at  the  pre^ 


48S  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

sent  period.  The  diminution  is  not  less  than  1,226  vessels, 
amounting  to  270,382  tons. 

In  the  next  place,  we  had  to  sell  out  of  the  King's  service  a 
number  of  vessels,  which  were  no  longer  wanted  in  the  navy.  I 
do  not  advert  to  ships  of  the  line,  or  to  frigates  of  the  large  class, 
which  are  always  sold,  subject  to  the  condition,  that  they  shall 
be  broken  up.  Of  this  latter  description  of  ships  I  take  no  notice ; 
but  confine  my  statement  to  vessels  of  smaller  burthen,  adapted 
to  other  purposes  than  those  of  war,  and  which  are  consequently 
not  required  to  be  so  broken  up.  Of  this  class,  there  has  been 
sold  no  less  a  number  than  three  hundred  and  thirty-three,  the 
amount  of  their  tonnage  being  93,530  tons.  So  that,  if  we  add 
to  the  number  of  transports  discharged  the  number  of  ships  sold, 
we  shall  find  that  his  Majesty's  Government  have  set  free,  to 
compete  with  the  commercial  marine  of  the  country,  1,559  ves- 
sels, amounting  in  tonnage  to  363,912  tons;  a  quantity  nearly 
equal  to  one-fourth  of  the  whole  shipping  of  the  country,  as  it 
stood  in  the  year  1793,  at  the  commencement  of  the  late  war. 

But  this  is  not  all.  If  the  difierence  of  circumstances  under 
which  trade  is  carried  on,  in  time  of  peace  and  in  time  of  war, 
be  taken  into  consideration,  we  shall  find  that,  in  the  former 
period,  a  much  smaller  number  of  vessels  is  required  for  the  same 
extent  of  transactions,  than  in  the  latter.  In  time  of  peace,  the 
moment  a  ship  has  landed  her  cargo,  she  is  at  liberty  to  sail 
again,  and  is  despatched  on  another  voyage  as  soon  as  possible. 
During  the  last  war,  we  were  obliged,  in  almost  all  cases,  to 
place  our  merchant  ships  under  the  protection  of  convoy ;  and, 
in  spite  of  all  the  exertions  of  the  Admiralty,  it  was  frequently 
diflicult  to  provide  convoys,  as  expeditiously  as  the  interests  of 
commerce  would  have  required.  Four  or  five  hundred  merchant- 
men were  sometimes  collected  together  at  one  point  before  the 
required  protection  could  be  afforded  to  them.  And  when,  at 
length,  these  large  bodies  of  shipping  did  proceed  to  sea,  they 
were  under  the  necessity  of  keeping  together ;  so  that  the  rate  of 
sailing,  during  a  whole  voyage,  was  necessarily  to  be  regulated 
by  the  progress  of  the  slowest  sailing  vessel.  In  time  of  peace 
it  is  otherwise.  Ships  can  then  traverse  the  ocean  singly,  with- 
out fear  of  interruption ;  and  in  their  passage  from  one  port  to 
another,  as  well  as  in  loading  and  unloading,  every  exertion  is 
used  to  ensure  despatch.  An  instance  occurred  lately  at  Liver- 
poolj  of  a  large  West-Indiaman  arriving  from  Barbadoes,  landing 
her  cargo,  and  sailing  again  for  that  island,  in  the  course  of  one 
week.  The  multiplication  and  convenience  of  docks  have  also 
greatly  contributed  to  obviate  delay  in  the  discharge  and  loading 
of  vessels.  Upon  the  whole,  I  shall  not  be  overstating  the  pro- 
portion when  I  say  that  two-thirds  of  the  number  of  vessels. 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  489 

necessary  in  time  of  war,  are  fully  sufficient  for  all  the  purposes 
of  the  same  extent  of  commerce,  in  time  of  peace. 

There  is  yet  another  circumstance  to  which,  before  I  quit  this 
part  of  the  subject,  I  must  refer.  I  mean  the  alteration  made 
in  the  year  1815,  in  the  foreign  Corn  trade  of  the  country.  During 
the  war,  this  trade  afforded  regular  employment  to  no  incon- 
siderable quantity  of  shipping,  but  since  the  law  has  been  altered, 
and  the  ports  have  been  generally  shut  against  the  importation 
of  foreign  corn,  that  employment  has  ceased.  In  a  desultory 
intercourse,  like  that  which  alone  can  exist  under  the  present 
law,  the  opening  of  the  ports  being  sudden,  and,  in  most  cases, 
uncertain,  till  the  quarterly  average  is  declared,  it  is  almost  im- 
possible that  the  trade,  when  permitted,  should  not  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  foreign  ship-owner.  The  period  for  which  the  ports 
may  continue  open  being  limited  to  a  few  weeks,  the  persons  who 
wish  to  take  advantage  of  that  opening,  instead  of  fitting  out 
ships  in  our  ports,  send  their  orders  to  the  continent,  with  direc- 
tions to  forward  the  corn  by  any  vessels  that  can  be  procured 
on  the  spot.  Hence  the  almost  exclusive  employment  of  foreign 
shipping  in  this  occasional  trade.  J 

I  must  now  crave  the  indulgence  of  the  House  while  I  show 
what  was  the  situation  of  this  country,  with  regard  to  its  Ship- 
ping, previous  to  the  last  war.  In  1792,  one  of  the  most  prosperous 
years  which  the  country  has  ever  known, — the  year  immediately 
preceding  the  breaking  out  of  that  war,  in  which  we  were  called 
upon  to  make  such  immense  efforts  to  maintain  our  naval  supe- 
riority— ^the  number  of  registered  ships  in  the  several  ports  of  the 
British  empire  was  16,079 ;  the  amount  of  their  tonnage  1,540,145 
tons.  In  the  present  year,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  year  ended  the  - «- ' 
31st  of  December,  1825,  the  number  of  registered  ships  was  ^^ 
24,174 ;  and  the  amount  of  their  tonnage  2,542,216  tons ;  showing 
an  increase  of  one-third  in  the  number  of  ships,  and  of  two-fifths 
in  the  tonnage,  within  that  period. 

Having  stated  the  number  and  tonnage  of  our  registered  ves- 
sels at  the  commencement  of  the  late  war,  1  will  now  show  what 
they  were  at  its  close.  In  1815,  the  number  was  24,860,  and 
the  amount  of  their  tonnage  2,681,276  tons.  It  appears,  therefore, 
that  there  has  been,  since  the  conclusion  of  the  war,  a  decrease 
in  our  shipping  of  686  vessels,  and  139,060  tons;  but  I  have,  I 
think,  shown  satisfactorily  that,  upon  the  return  of  peace  in  1815, 
our  commercial  marine  was  greatly  in  excess  of  what  was  requi- 
site, in  the  then  altered  situation  of  the  country. 

As  connected  with  this  part  of  our  inquiry,  it  is  material  to 
ascertain  the  number  of  vessels  that  have  been  built  in  the 
British  dominions,  since  the  termination  of  the  late  war,  and  to 
compare  it  with  the  number  built  in  former  periods.    It  is  with 

3M 


!yV^    \.^K: 


490  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

much  satisfaction  that  I  find  myself  enabled  to  assure  the  House 
that,  taking  the  last  thirty-seven  years,  the  number  of  ships  annu- 
ally built  in  Great  Britain,  instead  of  decreasing,  has  increased. 
The  documents  which  prove  the  correctness  of  this  statement 
are  already  upon  the  table  of  the  House,  with  the  exception  of 
those  for  the  year  1812,  which,  in  consequence  of  the  calami- 
tous fire  at  the  Custom-House  in  that  year,  could  not  be  pro- 
cured. 

From  the  returns  which  I  hold  in  my  hand,  I  find  that  the 
number  of  ships  built,  last  year,  in  the  several  ports  of  the  British 
dominions,  exceeded  the  number  built  in  any  one  year  of  the 
whole  period  to  which  I  have  referred.  In  the  year  1814,  when 
the  war  with  France  first  terminated,  the  number  of  ships  built 
was  818;  the  amount  of  their  tonnage  95,976  tons.  Last  year, 
the  number  of  ships  built  was  1,312;  the  amount  of  their  tonnage 
171,827  tons.*  So  that,  in  fact,  the  tonnage  of  the  ships  built 
last  year  was  little  short  of  double  the  tonnage  of  those  built  in 
the  year  1814,  and  exceeded  considerably  that  of  any  year  upon 
record. 

These  details,  however  dry  in  themselves,  appear  to  me  to  in- 
volve the  elements  of  the  whole  question,  and  to  aflford  the  best 
criterion  by  which  a  judgment  can  be  formed,  how  far  the  com- 
plaints which  represent  our  shipping  to  have  been  in  a  state  of 
rapid  decline  are  well  founded.  The  only  other  comparison, 
growing  out  of  the  documents  which  I  hold  in  my  hand,  is  that 
of  the  number  of  ships  which  have  entered  inwards,  and  cleared 
outwards,  to  and  from  the  ports  of  Great  Britain,  in  the  several 
years  since  the  alterations  which  are  objected  to  in  our  Naviga- 
tion Laws. 

I  have  provided  myself  with  a  return  exhibiting  this  compari- 
son, from  the  year  1814  down  to  the  last  year;  and  I  intreat  the 
House  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  complaint,  in  the  petition  on  the 
table,  is  that  in  consequence  of  the  alteration  made  in  the  Navi- 
gation Laws  within  the  last  three  or  four  years,  the  employment 
of  British  Shipping  has  decreased,  and  that  of  foreign  vessels 
trading  with  this  country  has  increased.  I  will  confine  the  com- 
parison to  the  returns  of  vessels,  British  and  Foreign,  entering 
inwards ;  and  for  this  reason — that  it  is  not  necessary  for  ships, 
leaving  our  ports  in  ballast,  to  clear  out  at  all,  and  therefore  the 
returns  exhibiting  the  number  of  vessels  cleared  outwards  must 
be  very  imperfect. 

I  find  that,  in  the  year  ended  the  25th  of  December  1824,  the 
number  of  British  vessels  that  entered  inwards  was  19,164,  and 
the  amount  of  their  tonnage  2,364,249  tons.     The  number  of 

*  Pari,  Papers,  Session  1826,  v.  xxii.  n.  398. 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOxM.  491 

foreign  vessels  that  entered  inwards,  during  the  same  year,  was  ^^^' 
5,280,  the  amount  of  their  tonnage  being  694,880  tons.  In  the 
year  ended  25th  December  1825, — a  year  in  which  the  modifica- 
tions made  in  our  Navigation  Laws  were  in  full  operation, — the 
number  of  British  vessels  that  entered  inwards  was  21,786;  the 
amount  of  their  tonnage  2,786,844  tons.  The  number  of  foreign 
vessels  that  entered  inwards  in  that  year  had  increased  to  6,561, 
and  the  amount  of  their  tonnage  to  892,601  tons.  The  year  1825 
was,  it  is  well  known,  a  year  of  unexampled  speculation  in  every 
branch  of  commerce,  creating  an  unusual  demand  for  shipping, 
not  only  in  the  ports  of  this  country,  but  throughout  Europe. 
And  what,  as  regards  British  Shipping,  was  the  result  ?  Why, 
that  the  positive  increase  of  British  vessels  entered  inwards,  as 
compared  with  the  year  1824,  was  2,622;  and  of  tonnage 
422,595  tons ;  while  the  increase  of  Foreign  vessels  entered  in- 
wards, during  the  same  year,  was  in  number  1,281 ;  and  in  ton- 
nage 197,721  tons.*  This  at  least  is  no  unsatisfactory  result. 
The  increased  employment  of  British  shipping  alone  in  that  year 
exceeds  the  aggregate  increase  of  employment  to  the  shipping  of 
all  other  nations  of  the  world. 

But  as  the  attention  of  the  House  has  been  specially  referred, 
by  the  Petitioners,  to  the  state  of  the  trade  between  this  country 
and  the  northern  parts  of  Europe,  and  more  especially  to  the 
trade  with  Prussia,  I  must  beg  leave  to  enter  rather  more  speci- 
fically into  that  part  of  their  case.  I  am  happy  to  be  able  to 
state,  upon  the  authority  of  documents  which  will  be  laid  on  the 
table  of  the  House,  that  by  a  comparison  between  the  British  and 
Prussian  Shipping  engaged  in  the  trade  between  the  two  coun- 
tries, during  the  years  1824  and  1825,  the  increase  of  British  was 
much  greater  than  that  of  Prussian  Shipping  in  the  latter  year. 
The  number  of  British  ships  trading  to  the  ports  of  Prussia  in 
the  year  1824,  was  470;  in  the  year  1825,  942;  being  more  than 
double  the  number  of  the  preceding  year.  The  number  of  Prus- 
sian ships  which  came  to  this  country,  in  the  year  1824,  was 
682 ;  in  1825,  the  number  was  887 ;  being  an  increase  of  about 
one-fourth. 

Such,  Sir,  if  any  inference  is  to  be  deduced  from  the  trade 
between  Prussia  and  Great  Britain  for  the  last  year,  is  the  com- 
parative growth  of  British  and  Prussian  Navigation.  I  am  aware 
that  the  danger  of  losing  our  carrying  trade,  ifrom  the  ports  of 
the  Baltic,  has  been  the  main  source  of  the  jealousy  felt  by  the 
Shipping  Interest,  and  of  their  complaints  to  this  House.  The 
comparison  between  British  and  Prussian  shipping  for  the  two  or 
three  last  years,  and  especially  that  of  the  year  1825,  has  cer- 

♦Parl.  Papers,  Session  1826,  v,  xxii.  lu  398. 


% 


4g2  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

tainly  not  borne  out  their  predictions,  or  justified  their  alarms. 
But  it  would  be  uncandid  to  deny,  that  we  have  not  yet  sufficient 
experience  to  warrant  a  positive  conclusion  that,  prospectively, 
the  Shipping  of  the  Prussian  ports  may  not  gain  ground  in  the 
competition  with  our  own.  I  am  the  more  induced  to  make  this 
remark,  as,  from  the  excessive  excitement,  and  overtrading  of  the 
last  year,  I  am  ready  to  acknowledge  that,  taken  by  itself,  it  can- 
not be  considered  as  affording  an  estimate  for  the  future:  neither 
on  the  other  hand,  perhaps,  will  it  be  fair,  in  1827,  to  form  such 
an  estimate  from  the  experience  of  the  present  year,  which  it  is 
much  to  be  feared,  as  a  natural  consequence  of  the  late  excess, 
will  be  one  of  severe  depression  in  the  trade  of  this  country. 

Having  adverted  to  the  apprehensions  which  are  entertained 
respecting  our  Trade  with  the  ports  of  the  Baltic,  I  have  natu- 
rally been  most  anxious  to  sift  to  the  bottom  this  important  part 
of  our  inquiry.  I  know  no  mode  so  satisfactory  of  ascertaining 
what  have  been  the  fluctuations  in  the  trade,  either  as  respects 
our  own  share  of  it,  at  different  periods,  or  the  proportion  which 
that  share  bears  to  the  trade  of  other  Powers  with  the  ports  of 
the  Baltic,  as  a  reference  to  the  annual  Returns  of  the  vessels,  of 
all  nations,  which  have  passed  the  Sound  in  a  given  number  of 
years.  Fortunately  the  State  Paper  Office  has  furnished  me  with 
these  returns.  This  account  I  hold  in  my  hand,  from  the  year 
1783  to  the  year  1792,  with  the  exception  of  the  year  1789;  the 
returns  for  which  year  have  been  either  lost  or  mislaid.  I  also 
hold  in  my  hand  a  similar  account,  from  the  year  1816  to  the 
year  1825,  both  inclusive.*  The  comparison  of  these  two  periods, 
each  of  ten  years,  (both  periods  of  peace)  appears  to  me  to  afford 
a  fair  illustration  of  this  branch  of  trade.  I  am  happy  to  say 
that  the  result  will  be  found  highly  satisfactory ;  for  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  number  of  British  ships  which  passed  the  Sound  in 
the  year  1825,  was  not  only  positively  greater  than  it  was  in  any 
one  of  the  twenty  years  to  which  I  have  referred,  but  that  its 
proportion,  with  respect  to  the  number  of  vessels  from  all  other 
nations,  was  equally  favourable  to  this  country.  It  would  be 
going  into  an  unnecessary  detail  to  give  the  numbers  for  every 
year  of  the  twenty ;  I  shall,  therefore,  confine  myself  to  the  five 
last  years.  The  total  number  of  ships  which  passed  the  Sound 
was:^- 

Sbips  of  all 
British  Ships.  other  Nations. 

In  the  year  1821   2,819   6,358 

Do.        1822  3^97  5,386 

Do.        1823  3,016 6,187 

.  Do.        1824 3,540  6,978 

Do.        1825  5,186 7,974 

*Parl.  Papers,  1826,  v.  xxii.  ».  380. 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  493 

So  that,  looking  at  the  proportion  which  Great  Britain  has  been 
able  to  retain  of  the  Trade  of  the  Bahic,  it  appears  that,  last 
year,  when  the  total  number  of  vessels  which  passed  the  Sound 
exceeded  that  of  any  former  year,  British  Shipping  engrossed 
considerably  more  than  one-third  of  the  whole  navigation  of  that 
sea,  and  had  increased  very  nearly  two-fifths,  compared  with  the 
average  of  the  four  preceding  years.  The  papers  to  which  I 
have  referred  I  propose  to  move  for,  so  that  the  House  will  be 
able  to  judge  from  them  of  the  correctness  of  my  statement. 

In  consequence  of  the  restoration  of  peace,  the  demand  for 
shipping,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  was  much  diminished,  and 
the  rates  of  freight  were  considerably  lowered  after  the  year 
1815.     This  gave  rise  to  great  complaints  on  the  part  of  the 
Shipping  Interest.     In  the  hope  of  finding  some  remedy  for  their 
difliculties,  the  House,  in  the  year  1820,  appointed  a  Select  Com- 
mittee to  inquire  into  the  state  of  our  Foreign  Commerce.     My  ^^u^^TT^ 
right  honourable  friend,  the  Master  of  the  Mint,*  now  absent,  I  -j         r 
am  sorry  to  say,  from  indisposition,  presided  over  the  labours  of  ^'^'^*'  "^^ 
that  committee,  and  prosecuted  the  inquiry,  in  several  succeed-  r<'^^ 
mg  sessions,  with  a  degree  of  zeal,  diligence,  and   ability,  for 
which  the  country  is  greatly  indebted  to  my  right  honourable 
friend.     One  change  recommended  by  that   committee,  in  the 
Navigation  Laws,  was  to  the  following  effect: — that  whereas 
certain  goods,  which  I  have  already  described  as  known  in  trade 
under  the  designation  of  "  enumerated  articles,*^  could  only  be 
imported  in  British  ships,  or  in  ships  of  the  country  in  Europe 
of  which  they  were  the  produce,  and  directly  from  that  country, 
it  was  the  opinion  of  the  committee  that  the  law  ought  to  be 
so  far  relaxed,  as  to  allow  the  importation  of  these  articles  in  { 
the  ships  of  any  country  into  which  they  had  been  previously  im-  ■ 
ported. 

The  recommendation  of  the  Committee  was  adopted  by  the 
legislature.  That  this  relaxation  has  been  beneficial  to  our  Com- 
merce and  Navigation  is  now,  I  believe,  placed  beyond  all  doubt. 
It  afforded  a  great  facility  to  the  execution  of  another  project,  Q^^>^,  j^ 
emanating  from  the  same  Committee,  and  since  also  carried  into  "*  ** 
effect ; — that  of  establishing  a  general  system  of  Warehousing,  so 
as  to  make  this  country  a  place  of  entrep6t  for  all  foreign  com- 
modities. It  was  obviously  impossible  to  give  full  scope  to  this 
system,  unless  we  were  prepared  to  allow  greater  latitude  to  the 
admission  of  foreign  goods.  The  superior  capital  and  credit  of 
this  country  aflford  inducements  to  send  those  goods  here,  and 
their  being  deposited  in  British  warehouses  gives  a  facility  to  the 
British  Merchant  and  Ship-owner  to  supply  the  demand  for  them 

*  The  right  honourable  Thomas  Wallace ;  the  present  Lord  Wallace. 
42 


494  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

in  other  parts  of  the  world,  through  the  medium  of  British  ad- 
venture and  British  shipping,  instead  of  their  being  sent  directly 
to  those  parts  in  foreign  shipping,  from  the  countries  of  Europe  in 
which  such  goods  are  produced. 

It  was  desirable,  therefore,  for  the  interest  of  our  Foreign  trade, 
that  we  should  no  longer  rigidly  adhere  to  that  part  of  the  Navi- 
gation Act  which  prohibited  the  importation  of  the  "  enumerated 
articles,"  if  brought  from  countries  other  than  those  of  which 
they  were  the  produce.  Such  a  restraint,  it  is  hardly  necessary 
to  say,  could  not  fail  frequently  to  prevent  speculations  of  trade, 
in  which  the  spirit  of  British  enterprise  would  have  otherwise  en- 
gaged, or  to  throw  those  speculations  into  other  channels.  It 
interfered,  likewise,  to  prevent  the  advantageous  assortment  of 
cargoes,  and  other  commercial  arrangements,  as  well  in  foreign 
ports  as  in  the  ports  of  this  country ;  and,  in  this  and  many  other 
ways,  contributed,  directly  and  indirectly,  to  diminish  the  employ- 
ment for  British  shipping. 

Another  alteration  in  our  Navigation  System  has  since  been 

adopted,  which  certainly  ought  not  to  have  been  so  long  delayed. 

This  alteration  consists  in  putting  the  trade  between  Great  Britain 

^i^^    '    and  Ireland  upon  the  footing  of  a  Coasting  trade.     Every  gentle- 

^%  4  vtV-   man  must,  I  think,  see  that,  from  the  time  at  least  of  the  union  of 

i;^^^  the  two  countries,  it  was  desirable  that  their  interests  and  com- 

^  mercial  system  should  be  identified  as  much  as  possible.     From 

that  period  it  was  absurd  to  consider  the  commercial  intercourse 

with  Ireland  as  a  part  of  our  foreign  trade,  and  to  subject  the 

shipping  employed  in  it  to  the  restrictive  regulations  and  higher 

charges  of  that  trade. 

But  these  were  not  the  only  deviations  from  the  ancient  rules 
of  our  Navigation  System.  The  revolutions  which  have  occurred 
in  the  political  state  of  the  world,  in  our  time,  rendered  other 
changes  indispensable.  There  has  grown  up  over  the  whole 
continent  of  America,  a  situation  of  afl^airs  similar  to  that  which 
the  United  States  presented,  after  their  separation  from  the 
mother  country.  This  change  from  a  colonial  to  an  independent 
existence,  necessarily  draws  after  it,  in  each  particular  case, 
the  application  of  the  new  rule,  which,  as  I  have  already 
stated,  unavoidably  grew  out  of  the  independence  of  the  United 
States. 

The  first  application  of  that  rule  occurred  in  respect  to  Brazil. 
From  the  moment  when,  in  1808,  the  house  of  Braganza  trans- 
ferred the  seat  of  empire  to  Brazil,  that  country  virtually  ceased 
to  be  a  colony.  Great  Britain  had  no  choice  but  to  apply  the 
European  principles  to  the  commerce  and  navigation  of  Brazil, 
though  out  of  Europe,  and  to  admit  Portuguese  shipping, — and, 
since  the  separation  of  Portugal  and  Brazil,  Brazilian  shipping, — 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  495 

coming  from  that  country  into  our  ports,  upon  the  same  footing 
as  the  ships  of  any  other  independent  nation. 

This  principle  has  been  extended,  from  time  to  time,  as  new 
States  have  risen  up  in  America.  When  I  heard  the  honourable 
member  for  Grampound  complain  that,  in  our  Treaty  of  Com- 
merce and  Navigation  with  Colombia,  and  in  that  with  Buenos 
Ayres,  we  had  consented  to  place  their  navigation  upon  an 
equality  with  our  own,  I  certainly  listened  to  this  charge  with  no 
small  degree  of  surprise,  being  satisfied  that  what  the  honourable 
gentleman  censured  so  severely  was  the  very  wisest  principle 
that  this  country  could  adopt  Those  states  were  anxious  to  en- 
courage their  commercial  marine,  by  granting  exclusive  advanta- 
ges to  their  own  shipping,  and  imposing  certain  restrictions  upon 
that  of  this  country.  This  disposition  was  frequently  manifested 
by  the  Ministers  of  those  States  in  the  course  of  our  discussions 
with  them ;  and  certainly  there  are  not  wanting  some  who  are 
constantly  endeavouring  to  excite  in  these  new  countries  a 
jealousy  of  the  Naval  Power  of  Great  Britain ;  instigating  them 
to  adopt  a  separate  and  novel  code  of  maritime  law  for  the  New 
World,  and  to  frame  their  Navigation  System  upon  principles  of 
giving  a  preference  to  their  own  shipping,  and  to  that  of  America 
generally,  over  the  shipping  of  this  country  and  of  Europe. 

Have  we  acquiesced  in  these  views  ?  Have  we  compromised 
any  of  the  acknowledged  principles  of  Maritime  Law  T  No,  Sir 
— Whilst  we  have  explicitly  refused  to  listen  to  any  such  com- 
promise, we  have  disarmed  all  suspicion  as  to  our  commercial 
pretensions,  by  frankly  declaring,  that  we  sought  no  exclusive 
advantages  for  British  ships  or  British  trade,  and  that  the  prin- 
ciple of  our  intercourse  with  the  New  States,  as  with  the  Old 
States,  of  the  World,  would  be  that  of  a  fair  and  equal  re- 
ciprocity. 

This  brings  me  to  the  gravamen  of  the  charge  made  against 
his  Majesty's  Government ;  namely,  the  step  taken  by  them,  in 
furtherance  of  this  principle,  by  the  introduction  of  a  law,  enabling 
the  Crown,  with  the  advice  of  the  Privy  Council,  to  remit  all 
discriminating  duties  on  the  goods  and  shipping  of  such  countries, 
as  may  agree  to  impose  no  higher  charges  or  duties  upon  British 
ships,  and  the  goods  imported  therein,  than  upon  their  own  ships, 
and  the  like  goods  imported  in  such  ships. 

If  the  system  of  discriminating  Duties  for  the  encouragement 
of  Shipping,  were  a  secret  known  to  this  country  alone ;  if  a 
similar  system  were  not,  or  could  not  be,  put  in  force  in  every 
other  country,  I  should  not  be  standing  here  to  vindicate  the  mea- 
sure to  which  I  have  just  referred,  and  the  present  policy  of  his 
Majesty's  Government  So  long  as,  in  fact,  no  independent  tra- 
ding community  existed  out  of  Europe,  and  so  long  as  the  old 


496  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

Governments  of  Europe  looked  upon  these  matters, — if  they  look- 
ed to  them  at  all, — as  little  deserving  their  attention,  and  were 
content,  either  from  ignorance  or  indifference,  not  to  thwart  our 
System,  it  w^ould  have  been  wrong  to  disturb  any  part  of  it.  But 
is  this  the  present  state  of  the  world  1  Did  not  the  United  States 
of  America,  in  the  first  instance,  for  the  purpose  of  raising  to 
themselves  a  great  commercial  Marine,  and  of  counteracting  our 
Navigation  Laws,  adopt,  in  their  utmost  rigour,  the  rules  of  those 
laws,  and  carry,  even  further  than  we  had  ever  done,  in  respect 
to  foreign  Ships,  this  principle  of  discriminating  duties  against 
our  Shipping?  Can  w^e  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  other  nations 
have  followed,  or  are  following,  their  example  ?  Do  we  not  see 
them,  one  after  the  other,  taking  a  leaf  out  of  our  own  book?  Is 
not  every  Government  in  Europe,  if  possessed  of  sea-ports,  now 
using  its  utmost  endeavours  to  force  a  trade,  and  to  raise  up  for 
itself  a  commercial  Marine  ?  Have  we  not  boasted  of  our  Navi- 
gation Laws,  till  we  have  taught  other  nations  to  believe  (how- 
ever erroneous  that  belief),  that  they  are  almost  the  only  requisite, 
or,  at  least,  the  sine  qua  non,  of  commercial  wealth  and  of  mari- 
time power  ?  Did  these  vauntings  excite  no  envy,  no  spirit  of 
rivalry,  no  countervailing  opposition  in  other  countries  ?  Did  the 
success  of  the  United  States  of  America  create  no  desire  in  those 
countries  to  follow  her  example  ? 

It  would  be  worse  than  idle,  it  would  be  dangerous,  to  dissem- 
ble to  ourselves  the  great  changes  which  have  been  wrought, 
since  the  establishment  of  American  independence,  in  the  views 
and  sentiments  of  Europe,  upon  all  matters  connected  with  com- 
merce and  navigation.  They  now  occupy  a  leading  share  in  the 
attention  of  almost  every  Government.  They  are  everywhere  a 
subject  of  general  inquiry  and  interest.  Even  in  countries,  of 
which  the  institutions  are  least  favourable  to  the  discussion  of 
political  topics,  these  questions  are  freely  discussed,  and,  by  dis- 
cussion, the  influence  of  public  opinion  is  made  to  bear  upon  the 
measures  and  policy  of  their  Governments.  ^ 

In  this  altered  state  of  the  world,  it  became  our  duty  seriously 
to  inquire,  whether  a  system  of  commercial  hostility,  of  which 
the  ultimate  tendency  is  mutual  prohibition, — whether  a  system 
of  high  discriminating  duties  upon  foreign  ships,  with  the  moral 
certainty  of  seeing  those  duties  fully  retahated  upon  our  own 
Shipping,  in  the  ports  of  foreign  countries, — was  a  contest  in 
which  England  was  likely  to  gain,  and  out  of  which,  if  persever- 
ed in,  she  was  likely  to  come  with  dignity  or  advantage  ?  I  will 
lay  aside,  for  the  moment,  every  consideration  of  a  higher  nature, 
moral  or  political,  which  would  naturally  lead  us  to  look  with 
some  repugnance  to  the  engaging  in  such  a  contest.  I  will 
equally  lay  aside  all  consideration  for  the  interest  of  our  manu- 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  497 

facturers,  and  for  the  general  well-being  of  our  population,  who  ^^  \  '- 
as  consumers,  would  obviously  have  to  pay  for  this  system  of  ^:<  ..,c.'vv.( 
Custom-house  warfare,   and  reciprocal   restriction ;  and  I  wiU  7-  Ox  ^ 
view  the  question  solely  in  reference  to  the  shipping  interest.     In  Ajv 

this  comparatively  narrow,  but,  I  admit,  not  unimportant,  view 
of  the  question,  I  have  no  difficulty  in  stating  my  conviction, — a 
conviction  at  which  I  have  arrived  after  much  anxious  considera- 
tion,— that,  in  the  long-run,  this  war  of  Discriminating  Duties,  if 
persevered  in  on  both  sides,  must  operate  most  to  the  injury  of 
the  country  which,  at  the  time  of  entering  upon  it,  possesses  the 
greatest  commercial  marine.     How  can  it  be  otherwise  ?    What'^ 
are  these  discriminating  duties,  but  a  tax  upon  commerce  and  | 
navigation?     Will  not  the  heaviest  share  of  that  tax  fall,  there-! 
fore,  upon  those  who  have  the  greatest  amount  of  shipping  and 
of  trade? 

Before  we  embark  in  such  a  contest,  we  owe  to  the  character 
of  the  country,  as  well  as  to  its  interests,  to  satisfy  ourselves ; — 
first,  that  it  is  necessary  for  its  welfare ;  and, — secondly,  that 
once  committed  to  the  trial  with  all  the  commercial  powers  of 
Europe,  the  country  would  have  the  firmness  and  fortitude  neces- 
sary to  go  through  with  it.  Do  not  let  gentlemen  too  hastily 
decide  this  last  point  in  the  affirmative.  Let  them  call  to  their 
recollection  the  famous  Orders  in  Council ; — let  them,  above  all, 
bear  in  mind,  that  we  have  yet  had  but  one  trial  of  this  discrimi- 
nating warfare, — the  trial  with  the  United  States  of  America, — 
and  that  we  came  out  of  that  trial,  after  several  years'  persever- 
ance, by  conceding  the  very  object,  for  the  maintenance  of  which 
it  had  been  carried  on.  Would  it  be  politic,  or  dignified,  to 
engage  in  a  like  struggle  in  Europe,  with  the  risk  of  arriving  at 
the  same  result  ?  In  commerce,  in  navigation,  in  naval  power, 
and  maritime  pretensions,  the  United  States  are  our  most  formi- 
dable rival;  and  we  are  now  arraigned  for  not  withholding  from 
Prussia  and  Denmark,  what  parliament  and  the  country,  ten  years 
ago,  concurred  in  yielding  to  America. 

Under  what  circumstances  did  England  found  her  Navigation )  ^v^jlaa^ 
System?  When  her  commercial  marine  was,  comparatively, 
insignificant,  her  wealth  inconsiderable,  before  manufactures  were 
established,  and  when  she  exported  corn,  wool,  and  other  raW; 
materials.  When,  on  the  other  hand,  Holland  and  the  Nether- 
lands were  rich,  possessed  of  great  manufactures,  and  of  the 
largest  portion  of  the  carrying  trade  of  Europe  and  the  world. 
What  has  followed  ?  The  commercial  marine  of  the  latter  coun- 
tries has  dwindled  away,  and  that  of  Great  Britain  is  now  im- 
mense. But,  in  the  progress  of  the  change,  England  is  become 
the  great  seat  of  manufactures  and  trading  wealth,  frequently 
importing,  and  never  exporting,  corn;  drawing  raw  materials 
42*  3N 


v^^VC 


498  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

from,  and  sending  out  manufactured  goods  to,  all  parts  of  the 
world.     This  was  our  state,  though  in  a  far  less  degree  than  at    . 
present,  when  America  became  independent.     She  started  by 
applying  towards  us  the  system,  which  we  had  applied  towards 
Holland.     She  was  then  poor,  with  a  very  small  commercial 
marine,  without  manufactures,  having  corn  and  raw  materials  to 
export ; — and  we  know  what  her  shipping  now  is.     Let  gentle- 
men reflect  on  these  circumstances,  before  they  decide  that  it  is 
necessarily  wise  to  enter  upon  a  similar  contest  with  other  poor 
I  and  unmanufacturing  countries.     Let  them  seriously  consider, 
i  whether  a  system  of  discriminating  duties, — now  that  the  exclu- 
J  sive  patent  by  which  we  held  that  system  is  expired, — is  not  the 
I  expedient  of  such  a  country  as  I  have  described,  rather  than  the 
\  resource  of  one  which  already  possesses  the  largest  commercial 
marine  in  the  world.     They  will  then  see,  that  it  may  possibly 
be  a  wise  policy  to  divert  such  countries  from  that  system,  rather 
than  to  goad  them  on,  or  even  leave  them  a  pretext  for  going 
into  it. 

Let  us  for  a  moment,  however,  suppose  that,  at  all  hazards, 
we  have  embarked  in  this  warfare  of  Counteracting  Duties.  They 
who  recommend  this  policy  have  no  right  to  assume  that,  in  the 
progress  of  the  struggle,  the  discriminating  duties  imposed  in  the 
foreign  country  (Prussia,  for  example)  on  British  shipping,  will 
not  be,  at  least,  equivalent  to  the  like  duties  levied  in  England  on 
Prussian  shipping.  The  United  States  did  not  content  themselves 
with  equivalency, — they  went  more  boldly  to  work ; — so  might 
any  European  power.  If  equivalent  duties  be  established  on  both 
sides,  how  will  they  operate  ?  It  is  clear  that  the  shipping  of 
each  country  will  stand  in  the  same  relative  situation  to  that  of 
the  other,  as  if  no  such  duties  had  been  imposed ;  the  duties,  there- 
fore, in  both  countries  will  be  a  tax,  and  a  very  objectionable  one, 
upon  the  interchange  of  their  respective  productions.  But,  as 
those  productions  3.fe  different,  these  duties  will  affect  differently 
the  industry  of  the  contending  parties.  Our  principal  exports  to 
the  North  of  Europe  are  manufactured  goods  and  colonial  pro- 
duce;— our  imports,  timber,  hemp,  flax,  pitch,  tar  (occasionally 
corn),  and  other  raw  materials.  The  former  must  be  sold  dearer 
in  the  foreign  country, — the  latter  in  this  country, — ^by  all  the 
amount  of  the  tax.  What  is  this  in  the  foreign  country,  but  a 
premium  against  our  manufactures,  in  favour  of  the  rival  manu- 
factures of  other  states,  or  of  the  importing  state  itself; — and  in 
this  country,  but  a  tax  upon  raw  materials  requisite  for  carrying 
on  our  own  manufactures  ?  A  ship,  for  instance,  is  a  manufac- 
I  tured  article,  and,  to  encourage  our  shipping,  here- is  an  additional 
\tax  upon  the  raw  materials  of  that  manufacture!  Our  cotton 
goods,  our  woollen  stuffs,  barely  maintain  a  competition  with 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  499 

those  of  other  countries,  and  here  is  an  additional  tax  on  their 
importation  into  those  countries,  to  turn  the  scale  against  us ' 
Our  West-India  planters  complain  of  the  low  price  of  their  pro- 
ductions, and  we  provoke  an  additional  tax,  which  tends  to  shut 
them  altogether  out  of  the  foreign  market !  If  the  end  of  this 
warfare  should  be,  as,  pushed  to  the  extreme,  it  might  be,  that 
each  country  should  export  its  own  productions,  in  its  own  ships, 
and  no  country  import  the  productions  of  another,  in  the  ships  of 
that  other,  which  would  be  the  greatest  loser,  the  country  manu-  \ 
facturing,  or  the  country  producing  the  raw  materials  ? 

I  will  not  even  glance  at  the  effect  of  all  this  strife  upon  the 
consumers,  that  is,  upon  the  bulk  of  the  population ;  because  I 
know  that,  in  certain  quarters,  I  shall  be  taxed  with  theory,  if  I 
stand  up  for  the  general  interest  of  the  community,  against  the 
pretensions  of  a  particular  class,  when  the  interest  of  that  class 
is  supposed  to  be  at  stake.  Indeed,  I  have  no  doubt  I  shall  be 
told  by  some  practical  men,  that  all  this  is  theory,  to  which  they 
have  a  short  answer.  That  answer  is,  "  We  do  not  want  any 
thing  from  the  Baltic.  We  have  plenty  of  timber,  &c.  in  Canada, 
all  of  which  would  be  brought  home  in  British  Shipping ;  and, 
therefore,  the  powers  of  the  Baltic  must  submit  to  our  discrimi- 
nating duties,  without  retaliation,  or  be  content  to  lose  our  trade." 
I  really  know  not  how  to  reason  with  such  logicians.  I  believe  \ 
the  Bahic  can  do  to  the  full  as  well  without  us,  as  we  can  do  j 
without  the  Baltic.  We  import  quite  as  much  timber  from 
Canada  as  can  be  used  for  the  purposes  for  w^hich  that  timber  is 
fit.  For  other,  and  more  important  purposes,  we  want  timber  of 
better  and  more  durable  qualities. 

Looking  to  the  Shipping  Interests  of  this  country,  and  to  the 
interests  of  Canada,  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  think  we  have 
done  too  much  for  those  interests,  in  the  great  preference,  in 
point  of  duty,  which  we  have  given  to  the  Canada  timber,  and  in 
the  consequent  sacrifices  which  we  make  to  encourage  the  im- 
portation of  that  timber,  inferior  as  it  is ;  but  I  must  say,  at  the 
same  time,  that  the  great  annual  increase  of  the  importation  from 
our  North  American  possessions,  under  the  present  duty,  shows 
that  the  proportion  which  it  bears  to  the  Baltic  duty  has  not  been 
settled  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  shipping  employed  in  the 
Canada  trade.  Were  it  necessary,  however,  to  make  an  option 
between  a  contest  of  discriminating  duties  with  Prussia  in 'the 
timber  trade,  or  a  further  reduction  of  the  duty  on  Canada  tim- 
ber, for  the  greater  encouragement  of  our  shipping,  I  certainly 
should  prefer  the  latter  measure,  as  the  least  injurious  of  the  two 
to  all  the  other  interests  of  this  country. 

For  the  reasons  which  I  have  now  stated,  his  Majesty's  Gov- 
ernment have  thought  it  more  prudent  and  more  dignified  to  enter 


500  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

into  amicable  arrangements  with  other  powers,  founded  on  the 
basis  of  mutual  interest,  and  entire  reciprocity  of  advantages, 
rather  than  embark  in  a  contest  of  commercial  hostility  and 
reciprocal  exclusion ;— a  system,  at  best,  of  doubtful  benefit  to 
the  Shipping  Interest; — involving  the  certainty  of  great  injury  to 
all  the  other  important  interests  of  the  country ;  and  which  would, 
at  last,  place  Parhament  and  the  Government  in  the  painful  alter- 
native, either  of  turning  a  deaf  ear  to  the  complaints  of  the  many 
who  would  suffer  from  the  contest, — or  of  terminating  it,  as  other 
contests  of  a  like  nature  have  been  terminated,  by  concession, 
bringing  with  it  not  only  immediate  humiliation,  but  other  con- 
sequences which  do  not  end  with  the  concession  itself. 

But  it  is  asserted,  that  we  should  not  have  been  compelled  to 
make  our  choice  between  these  ahernatives.  Whilst  I  entreat 
the  House  to  bear  in  mind  the  circumstances  which  I  have  al- 
ready stated,  in  respect  to  the  general  feeling  which  prevails  in 
the  maritime  countries  of  Europe,  and  in  America,  I  must  now 
call  their  attention  to  the  steps  which  had  been  actually  taken  by 
Prussia  (the  first  power,  after  the  United  States,  with  which  we 
entered  into  a  treaty  upon  this  subject),  before  the  negotiation  of 
that  treaty  was  entertained  by  his  Majesty's  Government. 

I  hold.  Sir,  in  my  hand  a  Report,  made  on  the  6th  of  August 
1822,  by  the  British  Consul  at  Dantzic,  also  Reports  of  the  Vice- 
Consuls  at  Konigsberg  and  Memel,  to  the  Secretary  of  State  for 
Foreign  Affairs.  I  will  not  trouble  the  House  with  reading  the 
whole  of  these  despatches,  but  I  request  their  particular  attention 
to  the  following  extracts : — 

Extract  of  a  Despatch  from  Mr.  Consul  Gibson^  dated  Dantzic^  the  6th 

August  1822. 

"  My  Lord : — I  do  myself  the  honour  to  transmit  to  your  Lordship  a  trans- 
lation of  the  Order  of  Cabinet  (which  I  have  only  now  been  able  to  procure) 
respecting  an  increase  erf"  the  Government  Port  Charges  in  the  Prussian 
Ports,  on  vessels  belonging  to  countries  between  which  and  Prussia  no  reci- 
procity has  been  fixed  by  treaty,  or  which  do  not  otherwise  treat  Prussian 
ships  and  their  cargoes  as  advantageously  as  their  own.  Prussia  has  made 
arrangements  with  Holland,  Denmark,  and  America,  for  establishing  a  reci- 
procity in  this  respect,  and  the  present  regulation  has  evidently  for  object  to 
induce  other  countries,  particularly  Britain,  to  enter  into  a  similar  arrange- 
ment 

"  At  present  Prussian^  Dutch,  Danish  and  American  ships  pay,  as  public 
port  charges  here,  about  46^  common  groshes,  or  about  17f  rf.  sterling,  per 
last  of  4,000  lb.  (about  4,140  lb.  English),  or  about  If  tons  British  measure- 
ment ;  while  British  and  other  vessels  pay  about  77f  common  groshes,  or 
about  29fd  sterling  per  last,  making  S^d.  sterling  per  ton  measurement 


I     i 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  501 

more.     The  advance  that  is  to  take  place  will  make,  as  it  will  be  payable  in 
gold  at  a  losing  valuation,  viz. 

On  ships  coming  in  with  a  full  cargo  of  goods,  about 58 

Do.  with  a  quarter  of  a  cargo  or  less 29 

Do.  going  out  with  a  full  cargo 29 

Do.  with  a  quarter  of  a  cargo  or  less 14^ 

"  Thus  vessels  arriving  even  in  ballast,  and  taking  a  cargo  back,  will  in 
future  be  burthened  with  about  S7id.  sterling  per  ton  measurement  more 
government  port  charges  than  Prussian  ships ;  which  however  is  not  quite  so 
great  an  advantage  to  the  latter  as  British  vessels  have  over  Prussian  in 
Britain,  by  paying  lower  port  charges,  light  money,  &c.  and  less  duty  on  the 
cargo,  if  of  timber  for  instance,  which  gives  the  chief  employment  to  Prus- 
sian ships. 

"  The  Prussian  government  make  this  new  port-charge  regulation  profes- 
sedly from  the  interest  created  by  the  situation  of  their  ship-owners,  who  are 
indeed  all  going  to  ruin." 

Cabinet  Order  of  the  20tk  June  1822,  for  the  Encouragement  of  Home 

Shipping. 

"  In  consideration  of  the  unfavourable  state  of  the  shipping  of  this  country 
for  several  years  past,  and  in  consequence  of  the  representations  made  to  me, 
founded  on  divers  consultations,  that  the  unfavourable  state  of  things  operates 
the  more  injuriously  on  the  said  trade,  as  the  principles  always  observed  here, 
of  imposing  moderate  burthens  on  foreign  ships  frequenting  Prussian  ports, 
and  of  levying  the  same  duties  on  goods  imported  or  exported,  whether  in 
foreign  or  in  native  ships,  are  not  adopted  in  several  foreign  ports  frequented 
by  Prussian  ships ;  I  have  resolved,  so  long  as  these  relations  subsist,  so  detri- 
mental to  the  maintenance  of  this  important  branch  of  domestic  trade,  to 
grant  the  said  trade  greater  advantages  than  it  has  hitherto  enjoyed ;  I  there- 
fore do  ordain, 

"  First.  That  the  coasting  trade  from  one  Prussian  port  to  another  shall 
be  c5onsidered,  exclusively,  a  branch  of  domestic  trade,  and  shall  be  carried 
on  solely  by  Prussian  vessels,  under  pain  of  ship  and  property  being  con- 
fiscated, upon  any  foreign  ship-master  being  detected  in  it.  Exceptions  can 
only  be  allowed  in  very  urgent  cases,  and  only  for  the  public  good,  by  the 
provincial  authorities. 

**  Secondly.  An  increase  of  the  hitherto  existing  harbour  dues  shall  take 
place  in  all  Prussian  ports,  on  foreign  ships  with  cargoes,  incoming  or  out- 
going ;  but  the  same  shall  not  be  applicable  to  the  ships  of  those  nations : — 

"  a.  With  which  Prussia  has  treaties,  placing  her  ships  and  their  cargoes 
on  an  equal  footing  with  the  native  ships,  or  with  those  of  the  most 
favoured  nations,  in  conformity  with  the  stipulations  therein  made. 

"  b.  Which  from  other  causes  treat  Prussian  ships,  with  their  cargoes,  the 
same  as  native  vessels  with  theirs. 


502  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

"  With  this  restriction  shall  the  increase  take  place,  according  to  the  fol- 
lowing rates : — 

"  a.  On  in-coming  ships R.  2  per  last  of  4,000  lbs 

"  h.  On  out-going  ditto 1 ditto. 

**  c.  On  ships  that  have  only  one-fourth  of  a  cargo,  or  less,  one-half  of  the 
above;  say, 

"  In-coming 1  —  out-going |. 

"  Ships  in  ballast  are  not  subject  to  the  increased  imposts. 

"  The  proceeds  of  this  impost  shall  not  be  considered  as  an  additional  source 
of  revenue  to  the  state ;  but  shall  be  applied  for  the  benefit  of  the  ship- 
owners, accordingly  as  you,  the  Minister  of  Commerce,  shall  propose  to  me. 

"  TViirdly.  In  order  to  present,  as  far  as  is  in  the  power  of  the  state,  a  real 
source  of  profit  to  the  ship-owners,  the  conveyance  of  such  goods  as  may  be 
for  account  of  the  government,  shall  be  eflfected,  in  preference,  by  native 
ehips,  regarding  which  I  refer  to  my  particular  order  of  this  day. 

"  The  first  and  third  of  the  foregoing  enactments  shall  be  put  in  force  im- 
mediately ;  but  the  second  point  only  in  three  months  after  publication  of  this 
order,  which  is  to  be  made  through  the  collection  of  laws,  and  according  to 
which  the  needful  is  to  be  decreed. 

(Signed)  "Frederick  Wilhelm.*' 

Extract  of  a  Despatch  from  Vice-Consul  Tuke^  dated  Konigsherg, 
22d  August  1822. 

"  Sir : — I  beg  leave  to  draw  the  attention  of  your  Excellency  to  several 
new  laws  and  regulations  of  the  Prussian  government,  which  are  highly 
detrimental  to  the  British  trade,  and  respecting  which  numerous  complaints 
have  been  made  to  me  by  the  merchants  and  ship-masters  interested  in  the 
trade  between  this  country  and  Great  Britain. 

"  By  the  last  tariff,  a  duty  of  one  guilder  per  hundred-weight  is  imposed 
on  all  flax,  hemp,  and  tow,  shipped  in  foreign  vessels.  This  is  probably  in- 
tended as  a  measure  of  retaliation  for  the  difference  of  import  duty  charged 
in  Great  Britain  between  goods  arriving  in  British  and  foreign  vessels.  This 
law  has  obliged  several  British  ships  this  summer  to  load  flax  at  the  low  rate 
of  thirty  shillings  per  ton,  instead  of  fifty  shillings,  which  they  would  have 
got,  had  not  the  merchants  been  obliged  to  pay  twenty  florins  per  ton  export 
duty,  because  the  goods  were  shipped  in  a  British  vessel.  As  hemp  and  flax 
are,  now  that  the  com  trade  no  longer  exists,  the  principal  articles  of  export 
from  hence,  this  duty  bears  exceedingly  hard  on  British  vessels. 

"  According  to  a  Cabinet  Order,  dated  Berlin,  20th  June  1822,  intended 
for  the  encouragement  of  Prussian  shipping,  the  king  has  been  pleased  to 
direct  a  duty  of  three  dollars  per  last  to  be  charged  on  all  foreign  vessels 
arriving  with  cargoes  after  the  expiration  of  three  months.  This  tax  is  so 
important  in  its  consequences  as  to  demand  immediate  attention,  for  a  moder- 
ate sized  vessel  will,  by  this  order,  be  compelled  to  pay  three  hundred  dollars 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  503 

in  addition  to  the  existing  heavy  charges,  which  will  entirely  prevent  our 
vessels  from  enjoying  the  carrying  trade  from  home  to  this  country." 

Extract  of  a  Despatch  from  Vice-Consul  Fowler,  dated  Memelt 
2lst  August  1822. 
"  This  difference  between  British  and  Prussian  shipping"  (i.  e.  the  differ- 
ence established  by  the  Decree  of  20th  of  June),  "  must  drive  the  carrying 
trade  in  British  bottoms  from  this  port,  to  the  great  injury  of  the  British  ship- 
ping interest;  for  about  three  hundred  British  vessels,  on  an  average,  load 
here  annually  with  timber  for  Great  Britain,  which  of  course  cannot  bear 
such  heavy  charges  as  cargoes  consisting  of  grain,  flax,  hemp,  tallow,  &c.  &.C., 
and  which  are  of  so  much  more  considerable  value.  The  merchants  here, 
who  are  principally  British,  have  protested  against  this  new  regulation,  and 
petitioned  the  Prussian  government  for  the  repeal  thereof." 

From  what  I  have  now  read,  the  House  will  at  once  under- 
stand the  nature  of  the  measures  adopted  by  the  Prussian  Gov- 
ernment, in  the  year  1822,  and  the  motives  which  influenced  them 
in  that  proceeding.  What  was  the  consequence  of  these  mea- 
sures? Why,  that,  in  the  next  year,  1823,  the  Board  of  Trade, 
and  other  departments  of  the  government,  were  assailed  with 
representations  from  all  quarters,  connected  with  the  shipping  and 
trade  of  the  country,  against  the  heavy  charges  imposed  upon 
British  ships  in  the  ports  of  Prussia.  In  such  circumstances,  what 
course  did  his  Majesty's  Government  take  ?  We  felt  it  to  be  our 
duty,  in  the  first  instance,  to  communicate  with  the  Prussian 
minister  in  this  country :  and  our  minister  at  Berlin  was,  I  believe, 
also  directed  to  confer  with  the  Prussian  Government  on  the  sub- 
ject. I  myself  had  a  conference  with  the  Prussian  minister  at 
this  court,  and  I  well  recollect  the  substance  of  his  reply  to  me ; 
**  You  have,"  he  said,  "  set  us  the  example,  by  your  port  and  light 
charges,  and  your  discriminating  duties  on  Prussian  ships ;  and 
we  have  not  gone  beyond  the  limits  of  that  example.  Hitherto, 
we  have  confined  the  increase  of  our  port  and  tonnage  charges 
to  ships  only;  but  it  is  the  intention  of  my  Government  next 
year"  (and  of  this  he  showed  me  the  written  proof),  "  to  imitate 
you  still  more  closely,  by  imposing  discriminating  >duties  on  the 
goods  imported  in  your  ships.  Our  object  is  a  just  protection  to 
our  own  navigation ;  and  so  long  as  the  measure  of  our  protec- 
tion does  not  exceed  that  which  is  afforded  in  your  ports  to  British 
ships,  we  cannot  see  with  what  reason  you  can  complain." 

Against  such  a  reply,  what  remonstrance  could  we,  in  fairness, 
make  to  the  Prussian  Government?  We  might  have  addressed 
ourselves,  it  may  be  said  by  some,  to  the  friendly  feelings  of  that 
government ; — we  might  have  pleaded  long  usage  in  support  of 
our  discriminating  duties; — we  might  have  urged  the  advantages 


504  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

which  Prussia  derived  from  her  trade  with  England.  Appeals 
like  these  were  not  forgotten  in  the  discussion,  but  they  were  of 
little  avail  against  the  fact  stated  by  Mr.  Consul  Gibson — that 
"  the  Prussian  ship-owners  were  all  going  to  ruin." 

By  others  it  may  be  said,  "your  duty  was  to  retaliate,  by  in- 
creasing your  own  port  charges,  and  discriminating  duties,  on 
Prussian  shipping.'*  I  have  already  stated  generally  my  reasons 
against  the  policy  of  this  latter  course.  We  were  not  prepared 
to  begin  a  system  of  commercial  hostiHty,  which,  if  followed  up 
on  both  sides  to  its  legitimate  consequences,  ^ould  only  tend  to 
reciprocal  prohibition.  In  this  state  of  things,  more  prudently, 
as  i  contend,  we  entered  upon  an  amicable  negotiation  with  the 
Prussian  Government,  upon  the  principle  of  our  treaty  with  the 
United  States, — that  of  abolishing,  on  both  sides,  all  discrimina- 
ting duties  on  the  ships  and  goods  of  the  respective  countries  in 
the  ports  of  the  other. 

Having  concluded  an  arrangement  with  Prussia  upon  this  basis, 
we  soon  found  it  necessary  to  do  the  same  with  some  other  of 
the  Northern  States.  Similar  conventions  were  accordingly 
entered  into  with  Denmark  and  Sweden.  Reciprocity  is  the 
foundation  of  all  those  conventions ;  but  it  is  only  fair  to  add,  that 
they  contain  other  stipulations  for  giving  facility  to  trade,  and 
from  which  the  commerce  of  this  country,  I  am  confident,  will, 
in  the  result,  derive  considerable  advantage. 

When  his  Majesty's  Government  had  successively  made  the 
concession  of  these  discriminating  duties  to  the  United  States,  to 
Prussia,  to  Denmark,  and  to  Sweden,  I  should  have  been  ashamed 
of  the  Councils  of  this  country,  if  we  had  hesitated  to  enter  into 
a  similar  agreement  with  the  free  Hanseatic  towns  of  Hamburgh, 
Bremen,  and  Lubeck.  These  little  States,  I  admit,  had  imposed 
no  discriminating  duties  upon  our  ships,  though  they  had  the 
power  to  do  so.  But  would  it  have  been  worthy  of  the  character 
of  this  great  country,  consistent  with  its  justice,  or  honourable  to 
its  generosity,  to  continue  to  levy,  upon  the  trade  and  shipping  of 
these  ports,  duties  which  were  no  longer  paid  by  the  subjects  of 
more  powerful  States ; — to  have  made  their  forbearance  the  plea 
for  our  exaction,  or  to  have  waited  to  do  an  act  of  justice  until 
they  had  deprived  us  of  that  plea  ? 

In  our  treatment  of  these  free  towns,  this  country  ought  not 
altogether  to  forget  that,  amidst  the  barbarous  ignorance,  and 
habitual  violence,  of  the  feudal  ages,  those  little  Republics  were 
the  refuge  of  commerce,  and  the  nurseries  of  civilization.  They 
were  the  sanctuaries,  in  which  the  arts  and  pursuits,  most  con- 
ducive to  the  enjoyments  and  improvement- of  mankind,  were 
respected,  amidst  the  scenes  of  bloodshed,  rapine,  and  insecurity, 
by  which  they  were  too  often  surrounded.     With  these  recollec- 


OF  TbE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  505 

tions,  I  shall,  perhaps,  be  excused  if  I  express  my  regret,  that 
several  of  the  little  trading  communities  on  the  Continent  have 
ceased  to  be  free  and  independent.  In  point  of  poHcy,  it  has 
always  appeared  to  me  that  the  incorporation  of  these  communi- 
ties with  the  military  monarchies  of  the  Continent,  was  not  the 
most  satisfactory  part  of  the  late  settlement  of  Europe.  This 
incorporation  was,  probably,  more  the  inevitable  consequence  of 
the  general  derangement  of  the  war,  than  the  legitimate  result  of 
the  principles  which  prevailed  at  the  restoration  of  p)eace.  Were 
I  disposed  to  illustrate  the  inconvenience  of  that  incorporation, 
in  reference  to  the  present  subject,  I  might,  not  inopportunely, 
refer  to  Dantzic.  If,  instead  of  passing  under  the  dominion  of 
an  absolute  monarchy,  that  town  (formerly,  I  believe,  one  of  the 
Hanseatic  League)  had  continued  free  like  Hamburg,  and  had 
the  Government  of  Prussia  then  said, — "  You  shall  not  trade  with 
us,  except  on  such  and  such  conditions," — our  answer  might  have 
been,  **  the  commodities  which  we  want  from  your  country  we 
can  procure  at  Dantzic,  where  no  such  conditions  are  imposed 
on  British  ships." 

If  we  look  at  the  present  question  as  connected  with  our  mari- 
time strength,  I  contend  that  there  can  be  little  or  no  danger  from 
the  arrangements  which  I  have  now  described.     The  states  to 
which  those  arrangements  extend,  from  their  situation,  and  from  £,  >r3trt7^ 
many  other  circumstances,  which  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  ) 

mention,  never  can  become  formidable  as  maritime  powers; — • 
they  never  can  dispute  with  us  the  ascendancy  on  the  ocean,  nor 
have  they  an  interest  in  assisting  others  to  obtain  that  ascendancy. 
Their  commercial  interests,  and  regard  to  their  own  security, 
must  alike  incline  them  to  our  side. 

In  time  of  peace,  it  is  well  known,  the  policy  of  this  country 
excludes,  as  much  as  possible,  from  our  commercial  marine  the 
natives  of  all  foreign  countries ;  but,  in  time  of  war,  when  our 
native  seamen  are  required  for  the  King's  service,  we  are  under 
the  necessity  of  admitting  volunteers  from  other  countries  to  man 
our  merchant-ships.  The  consequence  is  that,  from  our  multipli- 
ed intercourse  with  those,  secondary  states,  their  seamen,  in  time 
of  war,  tempted  by  higher  wages  and  other  advantages,  assist  in 
manning  our  merchant-ships,  and  thereby  afford  us  great  facili- 
ties for  carrying  on  our  extensive  commerce.  On  the  restoration 
of  peace,  these  volunteers  are,  most  of  them,  forced  to  seek  em- 
ployment again  in  the  merchantmen  of  their  own  countries ;  and 
their  return  thither  contributes  to  give  increased  activity  to  the 
commercial  marine  of  those  countries. 

If,  therefore,  by  this  system  of  extended  reciprocity,  a  some- 
what larger  share  of  the  carrying  trade  between  Great  Britain 
and  these  secondary  states  devolve  to  their  shipping,  in  time  of 
43  3  0 


506  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

peace,  so  far  as  this  participation  is  obtained  at  the  expense  of 
any  diminished  employment  for  our  own  shipping,  we  may  regret 
the  diminution :  at  the  same  time,  if  the  circumstances  which 
lead  to  it  be  unavoidable,  it  is  some  consolation  to  know,  that  the 
corresponding  increase,  elsewhere,  is  divided  among  those  coun- 
tries which  cannot  be  dangerous,  and  are  likely  to  be  most  useful 
to  us,  in  time  of  war. 

The  Timber  trade  with  Norway  has,  at  all  times,  been  carried 
on  chiefly  in  the  ships  of  that  country.  They  are  built  for  the 
purpose,  in  the  cheapest  manner,  but  so  rudely  constructed,  as  to 
be  unfit  for  the  conveyance  of  almost  any  other  article.  In  re- 
spect to  the  Prussian  timber  ships,  they  are  also  of  a  construction 
very  inferior  to  the  shipping  of  this  country,  built  for  the  purpose 
of  general  trade.  We  are  told  by  most  of  the  Petitioners,  and 
figures  are  adduced  to  prove  the  statements,  that  they  are  sent 
to  sea  and  navigated  at  less  than  one-half  of  the  expense  of  British 
ships.  If  it  be  so,  the  restoration  of  the  discriminating  duty,  to 
the  repeal  of  which  these  Petitioners  attribute  all  their  present 
difficulties,  would  be  of  little  avail  to  protect  them.  That  pro- 
tection was  25.  9d.  upon  a  load  of  timber,  being  the  difference 
between  575.  9^?.,  the  duty  in  a  foreign,  and  555.,  the  duty  in  a 
British  ship,  exclusive  of  some  difference  on  account  of  lower 
port  charges,  and  light  money,  paid  by  the  British  ship.  Against 
this  advantage,  therefore,  in  our  ports  was  to  be  set  off  the  alien 
duty  of  35.  If  ^.  a  ton,  imposed  on  British  ships  in  the  Prussian 
ports,  whether  with  a  cargo  or  in  ballast.  The  balance,  there- 
fore, on  our  side  would  be  next  to  nothing, — totally  inadequate, 
upon  the  showing  of  the  petitioners,  as  protection; — but  just 
enough  to  excite  irritation,  and  to  afford  a  pretence  for  vexatious 
restrictions  on  British  commerce,  and  on  the  introduction  of 
British  manufactures  into  the  Prussian  dominions.  It  has  also 
been  stated  by  some  of  the  petitioners,  that  ship-building  in  this 
country  is  rendered  more  expensive  by  taxes  on  the  materials, 
from  which  other  countries  are  exempt.  I  am  not  aware  that, 
in  the  petition  from  the  Shipping  Interest  in  the  port  of  London, 
praying  for  a  continuance  of  the  discriqninating  duties,  the  Peti- 
tioners urge  the  direct  taxation  upon  the  materials  employed  in 
ship-building,  as  a  ground  of  complaint.  It  has  been  alleged,  that 
the  Americans  build  their  ships  upon  cheaper  terms  than  we  do. 
This  I  do  not  believe.  Timber,  I  admit,  is  cheaper  in  the  United 
States,  but  almost  every  other  article  employed  in  ship-building  is 
as  dear  as,  and  several  of  them  dearer  than,  in  this  country. 
Labour  likewise  is  dearer,  and  the  pay  of  the  crew  full  as  high  as, 
if  not  higher  than,  in  England. 

After  all,  there  is  nothing  new  in  the  complaints  now  made  of 
the  increased  employment  of  the  Shipping  of  the  Northern  powers, 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  507 

in  their  trade  with  this  country.  Similar  complaints  were  made 
after  the  American  war.  In  the  year  1786,  the  ship-owners  repre- 
sented that  our  laws  gave  too  great  an  advantage  to  foreign  ships, 
and  especially  to  the  foreign  ships  employed  in  the  importation 
of  timber  from  the  Baltic. 

In  consequence  of  this  representation,  the  Board  of  Trade  of 
that  day  entered  upon  an  inquiry  into  the  subject.  Mr.  Reeves, 
in  his  work  on  the  Law  of  Shipping  and  Navigation,  states,  in 
reference  to  this  inquiry,  that — 

"  In  the  year  1786,  it  was  observed,  that  the  quantity  of  foreign 
ships  employed  in  the  importation  of  goods  from  Denmark,  Nor- 
way, Sweden,  and  the  East  country,  was  much  greater  in  pro- 
portion to  the  British,  than  the  foreign  tonnage  employed  in  other 
trades;  and  that  it  was  increasing  in  general,  and  the  British 
shipping  employed  in  some  of  these  trades  was,  at  the  same  time, 
decreasing.  A  reference  was  made,  in  consequence,  to  the  Board 
of  Customs,  to  see  whether  it  might  not  be  proper  to  augment 
the  duty,  called  the  Alien's  Duty,  or  petty  custom,  on  such  of  the 
goods  enumerated  and  described  in  the  eighth  and  ninth  sections 
of  the  Act  of  Navigation  as  were  then  subject  to  it,  and  were 
imported  from  the  before-mentioned  countries ;  and  whether  such 
increase  would  materially  operate  to  increase  the  burthens  on, 
and  consequently  the  prices  of,  those  articles,  if  such  duty  were 
increased  gradually;  that  is,  by  making  it  double  from  the  first 
of  January,  1787,  and  treble  from  the  first  of  January,  1788:  and 
in  case  the  Board  of  Customs  should  be  of  such  opinion,  then 
they  were  called  upon  to  consider,  whether  some  advantage 
might  not  be  given  to  British-built  ships  employed  in  those  trades, 
by  lowering  the  duties  on  those  articles  when  imported  in  such 
ships ;  or  whether  both  these  methods  might  not  be  pursued  in 
such  proportions  as  might  best  attain  the  end  proposed,  and  not 
materially  affect  the  revenue. 

As  it  does  not  appear  that  recourse  was  had  to  these  expe- 
dients, it  is  to  be  inferred  that,  upon  further  consideration,  it  was 
found  that  it  would  not  be  safe  to  risk  the  experiment.  The 
Northern  Powers  had  not  then  complained  of  our  existing  alien 
charges  upon  their  shipping ;  they  had  taken  no  steps  to  coun- 
tervail those  charges  in  their  ports ;  but  did  it  follow  that  they 
would  continue  passive,  if  a  question  then  at  rest  had  been  dis- 
turbed, by  increasing  those  charges  in  the  manner  suggested? 
In  my  opinion,  to  leave  the  question  at  rest,  as  long  as  possible, 
was  the  wisest  policy  for  this  country.  It  was  the  policy  pursued 
until  the  matter  was  taken  up,  not  by  us,  but  by  the  United  States 
of  America,  and  in  succession  by  other  powers.  In  that  state 
of  things,  and  after  the  arrangements  which  we  had  entered  into 
with  those  powers,  acting  upon  the  necessity  of  the  case,  I  felt, 


508  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

in  the  course  of  the  last  session,  that  it  would  be  better  to  make 
our  laws  upon  this  point  square  with  our  practice ; — better,  as 
one  general  rule, — first,  to  tender  to  all  nations  alike,  and  indis- 
criminately, equal  facilities  of  commerce  and  navigation,  and 
equal  inducements  to  visit  the  ports  of  this  country  with  their 
merchandize,  either  for  our  own  consumption,  or  in  the  way  of 
transit  {entrepot)  to  other  parts  of  the  world: — secondly,  to 
abolish  all  discriminating  duties  affecting  differently  the  like  pro- 
ductions of  foreign  countries,  and,  in  lieu  thereof,  to  establish  one 
uniform  tariff  for  the  whole : — and,  thirdly,  to  reduce  that  tariff 
to  the  lowest  degree,  consistent  in  each  particular  article  with 
the  two  legitimate  objects  of  all  duties, — either  the  collection  of 
the  necessary  public  revenue,  or  the  protection  requisite  for  the 
maintenance  of  our  own  internal  industry.  These  are  the  prin- 
ciples according  to  which  our  new  Book  of  Rates  has  been 
formed,  and  the  consolidation  of  our  innumerable  and,  in  many 
instances,  inconsistent  and  contradictory  Laws  of  Customs  been 
affected. 

A  few  observations  on  our  Commercial  Policy,  with  regard  to 
our  Colonies  abroad,  will  bring  me,  I  hope,  to  the  conclusion  of 
this  important  investigation.  The  former  colonial  system  of  this 
country  was  simply  this,  that  our  possessions  abroad  should  re- 
ceive all  their  supplies  from  hence  in  British  shipping,  and  they 
were  prohibited  from  trading  directly  with  any  other  country. 
But  so  early  as  the  year  1783, — the  year  in  which  we  recognized 
the  independence  of  the  United  States  of  America,  it  occurred  to 
the  Government  at  home,  that  it  might  be  somewhat  hard  to  re- 
quire of  the  West-India  Colonies  to  draw  all  their  supplies  from 
the  mother  country.  What,  then,  was  the  line  adopted  ?  Orders 
in  Council  allowing  those  colonies  to  trade  directly  with  the 
United  States  of  America  in  British  Shipping,  were  passed,  from 
time  to  time,  as  occasion  required,  and  the  Ministers,  as  often, 
came  down  to  Parliament  for  Bills  of  Indemnity,  for  having  so 
far  violated  the  plantation  laws. 

In  process  of  time,  however,  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  jealous  of  a  trade,  in  which  British  Shipping  alone  was 
employed,  said  to  this  country, — "  If  you  want  the  productions 
of  our  country  for  the  use  of  your  colonies,  and  will  not  allow  us 
to  send  them  in  our  ships,  we  will  entirely  prohibit  the  exporta- 
tion to  your  colonies  in  British  Shipping,  of  those  articles  of  which 
your  colonies  stand  in  need."  They  did  so.  The  British  Govern- 
ment had  then  recourse  to  another  expedient,  in  order  to  avert 
the  threatened  inconvenience,  and  at  the  same  time  to  avoid  any 
positive  alteration  of  our  Navigation  Laws.  A  sort  of  open  mart 
or  fair  was  established  at  some  half-way  place  between  the  coast 
of  America  and  the  West  Indies,  to  which  the  ships  of  the  United 


i 

OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  509 

States  came,  and  where,  being  met  by  our  traders,  the  respec- 
tive parties  interchanged  commodities,  according  to  their  mutual 
wants. 

But  the  Government  of  the  United  States  again  interfered,  and 
prohibited  their  ships  from  this  trade.  After  a  suspension  of  inter- 
course had  continued  for  some  time.  Parliament,  in  the  year 
1822,  passed  an  Act,  by  which  American  ships  were  allowed  to 
trade  directly  between  the  United  States  and  our  colonies  in  the 
West-Indies  and  North  America. 

Now,  let  me  ask,  was  it  politic,  was  it  altogether  consistent 
with  impartiality  and  our  friendly  relations  with  the  North  of 
Europe,  to  grant  to  the  shipping  of  the  United  States^  first,  in  the 
trade  between  them  and  this  country,  by  the  treaty  of  1815;  and, 
secondly  in  the  trade,  by  this  Act  regularly  legalized,  between 
those  states  and  our  colonies,  privileges  which  we  continued  to 
deny  to  the  shipping  of  Prussia,  of  Denmark,  of  Sweden,  of 
Hamburg,  and  of  other  trading  communities  of  Europe  ?  Upon 
what  principle  of  fairness,  upon  what  principle  of  sound  policy, 
were  we  to  continue  this  preference  exclusively  to  a  power, 
towards  which,  God  knows,  I  entertain  no  feeling  of  hostility, — 
far  from  it; — but  when  I  am  speaking  of  that  nation  in  a  British 
House  of  Commons,  it  is  not  improper  to  say,  that  in  matters  of 
navigation  and  naval  power,  there  exists  towards  us  a  spirit  of 
rivalry  in  the  United  States ; — a  spirit  of  which  I  do  not  com- 
plain, but  which  should  incline  every  Englishman  to  doubt  the 
wisdom  of  any  measure,  tending  to  encourage  the  growth  of  the 
commercial  marine  of  America,  by  giving  to  it  privileges  greater 
than  are  permitted  to  the  shipping  of  other  states : — states  less 
jealous  of  our  maritime  ascendancy  in  time  of  war,  and,  at  all 
times,  confining  their  views  upon  the  ocean  to  the  industrious 
employment  of  their  sea-faring  people,  without  looking  to  the 
ulterior  object  of,  one  day,  disputing  with  us  the  dominion  of  that 
ocean. 

Considering  therefore,  the  Act  of  1822,  and  the  changes  which 
had  taken  place  in  the  Colonial  System  of  other  Powers,   it 
appeared  to  me,  that  the  time  was  arrived  when,  upon  every 
sound  principle,  it  would  be  right  to  extend  to  the  foreign  ship-  [yi^J^" 
ping  of  Europe,  the  same  privilege  of  trading  with  our  colonies    ff/C\^., 
in  the  New  World,  which  had  been  granted  to  the  shipping  of    ) 
America;  and  also  to  give  a  greater  facility  and  extension  to 
the  intercourse  between  foreign  countries  and  our  colonies  gene- 
rally ; — strictly  confining,  however,  to  British  shipping  only  all 
trade  between  this  country  and  the  colonies,  and  all  inter-colo- 
nial trade  between  the  different  foreign  possessions  of  the  British 
empire. 
43* 


510  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

Whether  we  look  to  the  interests  of  our  commerce,  which  are 
also  the  interests  of  our  navigation; — whether  we  look  to  the 
separate  interests  of  the  colonies,  or  to  the  general  interests  of  the 
parent  country ; — or  whether  we  consider  the  changes  which 
have  recently  taken  place,  especially  in  the  New  World ; — all 
these  considerations  appear  to  me  to  concur  in  support  of  the 
measures  to  which  I  have  referred,  and  the  enlarged  views  of 
poHcy  upon  which  they  are  founded. 

Shipping,  like  other  branches  of  business  in  this  country,  is 
liable  to  fluctuation.  There  may  be  great  excitement  at  one  pe- 
riod, and  great  depression  at  another.  Last  year,  for  instance, 
the  demand  far  exceeded  the  means  of  the  British  ship-owners  to 
supply  it.  The  price  of  freight  for  foreign  adventures  was,  in 
consequence,  so  much  raised  as  to  become  a  very  serious  injury 
and  interruption  to  other  branches  of  navigation,  especially  to 
our  Coasting  trade.  Yet,  such  was  the  unbridled  rage  for  specu- 
lation which  then  prevailed,  that  our  tonnage  could  not  keep  pace 
with  it,  and  foreign  vessels  were  taken  up  in  every  port  of  Europe, 
not  from  a  preference,  but  because  British  ships  could  not  be 
procured.  This  is  not  the  proper  occasion  to  inquire  into  the 
origin  of  the'  almost  universal  mania  which  appears  to  have  seized 
upon  merchants  and  manufacturers,  not  of  this  country  only,  but, 
more  or  less,  upon  those  of  other  countries,  during  the  last  year. 
It  is  now  too  generally  seen  and  admitted,  even  by  those  who 
were  most  infected  by  that  mania,  that  their  speculations  were 
carried  on  without  reference  to  the  habitual  scale  of  our  con- 
sumption, or  to  the  rapid  accumulation  of  goods,  or  to  any  of 
those  circumstances  which,  in  their  calmer  moments,  direct  the 
operations  of  commercial  men.  When  prices  had  risen,  in  the 
first  instance,  from  natural  causes  perhaps,  speculation  soon  forced 
a  further  and  more  rapid  rise,  and  the  only  inference,  for  a  time, 
among  buyers,  seems  to  have  been,  that  it  would  continue  pro- 
gressive, and  almost  indefinite. 

Connecting  this  rage  for  speculation  with  the  employment  of 
Shipping,  the  House  will  be  surprised  to  hear  in  what  a  degree 
the  quantity  of  bulky  articles  from  foreign  countries  and  from  our 
possessions  in  North  America,  in  the  last  year,  exceeded  the 
importations  of  former  years.  In  the  year  1822,  the  total  import- 
ation of  timber  from  foreign  countries  was  140,715  loads — in 
1825,  it  amounted  to  not  less  than  301,548. 

1822.  1826. 

Of  flax cwts.  607,143  -    -    1,042,956 

Of  tallow        do.    805,238  -    -     1,164,029 

Of  wool lbs.  19,048,879  -,-43,700,553 

Of  linseed bush.  1,411,137  -    -    2,876,571 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  511 

From  British  America. 

1822.  1825. 

Of  timber        loads,  345,741  -    -      467,565 

Ashes         cwts.  135,983  -    -      210,781 

Masts  from  all  Parts  of  the  World. 
Under  twelve  inches  in  diameter,        No.   14,484    -    -        19,016 
Above         -        do.       -    -    -    -        loads,  4,577    -    -  8,698* 

The  result  of  all  this  overtrading  of  last  year,  of  which  I  have 
selected  only  a  few  instances,  is  the  depression  which  now  pre- 
vails, the  interruption  of  connmercial  credit,  the  great  diminution 
of  employment  for  manufacturing  labour  in  this  country,  and  the  /:i  |yjL> 
general  derangement  of  business  in  the  countries  with  which  our  ;  r-L  s 
principal  interchange  of  commodities  is  carried  on.  I  deplore 
this  state  of  things,  not  the  less,  certainly,  because  it  is  not  con- 
fined to  this  country :  and  in  alluding  to  the  sufferings  of  others, 
I  do  so,  not  as  a  source  of  consolation  to  ourselves,  but  as  evi- 
dence, that  this  derangement  is  to  be  traced  to  some  cause  of 
more  extensive  effect  than  the  municipal  regulations  of  this 
country. 

It  would  be  matter  of  surprise  if,  amidst  this  almost  universal 
stagnation  of  demand,  the  Shipping  interest,  which  had  fully  par- 
ticipated in  the  extraordinary  activity  of  the  preceding  period, 
should  not  partake  of  the  languor  by  which  it  is  now  succeeded. 
In  looking  dispassionately  at  this  or  any  other  of  the  leading  in-  /  j 
terests  of  this  country,  we  must  not  draw  our  conclusions  from  \  y  '^^" 
extreme  cases  either  way.  We  must  also  recollect  that  ship- 
ping, in  common  with  every  other  mode  of  employing  capital 
and  industry,  when  it  seeks  a  foreign  market,  is  liable  to  be 
affected  by  a  competition  with  other  countries,  and  by  acts  of 
foreign  states,  over  which  we  can  have  no  control.  As  far  as 
exclusion  is  within  our  reach, — in  the  coasting  trade, — in  the 
fisheries, — in  the  trade  between  this  country  and  our  foreign  pos- 
sessions, we  grant  a  strict  monopoly  to  the  British  ship-owner. 
It  is  our  duty  to  maintain  and  enforce  that  monopoly,  not  for  his 
special  advantage,  but  for  the  public  interest.  It  is  further  our 
duty  to  give  him  every  legitimate  countenance  and  protection  in 
the  trade  of  this  country  with  other  maritime  countries ;  but  if 
any  branch  of  that  trade  is  interfered  with,  either  by  new  regu- 
lations in  those  countries,  or  by  the  erection  of  territories,  once 
colonies,  into  an  independent  state,  however  we  may  regret  the 
circumstances,  as  affecting  our  ancient  navigation  system,  it  may 
not  be  in  our  power  to  overrule  those  circumstances. 

In  such  a  state  of  things,  our  policy  must  be,  retaining  the  im- 
portant principles  of  that  system  as  much  as  possible,  to  adapt  it 

*  Pari.  Papers,  Session  1826,  v.  xxii.  n.  374. 


512  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION 

to  the  change  in  our  situation,  and  to  the  altered  relation  in  which 
we  stand  to  the  parties  with  which  we  have  to  deal. 

The  first  effect  of  such  inevitable  changes,  either  in  navigation 
or  trade,  is,  usually,  more  or  less,  to  derange  the  interests*  upon 
which  they  immediately  bear:  but  the  temporary  difficulty  is 
generally  overcome  by  the  speedy  opening  of  fresh  channels  of 
employment,  and  is  soon  merged  in  the  increased  enterprise  which 
attracts  capital  and  shipping  to  some  other  quarter.  This  was 
the  case  after  the  separation  of  the  British  Colonies  in  North 
America;  and  I  hope  for  a  similar  issue  on  the  present  .occasion. 

We  are  all  agreed  that  our  Commercial  Marine  is  the  foundation 
of  our  naval  power,  and  that  the  maintenance  of  that  power  is  the 
paramount  duty  of  those  who  administer  the  affairs  of  this  country. 
In  an  enquiry  like  this,  therefore,  the  most  important  question  for 
the  consideration  of  the  House  is,  not  the  detail  of  each  separate 
branch  of  trade  in  which  our  commercial  marine  was  employed 
in  any  particular  year,  but  its  aggregate  amount  at  this  time,  com- 
pared with  the  aggregate  amount  at  some  antecedent  period. 

Now,  Sir,  I  have  already  stated  what  that  amount  was  at  the 
breaking  out  of  the  last  war  in  1793,  and  what  it  is  at  the  present 
time.  The  comparison,  taken  by  itself,  certainly  affords  no  ground 
for  despondency  or  alarm.  But,  in  making  this  comparison,  in 
reference  to  our  military  marine,  we  are  also  to  bear  in  mind,  that 
in  1793,  both  the  military  and  commercial  marine  of  France  and 
Spain  were  much  more  numerous  than  they  are  at  present.  The 
navy  of  Spain,  once  so  powerful,  has  dwindled  almost  to  nothing; 
her  merchant-ships  have  nearly  disappeared  from  the  ocean.  The 
navy  of  France  is  less  numerous  and  less  formidable  than  it  was 
at  the  breaking  out  of  the  revolution,  and  her  commercial  ship- 
ping, though  reviving  since  the  peace,  is  probably,  at  this  moment, 
not  more  than  one-half  of  its  amount  in  1792.  On  the  other  hand, 
whether  we  look  to  the  number  of  ships  of  war,  to  the  means  of 
manning  those  ships,  to  the  general  spirit  which  pervades  every 
%  branch  of  the  service,  or  to  any  other  element  of  naval  power, 
what  a  contrast  between  our  situation  at  the  close  of  the  last  and 
of  the  American  war !  Can  we  forget  the  period  when  the  com- 
bined fleet  of  the  House  of  Bourbon  was  master  of  the  British 
Channel, — when  a  West-India  Convoy  was  obliged  to  assemble  at 
Leith,  and  go  north  about,  in  order  to  escape  capture  by  an  ene- 
my's fleet,  within  sight  of  our  principal  sea-ports  ?  Can  we  forget 
when  Gibraltar,  blockaded  by  the  united  naval  forces  of  those 
same  powers,  was  relieved,  as  it  were,  by  stealth  ? — when  it  was 
considered  matter  of  just  praise  to  the  highly-distinguished  officer 
who  commanded  the  British  fleet  on  that  trying  ocasion,  that  in 
performing  this  service,  he  was  able  to  elude  the  vigilance  of  a 


OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM.  513 

superior  enemy,  and  to  return  to  England,  without  having  risked 
a  combat  ? 

These  are  among  the  recollections  which  belong  to  the  Ameri- 
can war.  How  different  from  those  which  connect  themselves  with 
the  war  by  which  it  was  succeeded  !  That  our  sway  on  every  part 
of  the  ocean  was  undisputed  by  the  naval  power  not  of  France 
and  Spain  only,  but  of  all  Europe,  before  the  close  of  the  last  war, 
is  matter  of  notoriety.  In  fact,  the  British  navy  was  then  occupied 
in  the  blockade  of  every  naval  arsenal  of  its  enemies;  and  this, 
for  the  last  years  of  the  war,  formed  its  principal  employment 
in  Europe. 

When  we  began  that  war,  in  the  course  of  which  we  achieved 
so  many  victories,  our  commercial  marine  was  three-fifths  of  its 
present  amount.  Our  seamen  ifi  the  King's  navy,  16,000,  instead 
of  30,000,  their  present  number.  We  had  then  no  reserve  of  vet- 
eran seamen,  receiving  for  former  services  an  annual  allowance 
from  the  State.  We  have  now  such  a  reserve,  amounting  to  many 
thousands,  all  of  whom  are  liable,  upon  an  emergency,  to  be  called 
upon  by  the  Admiralty,  and  of  whom  a  large  proportion  would,  I 
have  no  doubt,  be  found  as  efficient  as  before  their  discharge.  Our 
ships,  likewise,  are  in  a  more  complete  state,  and  better  prepared 
with  all  the  ineans  of  speedy  equipment,  than  at  any  former  period 
of  peace.  Never,  I  will  venture  to  affirm,  was  there  a  time  when 
the  country  might  rest  with  greater  confidence  and  satisfaction 
on  the  sufficiency  of  its  naval  resources  than  at  the  present.  But 
we  are  told,  and  I  am  ready  to  admit  it,  that  if  the  naval  resources 
of  France  and  Spain  have  declined,  a  new  and  formidable  power 
has  grown  up  in  the  United  States  of  America.  I  have  already 
stated,  that  the  maritime  means  of  that  country  had,  from  peculiar 
circumstances,  been  considerably  benefited  during  the  late  war, 
which  lasted  so  long,  and  spread  so  generally  through  Europe, 
But,  if  the  commercial  marine  of  the  United  States  increased 
during  that  period,  our  own  advanced  in  a  greater  amount.  Since 
the  restoration  of  a  general  peace,  the  Shipping  of  both  countries 
has  rather  decreased.  The  diminution  in  that  of  the  United  States 
has  been  stated  at  168,000  tons,  which  I  believe  to  be  fully  equal 
to  any  diminution  that  has  occurred  in  this  country.  I  am  war- 
ranted, therefore,  in  concluding  that,  upon  a  comparison  of  our 
commercial  marine  with  the  commercial  marine  of  other  powers^ 
we  have  no  reason  to  apprehend  any  of  the  difficulties  now  which 
the  Petitioners  predict,  and  that  our  naval  means  are  fully  ade- 
quate to  any  possible  emergency  which  may  compel  us  to  call 
them  into  exertion. 

If,  Sir,  I  have  trespassed  too  long  upon  the  time  of  the  House, 
my  apology,  I  trust,  will  be  found  in  the  vital  importance  of  the 
subject.    The  severe  distress,  under  which  the  country  now  la* 

3P 


514  STATE  OF  THE  NAVIGATION  OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM. 

hours,  is  attributed,  in  some  quarters,  to  the  changes  which  have 
recently  taken  place  in  our  Navigation  System,  and  in  our  Com- 
mercial Policy.  If  any  honourable  members  entertain  that  opinion, 
all  that  I  ask  of  them  is  to  come  forward,  and  point  out  distinctly 
to  the  House  the  specific  changes  to  which  they  ascribe  these  con- 
sequences. It  is  for  them  to  show,  if  they  can,  by  evidence,  or  by 
argument,  the  connexion  of  cause  and  effect  between  those  changes 
and  the  difficulties  in  which  the  country  is  now,  unhappily,  involved. 
Let  them  give  a  notice,  and  appoint  a  day  for  that  purpose.  This 
would  be  the  manly  course  to  pursue, — it  was  the  course  taken 
by  the  honourable  member  for  Coventry,*  on  the  question  of  the 
Trade  in  Foreign  Silks.  For  having  taken  this  course  I  return  him 
my  sincere  acknowledgments.  To  follow  his  example  is  the  only 
favour  I  ask  of  those  who  heap  abuse  upon  the  measures  in  ques- 
tion, or  who  excite  clamour  out  of  doors,  against  the  individual, 
upon  whom  has  been  devolved  the  task,  however  imperfectly  exe- 
cuted, of  submitting  those  measures,  on  the  part  of  his  Majesty's 
Government,  for  the  approbation  and  sanction  of  parliament. 

The  right  honourable  gentleman  concluded  by  moving  for 
copies  of  the  several  Accounts  and  Returns  to  which  he  had  re- 
ferred in  the  course  of  his  speech. 

Mr.  Baring  said,  there  was  hardly  a  single  point  in  the  elaborate  detail  of 
the  right  honourable  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  in  which  he  did  not 
concur ;  and  he  rose,  not  so  much  with  the  intention  of  following  the  right 
honourable  gentleman's  remarks,  as  with  that  of  thanking  him  for  the  able 
manner  in  which  he  had  developed  his  views,  and  for  the  general  System 
which  he  proposed  to  adopt,  with  respect  to  our  Domestic  and  Foreign  Ship- 
ping. Mr.  Hume  repelled  the  outcry  which  had  been  raised  against  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  the  right  honourable  gentleman  had  been  recently  acting. 
Nothing,  he  said,  could  be  more  unjust  than  such  an  outcry :  the  evils  under 
which  the  Shipping  Interest  now  laboured,  were  not  to  be  attributed  to  the 
change  of  system  which  the  right  honourable  gentleman  had  introduced,  but 
to  the  weight  of  taxation  under  which  the  country  was  labouring,  Mr.  Charles 
Grant  said,  that  the  great  object  which  his  right  honourable  friend  wished  to 
accomplish  by  his  Statement  of  that  night,  was  to  prove  to  the  nation,  that  the 
complaints  made  against  him  out  of  doors  were  utterly  unfounded,  and  that 
the  measures  which  he  had  introduced  had  not  had  any  effect  in  diminishing 
the  Commercial  Marine  of  the  country,  but,  on  the  contrary,  had  considera- 
bly increased  it.     The  motion  was  agreed  to. 

*  Mr.  EUice. 


(    515     ) 


JOINT-STOCK  COMPANIES  FORMED    DURING    THE 
YEARS  1824,  1825,  and  1826. 

DECEMBER  5th,  1826. 

This  day,  Mr.  Alderman  Waithman  called  the  attention  of  the  House  to 
the  Joint-Stock  Companies  which  had  been  formed  during  the  last  three 
years.  They  amounted,  he  said,  in  number,  to  no  fewer  than  six  hundred, 
and  required,  for  the  execution  of  their  intended  operations,  a  capital  of  many 
millions.  He  complained  of  the  dishonest  views  with  which  they  were 
originally  set  on  foot;  the  knavery  by  which  a  fictitious  value  was,  for  a 
time,  given  to  shares  which  had  cost  nothing,  that  the  solid  differences  be- 
tween imaginary  prices  might  fill  the  pockets  of  the  gambling  speculators ; 
and  of  the  misery  and  ruin  produced  by  this  systematic  swindling.  In  par- 
ticular, he  instanced  the  conduct  of  the  Directors  of  the  Arigna  Mining 
Company,  and  concluded  with  moving  "  That  a  Select  Committee  be  appoint- 
ed to  inquire  into  the  origin,  management,  and  present  state  of  the  Joint- 
Stock  Companies,  which  had  been  formed  during  the  years  1824,  1825, 
and  1826,  and  to  report  the  same,  with  any  special  matter  touching  the  con- 
duct of  any  member  of  that  House."  Mr.  Canning  objected  to  the  extent  of 
the  inquiry,  which,  he  said,  to  be  useful,  must  be  limited  and  precise:  but, 
as  enough  had  passed  to  afford  strong  grounds  for  suspicion,  that  in  the  af- 
fairs of  the  Arigna  Company  there  was  matter  deserving  of  inquiry,  he 
would  move  an  amendment,  limiting  the  labours  of  the  Committee  to  the 
management  and  history  of  that  Company.  Mr.  Attwood  entered  into  an  able 
defence  of  Joint-Stock  Companies,  against  the  wholesale  accusation  brought 
against  them  by  the  honourable  alderman.  There  was,  he  said,  no  more  harm 
in  buying  or  selling  a  share,  than  there  was  in  purchasing  or  selling  a  shawl. 
For  himself,  he  could  safely  say,  that  he  was  not  aware  of  having  ever  been 
engaged  in  a  single  Company,  which  could  be  deemed  derogatory  to  his  sta- 
tion as  a  member  of  parliament.  Were  they,  he  asked,  to  infer  bad  conduct, 
because  of  the  connection  of  a  member  with  some  of  these  Companies  1  If 
so,  then  even  the  right  honourable  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  was 
not  safe ;  for,  so  far  back  as  the  year  1822,  he  had  been  connected  with  one 
of  them  ;  but  nobody  doubted,  that  it  was  because  he  thought  such  Compa- 
nies advantageous  to  the  Public,  and  because  there  were  men  amongst  them 
of  sound  character  and  strict  integrity. 

Mr.  HusKissopf  s.iid,  that  as  an  allusion  had  been  made  to  him, 
it  became  his  turn  to  explain  what  had  been  his  conduct,  during 
the   prevalence  of  the  occurrences  which   had  been  so  much 


616  JOINT-STOCK  COMPANIES. 

alluded  to.  The  honourable  member  for  Callington*  was,  how- 
ever, under  some  mistake,  or  misapprehension,  when  he  insinu- 
ated that  he  had  had  the  least  connection  with  any  of  these  specu- 
lations. He  could  assure  him,  that  neither  directly  nor  indirectly, 
had  he  had  the  least  share,  or  interest,  in  any  Company  which 
,had  been  formed  in  the  years  1824,  1825,  1826.  He  had,  indeed, 
an  interest  in  one  of  the  oldest  Insurance  Companies  of  the  coun- 
try, but  it  had  remained  of  the  same  amount  during  the  last 
twenty  years.  It  was  not,  however,  because  he  held  a  particu- 
lar situation  under  the  Government,  that  he  felt  himself  disqualified 
from  applying  his  private  property  to  such  beneficial  purposes  as 
fairly  presented  themselves  to  his  view ;  but  the  fact  was,  that  he 
had  never  thought  of  embarking  in  these  speculations,  and,  with 
the  exception  of  some  inconsiderable  shares  in  two  canals,  one  of 
them  near  his  country  residence,  and  the  other  locally  connected 
with  his  interests  in  another  point  of  view,  he  had  never  been  in 
any  way  engaged  in  these  Companies. 

If  the  honourable  member  alluded  to  the  Company  which  had 
been  formed  to  promote  the  growth  of  silk  in  Ireland,  he  would 
explain,  in  a  few  words,  all  the  connection  he  had  had  with  that 
Company.  When  the  parties  who  had  projected  it  came  to  the 
Board  of  Trade,  he  had  specifically  stated  to  them,  that  though 
he  thought  it  a  desirable  experiment,  and  wished  it  to  have  a  fair 
trial,  and  though,  under  other  circumstances,  he  might  have  felt 
disposed  to  take  an  interest  in  it,  yet,  considering  the  situation  he 
held,  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  he  could  not  expose 
himself  to  the  misapprehension  that  would  be  likely  to  arise  from 
his  so  doing.  When  the  parties  applied  to  him,  to  know  what 
number  of  shares  would  be  taken,  he  informed  them,  that  there 
must  have  been  some  misconception  as  to  the  intentions  of  the 
Government,  which  was  desirous  only  of  giving  that  degree  of 
countenance  to  the  experiment,  which  might  facilitate  the  object 
of  providing  employment  to  a  large  portion  of  the  population  of 
Ireland.  Such  was  the  nature  of  this  appHcation,  and  such  the 
answer  which  had  been  given  on  the  part  of  the  Government ; 
and  he  defied  the  honourable  gentleman  to  point  out  a  single 
speculation,  of  any  description,  with  which  he  had  the  slightest 
connection,  either  directly  or  indirectly. 

He  had  heard  with  great  satisfaction  the  very  sound  and  able 
vindication  which  the  honourable  member  for  Callington  had  been 
enabled,  from  his  personal  knowledge  and  individual  information, 
to  give  of  the  benefit  and  utility  of  Joint-Stock  Companies.  It  was 
extremely  desirable  that  some  explanation  should  go  forth  to  the 
Public,  which  might  counteract  the  unmeasured  condemnation 

*  Mr.  Attwood. 


JOINT-STOCK  COMPANIES.  517 

which  the  honourable  alderman  had  thought  proper  to  pronounce 
upon  these  Companies.  If  there  was  one  circumstance  to  which, 
more  than  another,  this  country  owed  its  weakh  and  its  com- 
mercial advantages,  it  was  the  existence  of  Joint-Stock  Compa- 
nies. Its  canals,  its  bridges,  all  its  great  works,  had  been  carried 
on  by  Joint-Stock  Companies  ;  and  it  was  an  advantage  peculiar 
to  this  country,  that  such  important  undertakings  were  conducted 
by  individuals  interested  in  their  success:  whereas,  in  other 
countries,  where  they  were  left  to  the  care  of  the  Government, 
they  were  often  neglected  and  left  unfinished.  Many  of  these 
works  had  been  extremely  disadvantageous  to  the  persons  who 
had  originally  embarked  in  them.  This  had  been  the  case  with 
regard  to  the  New  River  Company.  It  must  be  admitted,  that 
there  could  hardly  be  a  greater  benefit  to  a  populous  city  than  an 
abundant  supply  of  pure  and  wholesome  water.  The  individuals, 
however,  by  whom  this  project  w^as  originally  undertaken,  were 
involved  in'great  loss;  but,  ultimately,  the  Public  had  derived  the 

freatest  benefit  from  it,  and  the  successors  of  the  first  projectors 
ad  been  amply  remunerated.  The  same  thing  had  happened 
with  respect  to  many  of  our  Bridges  and  Harbours:  and,  in 
general,  it  might  be  observed,  that  it  was  one  of  the  circum- 
stances which  distinguished  this  country  above  all  others,  that 
great  and  important  works  were  conducted  by  Joint-Stock  Com- 
panies— not  always  to  the  interest  of  the  parties  who  embarked 
in  such  speculations,  but  uniformly  to  the  interest  and  advantage 
of  the  Public.  There  could  not,  therefore,  be  a  greater  error,  or 
a  greater  delusion,  than  that  under  which  it  had  been  attempted 
to  cry  down  Joint-Stock  Companies  as  pubHc  evils.  It  was  only 
in  the  last  session,  that  efl^orts  had  been  made  to  prevail  on  the 
Bank  of  England,  so  far  to  relax  its  charter,  as  to  admit  of  the 
formation  of  Joint-Stock  Companies,  with  a  view  of  rendering 
the  business  of  Banking  less  hazardous;  and  the  example  of  Scot- 
land was  cited,  where  there  was  no  impediment  to  the  formation 
of  such  Companies. 

The  honourable  alderman  had  talked  as  if  the  formation  of 
Joint-Stock  Companies,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  the  busi- 
ness of  Mining,  was  a  new  discovery.  He  could,  however,  tell 
the  honourable  alderman,  that  all  the  great  mining  works  in  this 
country  had  been  carried  on,  time  out  of  mind,  by  Joint-Stock 
Companies.  The  mines  in  Cornwall  and  in  Wales  had  been  con- 
ducted by  such  Companies.  No  man  could  regret  more  than  he 
did,  that  the  law  relating  to  Joint-Stock  Companies  was  not  more 
satisfactory;  for  while  its  object  should  be  to  control  the  ex- 
cesses to  which  such  Companies  were  liable,  it  should  also  aflTord 
proper  encouragement  to  those  by  whom  undertakings  of  public 
utility  were  first  designed.  It  was,  therefore,  mischievous  and 
44 


518  JOINT-STOCK  CX)MPANIES. 

impolitic  to  pass  a  sweeping  censure  on  Joint-Stock  Companies 
generally,  and  it  was  no  less  unfair  and  unwise  to  take  away  the 
characters  of  those  persons  who  might  happen  to  be  concerned 
in  them.  He  would  not  dispute  that  there  had  been  many  Bub- 
bles, as  they  were  called,  which  reflected  deep  disgrace  upon 
those  by  whom  they  had  been  concocted ;  but  he  must  repeat, 
that  many  of  the  projects  which  had  been  formed  were  likely  to 
conduce,  in  a  large  degree,  to  the  public  interest.  The  mischiev- 
ous effects  of  some  of  the  late  schemes  and  bubbles  were  but  too 
visible  in  the  ruin  and  destruction  of  many :  and  those  individuals 
on  whom  guilt  could  fairly  be  fastened,  deserved  that  disgrace 
which  their  proceedings  called  for.  Whenever  the  subject  of 
those  shameless  speculators  should  be  brought  under  the  con- 
sideration of  the  House,  he  would  raise,  as  he  always  had  raised, 
his  voice  against  them,  as  schemes  fraught  with  fraud  in  some 
instances,  and  with  hazard  and  obvious  folly,  in  others.  The 
honourable  alderman  had  particularly  alluded  to  the  Brick  Com- 
pany, and  to  the  Milk  Company,  and  some  others  of  a  like  de- 
scription. Of  these,  and  similar  wild  schemes,  he  had  already 
expressed  his  opinion  in  that  House;  and  he  had  warned  the 
public  against  connecting  themselves  with  schemes  which  had 
evidently  no  other  foundation  than  the  folly  or  avarice  of  the 
projectors.  He  wished  sincerely  that  the  law  was  so  constituted 
as  to  prevent  parties  from  engaging  in  such  delusions,  and  he  was 
quite  ready  to  agree  with  the  honourable  alderman,  that  when 
frauds  and  abuses,  either  in  Companies  or  individuals,  could  be 
proved,  they  ought  to  be  punished ;  but  while  he  thus  far  con- 
curred with  the  honourable  alderman,  he  could  not  join  in  the 
clamour  against  a  principle,  which  was  one  of  the  great  founda- 
tions of  our  commercial  prosperity,  and  which  he  considered 
essential  to  the  best  interests  of  the  country. 

The  amendment  was  agreed  to,  and  a  Committee  appointed. 


(     519     ) 


BATTLE    OF    NAVARIN. 

FEBRUARY  12th,  1828.* 

Mr.  Hobhouse  moved,  "  That  the  thanks  of  the  House  be  given  to  Vice- 
Admiral  Sir  Edward  Codrington,  Commander-in-Chief  of  his  Majesty's  Ships 
and  Vessels  in  the  Mediterranean,  for  his  able  and  gallant  conduct  in  the  suc- 
cessful and  decisive  Action  with  the  Turkish  Fleet  in  the  Bay  of  Navarin,  on 
the  26th  of  October  last."    After  the  motion  had  been  opposed  by  Mr.  Bankes, 

Mr.  Secretary  Huskisson  rose.  He  began  by  declaring  him- 
self disappointed  with  the  speech  of  the  honourable  member  who 

*  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  administration. 

Cabinet  Ministers. 

Earl  Bathurst Lord  President  of  the  Council. 

Lord  Lyndhurst Lord  Chancellor. 

Lord  Ellenborough  ------    Lord  Privy  Seal. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  -    -    -    -    First  Lord  of  the  Treasury. 

Right  Hon.  Henry  Goulbum  -    -    -    Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 

i  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Home  De- 
Right  Hon.  Robert  Peel    "    "    -       ^      partment. 

Earl  of  Dudley -    -     Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Afiairs. 

Right  Hon.  William  Huskisson  -      \  ^"/^  °^  ft'*  J?',  *'  °^P"'"*"' 
•^  C      of  War  and  the  Colonies. 

Viscount  Melville President  of  the  Board  of  Control. 

Earl  of  Aberdeen Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster. 

_,..,,       ^,     ,     ^  i  Treasurer  of  the  Navy,  and  President 

Right  Hon.  Charles  Grant     -    -      ^      of  the  Board  of  Trade. 

Viscount  Palmerston    -----    Secretary  at  War. 
Right  Hon.  J.  C.  Herries  -    -    -    -    Master  of  the  Mint 

Not  of  the  Cabinet. 

H.  R.  H.  the  Duke  of  Clarence  -    -    Lord  High  Admiral. 

Viscount  Beresford Master-General  of  the  Ordnance. 

i  First    Commissioner    of  Woods    and 
Right  Hon.  Charles  Arbuthnot  -      <      Forests. 

J.  Planta,  Esq. >  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury. 

G.  R.  Dawson,  Esq.      -    -    -    -       > 


520  BATTLE  OF  NAVARIN. 

spoke  last.  He  was  at  all  times  unwilling  to  address  the  House 
unnecessarily,  and  he  had  therefore  fondly  anticipated  that  the 
result  of  the  honourable  member's  speech  would  be  the  giving  of 
a  conclusive  argument  against  the  motion,  and  would  thereby 
render  it  unnecessary  for  him  to  trespass  on  their  patience.  But 
he  was  sorry  to  say  that  he  had  not  heard  from  the  honourable 
member  one  word  which  appeared  to  him  to  bear  upon  the  ques- 
tion before  the  House.  The  honourable  member  had  been  pleased, 
in  a  manner  which  was  not,  he  thought,  altogether  consistent 
with  the  usual  courtesy  of  parliamentary  proceedings,  to  enter 
into  a  discussion  upon  the  merits  of  our  intercourse  with  France 
and  Russia,  and  the  different  steps  taken  at  various  periods  with 
a  view  to  the  pacification  of  Greece.  Now,  he  really  thought 
that,  after  the  House  had  been  told  by  the  Ministers  of  the 
Crown  the  reasons  which  precluded  them — very  reluctantly — from 
giving  to  the  House  the  information  which  could  alone  enable 
Parliament  to  come  to  a  just  conclusion  on  the  subject,  it  would 
have  been  more  fair  and  consistent  to  have  adhered  to  the  line 
very  properly  chalked  out  by  the  honourable  member  for  West- 
minster— to  have  waived  the  consideration  of  the  policy  of  the 
treaty,  and  to  have  confined  his  attention  strictly  to  the  motion 
which,  he  could  not  avoid  saying,  had  been  so  indiscreetly  brought 
before  them. 

His  honourable  friend  had  said,  that  the  object  of  the  treaty, 
as  he  read  it,  was  totally  diflferent  from  that  of  the  protocol  which 
was  signed  at  St.  Petersburgh  in  April,  1826.  Now  he  utterly 
denied  that  position.  It  was  necessary  to  look  both  to  the  treaty 
and  to  the  protocol  for  the  objects  of  the  parties  to  them,  and  the 
motives  which  influenced  the  proceedings  they  had  adopted.  In 
•both  documents  the  objects  which  the  contracting  parties  pro- 
fessed to  have  in  view,  and  which  they  pledged  themselves  to 
effect,  were  the  reconciliation  of  the  Porte  with  Greece,  and  the 
pacification  of  the  Levant     These  were  the  objects  which  were 

Right  Hon.  W.  Vesey  Fitz  Gerald  -  Paymaster  of  the  Forces. 

Duke  of  Manchester Postmaster-General. 

Right  Hon.  T.  Frankland  Lewis     -  Vice  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade. 

Right  Hon.  Sir  John  Leach  -    -    -  Master  of  the  Rolls. 

Right  Hon.  Launcelot  Shadwell      -  Vice-Chancellor. 

Sir  Charles  Wetherell      -    -    -  ,  -  Attorney-General. 

Sir  N.  C.  Tindal Solicitor-General. 

Ministry  of  Ireland. 
Marquis  of  Anglesey    -----     Lord  Lieutenant. 

Sir  Anthony  Hart Lord  Chancellor. 

Right  Hon.  W.  Lamb Chief  Secretary. 


BATTLE  OF  NAVARIN.  521 

brought  prominently  forward.  His  honourable  friend  had  talked 
of  fraud,  conspiracy,  trick,  and  violence ;  but  he  certainly  could 
not  have  read  the  treaty  of  the  6th  of  July  attentively,  ff  he  had 
not  found  that  it  was  framed  with  the  view  of  re-establishing 
peace  between  the  contending  parties,  by  means  of  an  arrange- 
ment which  was  called  for  as  much  by  humanity,  as  by  the  in- 
terest of  the  repose  of  Europe.  The  first  article  stated,  "The 
contracting  powers  will  offer  to  the  Ottoman  Porte  their  media- 
tion, with  the  view  of  bringing  about  a  reconciliation  between  it 
and  the  Greeks."  It  could  not,  it  appeared  to  him,  be  doubted, 
that  the  object  of  the  contracting  powers  throughout  was  the 
general  preservation  of  the  tranquillity  of  Europe^  and  the  recon- 
ciliation of  the  Porte  with  Greece.  His  honourable  friend  might 
quarrel  with  the  means  adopted  to  carry  the  treaty  into  effect. 
That  point  he  would  not  now  discuss ;  but  to  the  assertion,  that 
the  object  of  the  treaty  was  not  one  of  conciliation,  he  gave  a 
most  unqualified  denial. 

He  would  not  attempt  to  follow  his  honourable  friend  through 
the  arguments  which  he  had  raised  on  this  most  complicated 
question.  It  was  sufficient  for  him  to  state,  that  for  seven  years 
the  peace  of  Europe  had  been  placed  in  jeopardy  by  a  war  which, 
if  continued,  could  end  in  nothing  but  the  extermination  of  one  of 
the  parties;  and  that  a  state  of  things  existed  which,  when  his 
honourable  friend  came  to  know  all  the  proceedings  of  the  allied 
courts,  he  would  be  satisfied,  if  not  put  down,  would  interrupt 
the  general  tranquillity  of  Europe,  which  it  was  the  object  of  this 
country  particularly  to  preserve,  and  which,  if  once  broken,  might 
lead  to  the  most  fearful  and  extensive  consequences.  His  honour- 
able friend  had  expressed  his  surprise,  how  those  who  pretended 
to  be  the  disciples  of  Mr.  Pitt,  could  suppose  they  were  promoting 
the  interests  of  England,  by  venturing  upon  such  an  interference 
with  the  internal  concerns  of  an  independent  nation,  as  the  world 
had  seen  in  the  treaty  of  the  6th  of  July.  Now  he  professed  him- 
self to  be  one  of  those  humble  individuals  who  took  a  pride  in 
adopting  the  policy  of  that  great  master  mind ;  and  he  said,  that 
the  policy  of  this  country,  not  only  during  the  time  of  Mr.  Pitt, 
but  also  during  the  time  of  Mr.  Fox,  and  indeed  during  the  time. 
of  all  the  distinguished  statesmen  who  had  directed  its  counsels, 
with  reference  to  its  interests  being  connected  with  the  general 
peace  and  tranquillity  of  Europe,  was  not  to  interfere  unneces- 
sarily with  the  domestic  concerns  of  other  nations,  but  certainly 
not  to  withhold  our  interference,  whenever  it  became  necessary, 
to  re-establish  the  peace  and  harmony  of  the  world,  and  to  re- 
store a  good  understanding  among  contending  powers.  It  was 
no  departure  from  the  law  of  nations,  but  a  sound  application 
of  its  principle,  to  interpose  under  such  circumstances,  whatever 
44*  3Q 


522  BATTLE  OF  NAVARIN. 

the  honourable  member  for  Dorsetshire  might  urge  to  the  con- 
trary. 

His  honourable  friend  had  quoted  the  example  of  Holland  in 
the  year  1787,  and  had  admitted  that  Mr.  Pitt  received  the  ap- 
probation of  his  great  rival,  Mr.  Fox,  for  his  interposition  on  that 
occasion.  But  under  what  circumstances,  he  would  ask,  did  that 
interposition  take  place  ?  The  King  of  Prussia  thought  that  an 
insult  had  been  offered  by  the  states  of  Holland  to  his  sister,  the 
wife  of  the  Stadtholder.  Was  that,  it  was  asked,  a  fit  object  for 
British  interference  ?  Certainly  not.  But  then  there  was  a  French 
faction  in  the  country,  which  was  obtaining  a  preponderating 
influence.  If  that  were  so,  then  what  became  of  his  honourable 
friend's  principle  that  we  were  not  to  interfere  in  the  domestic 
concerns  of  another,  even  for  the  preservation  of  that  balance  of 
power,  without  which  it  was  impossible  to  hope  for  the  continu- 
ance of  peace  ?  Such  never  had  been  either  the  doctrine  or  the 
practice  of  those  who  had  hitherto  directed  the  destinies  of 
England.  We  had  endeavoured  never  to  interfere  gratuitously 
in  the  internal  concerns  of  independent  nations ;  but  whenever 
we  had  interposed,  our  interposition,  when  ably  directed,  had 
always  been  directed  to  effect  one  purpose,  and  that  the  preser- 
vation of  the  peace  of  Europe.  He  was  quite  sure  that  his  hon- 
ourable friend,  when  he  should  hereafter  peruse  all  the  documents 
connected  with  and  arising  out  of,  the  treaty  of  the  6th  of  July, 
would  be  convinced,  that  a  war  in  the  east  of  Europe,  which 
would  have  placed  the  tranquillity  of  the  whole  of  Europe  in 
jeopardy,  had  been  completely  prevented  by  the  interposition  of 
England. 

He  must  repeat,  over  and  over  again,  that  he  could  by  no 
means  agree  with  the  conclusion  to  which  his  honourable  friend 
wished  to  bring  the  House,  that  the  country  had  been  guilty  of 
gross  injustice,  in  acceding  to  the  treaty  of  the  6th  July.  He 
must  tell  him  again,  that  the  object  of  that  treaty,  the  only  end 
which  it  was  intended  to  attain,  was  the  same  which  we  had  in 
view,  when  we  signed  the  protocol  of  St.  Petersburgh — w^as  the 
same  which  we  had  in  view^,  during  the  time  of  Lord  Strangford's 
residence  at  Constantinople,  namely,  the  general  pacification  of 
Europe  without  going  to  war,  and  the  prevention  of  that  state  of 
things,  which  if  it  once  came  into  existence,  must  necessarily 
lead,  at  one  day  or  other,  to  a  general  war  throughout  Europe. 
No  one,  he  thought,  would  expect  him  to  state,  on  the  present 
occasion,  w^hat  measures  the  Government  was  now  adopting  to 
give  effect  to  that  treaty.  The  reasons  why  he  should  not  enter 
upon  such  a  statement  were  too  obvious  to  require  repetition.  He 
was  therefore  certain  that  it  would  be  enough  for  him  to  state, 
that  the  Government  was  proceeding  fully,  fairly,  and  faithfully. 


BATTLE  OF  NAVARIN.  623 

to  execute  the  treaty,  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  it  had  entered 
into  it  in  concert  with  our  august  allies. 

He  had  stated  already,  and  he  would  repeat  the  statement, 
that  he  regretted  extremely,  that  the  honourable  member  for 
Westminster  had  brought  forward  his  motion  at  this  particular 
time..  The  honourable  member  seemed  to  think  that  there  was  a 
considerable  advantage  to  the  public  service  in  having  motions 
of  this  description — he  meant  motions  for  giving  the  thanks  of 
Parliament  to  officers  and  men  who  had  distinguished  themselves 
in  fighting  the  battles  of  the  country — originated  by  individuals 
who  were  unconnected  with  the  Government,  and  not  fettered 
by  the  ties  of  party.  The  honourable  member  had  stated,  that 
there  were  occasions  when  such  honours  would  be  rendered  more 
gratifying  to  the  individuals  on  whom  they  were  bestowed,  by 
the  circumstance  of  their  having  been  proposed  by  the  party 
which  was  in  opposition  to  the  Government,  and  which,  there- 
fore, could  have  had  no  share  in  planning  the  expedition  which 
they  had  carried  to  a  successful  termination.  He  could  not  pre- 
tend to  deny  the  abstract  proposition,  that  there  might  be  such 
occasions,  but  sure  he  was  that  the  present  was  not  an  occasion 
on  which  it  would  be  either  prudent  or  politic  to  make  such  an 
experiment  as  the  honourable  member  for  Westminster  had 
recommended  to  the  House.  It  was  impossible  for  the  honour- 
able member  to  be  acquainted  with  all  the  circumstances  which 
had  reference  to  this  transaction.  The  honourable  member  thought 
himself  much  better  informed  respecting  them  than  he  really  was, 
for  he  had  stated,  among  other  things,  that  he  knew  that  the  re- 
port which  had  been  made  by  a  gallant  friend  of  his,  who  had 
been  sent  into  the  Mediterranean  to  inquire  into  the  circum- 
stances preceding  the  battle  of  Navarino,  had  been  perfectly 
satisfactory  upon  all  points.  [Mr.  Hobhouse. — I  did  not  say  upon 
all  points,  but  upon  most.]  I  can  only  say,  (continued  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson),  that  if  the  honourable  member  for  Westminster  has  that 
knowledge,  his  knowledge  far  exceeds  mine.  I  do  not  mean  by 
this  to  say,  nor  do  I  wish  it  to  be  understood,  that  there  is  any 
thing  deficient  in  the  explanation  of  the  transaction,  which  has 
been  sent  home  by  the  gallant  admiral  who  commands  in  the 
Mediterranean.  But  I  do  say  this,  that  no  report  has  come  to 
my  knowledge,  or,  as  far  as  I  am  informed,  to  the  knowledge  of 
any  member  of  his  Majesty's  Government,  conveying  any  opinion 
of  my  gallant  friend  to  the  effect  stated  by  the  honourable  member. 
The  honourable  member  assumes  that  his  case  is  completely  es- 
tablished on  the  report  of  the  gallant  officer  to  whom  I  before 
alluded.  Now  it  so  happens,  that  the  gallant  officer  in  question 
was  not  called  on  to  make  a  report,  and  he  has  not,  as  far  as  I 
know,  made  any  report. 


624  BATTLE  OF  NAVARIN. 

Before  I  proceed  further  into  this  part  of  my  subject,  I  cannot 
help  noticing  the  fact,  that  the  honourable  member  for  West- 
minster has  more  than  once  insinuated,  that  the  great  honour 
which  he  considers  to  be  due  to  Sir  Edward  Codrington,  and  the 
gallant  men  who  served  under  his  command,  is  refused  to  him, 
owing  to  the  changes  which  have  recently  taken  place  in  the 
cabinet — owing  to  some  paltry  intrigue  which  he  conceives  to 
have  been  going  forward,  or,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  owing 
to  the  better  passions  having  been  absorbed  by  domestic  jeal- 
ousies." 

[Mr.  HoBHOusE :  I  did  not  speak  positively,  but  hypothetically. 
I  said — If  Ministers  act  so  and  so  towards  Sir  E.  Codrington, 
people  will  say  so  and  so  of  them ;  and  the  conclusions  to  which 
future 'historians  will  come,  will  be,  that  the  better  passions  were 
absorbed  by  domestic  jealousies.] 

Mr.  HusKissoN  said,  he  was  happy  to  hear  the  explanation  of 
thd  honourable  member.  He  asserted,  however,  that  there  never 
had  existed,  on  the  part  of  any  cabinet  since  the  battle  of  Nava- 
rino,  any,  the  smallest  intention  to  propose  the  thanks  of  Parlia- 
ment to  the  officers  and  men  wiio  w^ere  engaged  in  that  affair. 
He  would  tell  the  honourable  member  the  reason  why  such  an 
intention  could  not  enter  into  the  mind  of  any  prudent  and  sen- 
sible Minister.  It  was  this : — We  voted  the  thanks  of  Parliament 
for  triumphs  over  our  enemies — we  voted  them  to  mark  our 
satisfaction,  that  in  a  conflict,  which  we  had  foreseen  and  direct- 
ed, with  a  power  against  which  we  had  declared  war,  the  skill 
and  gallantry  and  zeal  of  our  officers  had  triumphed  oyer  the 
skill  and  gallantry  and  zeal  of  our  enemies — and  that  they  have 
maintained  by  that  skill,  gallantry,  and  zeal,  the  ancient  supe- 
riority of  our  country  above  all  others.  But,  could  any  reasonable 
man  ever  think  of  passing  a  similar  vote  on  the  present  occasion, 
unless  a  precedent  were  quoted  in  justification  of  it  from  the  re- 
cords of  Parliament  1  He  was  ready  to  maintain,  that  no  prece- 
dent could  be  found  which  would  justify  the  House  in  giving  a 
vote  of  thanks  to  any  officer  for  a  catastrophe  which  ended  in  a 
lamentable  effiision  of  blood  which  we  never  intended  to  shed, 
and  in  the  total  destruction  of  the  naval  force  of  an  ally  whom 
we  never  intended  to  injure.  Would  it  be  right  to  mark  our  sense 
of  such  an  accident,  and  he  might  say  of  such  a  misfortune, — for 
being  an  accident,  it  was  also  a  misfortune, — by  voting  the  thanks 
of  Parliament  to  the  authors  of  it, — he  said  it  not  invidiously, — as 
we  should  vote  them  for  a  victory  obtained  in  a  time  of  open  and 
declared  war? 

The  honourable  member  seemed  to  think  that  he  had  found  a 
case  which  ran  completely  parallel  with  the  present,  in  the  vote 
of  thanks  which  was  given  to  the  officers  and  soldiers  who  were 


BATTLE  OF  NAVARIN.  525 

employed  in  the  expedition  which  was  sent  to  Copenhagen  in 
1807.  The  honourable  member  felt  how  weak  his  argument  was 
on  this  point;  for  he  laboured  exceedingly  in  endeavouring  to 
draw  a  distinction  between  approving  the  conduct  and  approving 
the  policy  of  the  war.  Now  with  all  due  deference  to  the  hon- 
ourable member,  it  appeared  quite  unnecessary  to  him  to  draw 
any  such  distinction.  How  many  gentlemen  were  there  who 
disapproved  altogether  of  the  poHcy  of  the  war  from  its  com- 
mencement to  its  close ;  and  who  yet,  whilst  we  were  engaged 
in  the  war,  never,  when  a  case  arose  which  called  upon  Parlia- 
ment to  acknowledge  by  its  thanks  the  gallantry  of  our  soldiers 
and  our  sailors,  thought  of  mixing  up  the  question  of  their 
gallantry  with  that  of  the  poUcy  which  rendered  a  display  of  it 
necessary.  He  would  now  ask  the  House  to  consider  what  w^as 
the  case  at  Copenhagen.  Instructions  were  distinctly  given  to 
our  commanders  by  sea  and  land  to  attack  and  capture  that  capi- 
tal, and  to  use  their  best  exertions  for  the  attainment  of  that 
object.  They  were  likewise  told,  that  they  were  to  consider 
eight  days  as  the  utmost  extent  of  the  period  during  which  they 
were  to  abstain  from  hostilities.  It  so  happened  that,  before  one 
of  those  eight  days  had  expired,  the  King  of  Denmark  issued  a 
declaration  of  war  against  England.  He  would  not  now  speak 
of  the  policy  of  the  expedition  to  Copenhagen,  as  the  honourable 
member  did  not  pretend  to  dispute  its  wisdom,  being  now  more 
enlightened  as  to  the  grounds  on  which  it  was  sent  out,  than  the 
individuals  who  attacked  the  justice  of  it  at  the  time,  without 
knowing  any  thing  of  the  causes  which  led  to  it.  It  w^as  sufficient 
for  him  to  say  that  what  was  done  at  Copenhagen  was  done  in 
consequence  of  direct  and  positive  orders  from  the  Government 
at  home,  and  that  we  were,  moreover,  placed  in  a  state  of  war 
with  Denmark  by  the  declaration  of  the  Danish  Government. 
But  was  this,  or  any  thing  like  this,  the  state  of  affairs  between  the 
English  and  the  Turkish  Governments  in  the  Mediterranean  ?  No 
such  thing.  We  were  bound  by  the  treaty  of  the  6th  of  July  to 
interpose  our  forces  between  the  contending  parties,  in  order  to 
bring  about  an  armistice  de  factOy  in  case  it  could  not  be  other- 
wise obtained. 

He  would  not  enter  into  the  question,  whether  Ibrahim  Pacha 
had  or  had  not  broken  the  terms  of  the  armistice  which  had  been 
first  made  between  him  and  the  gallant  officer  who  commanded 
our  squadron.  He  believed  that  he  had.  He  would  only  say,  that 
the  gallant  admiral  did  not  enter  the  bay  of  Navarino  with  a  view 
of  attacking  the  Turkish  fleet,  but  with  a  view  of  obtaining,  by 
his  position,  a  compliance  with  the  terms  of  the  armistice  which 
he  had  settled  with  its  commander,  Ibrahim  Pacha.  Upon  enter- 
ing that  bay,  there  ensued  a  scene  in  which  the  greatest  skiU» 


526  BATTLE  OF  NAVARIN. 

seamanship,  and  gallantry,  were  evinced  by  Sir  Edward  Codring- 
ton  and  every  officer  and  man  under  his  command.  It  was  no 
small  addition  to  the  praise  which  the  gallant  admiral  had  obtained 
by  his  valour  and  skill,  that  he  had  effected  that,  which  it  was  not 
always  easy  to  effect,  when  the  forces  of  rival  powers  were  em- 
ployed together  for  a  joint  object,  that  he  had  conciliated  them  by 
his  conduct,  and  that  he  had  so  produced  a  unity  of  purpose  and 
a  harmony  of  design,  which  could  not  have  been  exceeded,  if  the 
force  employed  had  l3een  entirely  British,  and  under  the  command 
of  a  British  officer,  as  much  beloved,  as  he  understood  Sir  Ed- 
ward Codrington  had  the  happiness  of  being  by  every  man  who 
sailed  under  his  orders. 

Having  made  this  statement,  in  which  he  assured  the  House 
that  he  was  most  sincere,  he  hoped  that  he  should  not  hereafter 
be  accused  of  underrating  either  the  skill  or  valour  of  Sir  Edward 
Codrington,  because  he  could  not  accede  to  the  present  motion. 
The  affair  in  which  he  had  so  eminently  distinguished  himself, 
was  not  a  battle  between  enemies — it  was  an  accident — a  misfor- 
tune— which  could  not  be  foreseen,  and  perhaps,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, could  not  be  avoided :  it  was  an  event  which,  if  he 
were  talking  of  municipal  concerns,  he  should  style  a  chance- 
medley.  He  was  convinced  that  it  would  be  so  called  in  the 
verdict,  if  a  coroner's  jury  could  examine  into  the  merits  of  it. 
But  it  did  not  follow,  that,  because  it  was  chance-medley,  there 
might  not  have  been  exhibited  in  it  as  great  gallantry  and  skill  as 
were  ever  exhibited  by  the  bravest  men  in  the  noblest  exploits  of 
either  ancient  or  modern  warfare. 

The  honourable  member  for  Westminster  had  made  another 
groundless  assumption  to  which  he  must  beg  leave  to  call  the  at- 
tention of  the  House.  He  had  assumed,  that  his  gallant  friend, 
Sir  John  Gore,  had  been  sent  to  make  inquiries  in  the  Mediterra- 
nean, because  a  foreign  newspaper,  the  "  Austrian  Observer,"  had 
circulated  sundry  calumnies  detrimental  to  the  conduct  and  cha- 
racter of  the  British  admiral.  He  could  assure  the  honourable 
member,  that  this  was  the  first  time  he  had  ever  heard  such  a 
reason  assigned  for  sending  out  his  gallant  friend.  He  could 
further  assure  him,  that  no  such  reason  had  ever  influenced  his 
Majesty's  Government.  The  Government  certainly  felt  that  it  was 
incumbent  upon  it  to  make  further  inquires  as  to  the  character  of 
the  armistice  which  had  been  established  in  the  Morea,  between 
the  officer  in  command  of  the  British  squadron,  and  the  officer  in 
command  of  the  Turkish  forces.  The  queries  which  had  been 
sent  out  had  received  distinct  and  explicit  answers.  Those  queries 
had  been  received,  and  they  proved  beyond  a  question,  that  there 
had  been  nothing  precipitate  or  rash  in  the  conduct  of  the  officer 
commanding  the  British  fleet.    He  stated  this  the  more  willingly, 


BATTLE  OF  NAVARIN.  527 

because  he  was  sincerely  anxious  that  Sir  Edward  Codrington 
should  stand  clear  of  all  blame  in  a  transaction  which,  under  the 
circumstances,  was  perhaps  unavoidable.  But  he  was  bound  to 
say,  that  it  was  the  duty  of  Government,  to  ascertain,  by  all  pos- 
sible queries,  that  such  really  was  the  character  of  the  transac- 
tion. The  honourable  member  must  be  convinced,  that  it  was  an 
affair  in  which  the  country  found  much  to  lament,  and  that  its 
issue  was  such  as  men  of  all  parties  could  not  fail  to  deprecate, 
so  far  as  it  regarded  England ;  for  he  would  not  enter  into  the 
feelings  of  the  honourable  member,  and  inquire  whether  it  was  a 
good  issue,  as  terminating  hostilities  between  Greece  and  Turkey. 
It  might  or  might  not  have  that  effect — time  alone  would  show. 
But  what  was  most  likely  to  have  been  its  immediate  effect  upon 
British  interests?  It  might  have  led  to  the  massacre  of  all  the 
British  subjects  in  the  Turkish  dominions,  and  to  the  confiscation 
of  all  their  prpperty  by  the  Porte.  Fortunately  it  had  not  pro- 
duced that  result ;  but  one  of  its  negative  effects  was  undeniable. 
It  had  not  produced  the  execution  of  the  objects  of  the  treaty  of 
the  6th  of  July,  as  contemplated  by  those  who  signed  it,  and 
wished  it  to  be  executed  without  the  effusion  of  human  blood. 

The  honourable  member  for  Westminster  had  next  referred 
to  what  had  taken  place  when  we  sent  an  expedition  to  Algiers, 
though  I  must  (said  Mr.  Huskisson)  confess  my  inability  to  per- 
ceive the  manner  in  which  those  occurrences  can  be  made  appli- 
cable to  the  present  subject.  I  can  tell  the  honourable  member, 
that  the  gross  ignorance  which  prevailed  at  Algiers,  respecting 
the  extent  of  our  resources  and  power,  did  not  exist  at  Constan- 
tinople. Though  the  brother  to  the  Sun  and  Moon,  the  lord  of 
the  Black,  White,  and  Yellow  Seas,  the  Master  of  Millions,  as 
the  honourable  member  tells  us  the  Sultan  styles  himself — may 
look  upon  us  as  a  set  of  traders,  who  do  nothing  but  sell  razors 
and  buy  raisins  in  the  Levant,  and  may  call  oftr  King  the  chief 
of  a  set  of  scissor-grinders,  I  can  tell  him,  though  the  honourable 
member  has  spent  some  time  in  Turkey,  and  I  have  not,  that  the 
Reis  Effendi  is  very  well  informed  of  every  thing  which  passes  in 
Europe,  and  is  by  no  means  deficient  in  the  knowledge  of  Euro- 
pean politics.  I  can  tell  him  further,  that  if  the  Reis  Effendi  was 
called  upon  to  speak  of  our  expedition  to  Algiers,  he  would  be 
able  to  give  the  honourable  member  for  Westminster  more  infor- 
mation respecting  it  than  that  wtjich  he  at  present  enjoys. 

The  right  honourable  Secretary  then  proceeded  to  examine 
into  the  history  of  the  expedition  sent  to  Algiers,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Lord  Exmouth.  The  honourable  member  for  West- 
minster said,  that  our  fleet  went  to  Tunis  and  Tripoli,  and  else- 
where, demanding  and  obtaining  from  the  governors  of  those 
places,  assurances  that  they  would  cease  from  their  old  practices 


628  BATTLE  OF  NAVARIN. 

of  cruising  indiscriminately  against  all  Christian  flags ;  that  our 
fleet  next  went  to  Algiers,  where  its  demands  were  met,  not  with 
compliance  but  refusal ;  that  Lord  Exmouth  waited  a  few  days 
before  the  port,  and  that  he  then  proceeded  to  attack  and  bom- 
bard it.  Now  he  had  not  looked  recently  at  the  history  of  that 
transaction ;  but,  as  far  as  he  recollected  it,  the  true  version  of  it 
was  this : — Lord  Exmouth  returned  from  Algiers  to  England,  and 
reported  to  the  Government,  that  he  had  not  been  able  to  make 
the  same  agreement  with  the  Dey  of  Algiers  as  he  had  made 
with  the  other  Barbary  Powers ;  for  the  Dey  declared  that  he 
w^ould  persevere  in  cruising  against  the  Christian  powers,  and  in 
holding  their  subjects  in  captivity.  What  then  took  place?  Lord 
Exmouth  was  sent  back  to  Algiers  with  a  greater  number  of 
ships,  and  with  instructions  to  compel  the  Dey  to  submission. 
The  analogy,  therefore,  which  the  honourable  member  attempted 
to  draw  between  that  case  and  the  present  completely  failed.  In 
the  first  case,  there  was  an  expedition  sent  out  for  a  specific  pur- 
pose— of  a  hostile  nature ;  that  purpose  was  executed,  and  Par- 
liament was  consequently  called  upon  to  praise  the  skill  and  gal- 
lantry which  distinguished  those  who  took  an  active  part.  In  the 
present  case,  the  expedition  was  sent  out  for  a  pacific  purpose ; 
and  out  of  an  unexpected  collision  with  the  Turkish  fleet  arose 
that  victory,  which,  though  it  was  honourable  to  our  arms,  was 
still  not  a  subject  for  Parliamentary  congratulation. 

He  was  not  to  be  deterred  from  the  strict  line  of  his  public 
duty  by  any  appeals  that  might  be  made  to  his  feelings,  on  the 
nature  of  the  contest  which  had  been  so  long  raging  between  the 
Greeks  and  Turks.  Though,  as  a  private  individual,  he  might 
have  a  strong  opinion  as  to  the  character  of 'the  contest,  and  might 
sympathize  with  the  struggles  of  a  population  w^hich  had  for  ages 
been  ground  dov^n  by  the  most  intolerable  slavery ;  as  a  public 
man,  he  could  not  yield  to  the  influence  of  such  feelings.  He 
would  say  at  once,  that  such  feelings  were  not  suflicient  of  them- 
selves to  warrant  the  interference  of  any  foreign  state  in  the  con- 
test for  the  interests  of  the  Greeks  alone.  If  British  interests 
were  not  endangered  by  the  continuance  of  the  conflict,  w^e  were 
not  called  upon  to  interfere, — nay,  we  were  not  justified  in  inter- 
fering,— on  account  of  the  cruel  slavery  to  which  the  Greeks  had 
been  so  long  exposed.  He  was  not  to  be  deterred  by  the  honour- 
able member  for  Westminster  saying,  that  if  we  did  not  bestow 
a  vote  of  thanks  on  Sir  Edward  Codrington,  we  should  be  unjust 
not  only  to  him  but  to  ourselves.  He  contended  that  the  present 
was  an  exception  from  the  general  rule  established  in  the  other 
cases  to  which  the  honourable  member  had  referred.  He  thought 
that  he  had  demolished  all  the  precedents  which  the  honourable 
member  had  brought  forward  in  support  of  his  present  motion ; 


BATTLE  OF  NAVARIN.  529 

but  even  if  he  had  not,  still  there  was  a  wide  difference  between 
this  case  and  all  such  precedents.  It  would  be  a  bad  proceeding 
to  proclaim  a  triumph,  and  to  indulge  in  the  feelings  of  victory, 
where  there  had  been  neither  an  enemy  nor  a  triumph.  He  did 
not  doubt  the  gallantry,  he  did  not  mean  to  dispute  the  discretion, 
of  Sir  Edward  Codrington ;  but  he  must  say  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  "  Be  cautious  before  you  create  a  precedent  of  thanks 
for  an  event  which  grew  out  of  an  accident,  lest  officers,  looking 
at  the  signal  benefit  conferred  on  them  by  receiving  such  thanks, 
should  be  found  prone  to  cherish  too  easy  a  disposition  to  create 
such  accidents,  and  lest  such  accidents  so  created  should  lead  to 
consequences  which  the  country  may  long  have  reason  to  rue 
and  to  regret" 

He  was  sorry  to  have  detained  the  House  so  long  on  a  ques- 
tion which,  after  all,  lay  in  a  very  narrow  compass.  It  surprised 
him  more  than  all  that  the  honourable  member  for  Westminster, 
who  seemed  aware  that  he  should  not  receive  general  support  to 
his  motion  from  the  sober  judgment  of  the  House,  and  who  knew 
well  that  if  no  change  had  taken  place  in  the  councils  of  his 
Majesty,  no  such  a  proposal  as  was  then  before  the  House  would 
ever  have  been  made  to  it ; — it  surprised  him  more  than  all  that 
the  honourable  member,  who,  from  feeling  how  his  case  laboured, 
had  searched  through  the  records  of  Parliament  in  order  to  find 
precedent  in  which  thanks  were  conferred  for  brilliant  actions 
like  those  at  Navarino,  should  have  overlooked  one  slight  pre- 
cedent which  made  completely  against  him.  The  honourable 
member  had  referred  to  the  great  exploits  of  the  illustrious  war- 
rior who  was  now  at  the  head  of  the  Government,  and  who  had 
received  the  thanks  of  Parliament  no  less  than  eleven  times  for 
his  distinguished  services.  He  believed  there  was  no  man  who 
then  heard  him,  who  did  not  rejoice,  and  feel  exceeding  glad, 
that  they  had  so  often  ha<l  an  opportunity  of  thanking  that  great 
and  able  chieftain.  He  believed  that  to  the  exploits  which  elicit- 
ed those  thanks  we  were  indebted  for  the  liberties  of  England  and 
the  peace  of  Europe ;  and  he  further  believed,,  that  it  was  the 
intention  of  that  unrivalled  captain  to  maintain  by  his  councils  in 
the  cabinet,  that  peace  undisturbed  which  he  had  been  so  instru- 
mental in  obtaining  by  his  sword  in  the  field.  He  was  surprised, 
he  repeated,  that  the  honourable  member  in  his  researches 
should  have  overlooked  the  little  incident  which  he  had  before 
alluded  to.  Did  the  honourable  member  ever  hear  of  that  most 
distinguished  victory,  which  the  British  forces  achieved  at  Tou- 
louse? It  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  feats  of  arms  in  which 
the  noble  duke  was  ever  engaged.  He  defeated  Marshal  Soult, 
— he  drove  him  from  an  entrenched  position  which  even  his  own 
officers  conceived  too  hazardous  to  attack;  and  he  displayed, 
45  3R 


530  BATTLE  OF  NAVARIN. 

during  the  whole  conflict,  a  combination  of  valour,  skill,  and  cool- 
ness, which  had  never  been  excelled  before.  But,  though  this  was 
one  of  the  most  gallant  achievements  of  the  whole  war,  it  was  not 
noticed  by  Parliament ;  because  a  cessation  of  arms  had  taken 
place  before  the  intelligence  of  it  reached  England.  In  conse- 
quence of  such  unexpected  forgetfulness,  the  late  Duke  of  Norfolk 
had  asked  the  noble  lord,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the  government  in 
the  other  House,  whether  it  was  not  intended  to  thank  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  for  that  his  last  and  greatest  battle  ?  Unquestion- 
ably his  noble  friend  felt  that  the  importance  and  magnitude  of 
that  battle  gave  the  noble  duke  a  title  to  add  another  vote  of  thanks 
to  the  numerous  votes  which  he  had  already  received  from  the 
gratitude  of  ParHament.  But  what  was  the  statement  which  the 
noble  lord  made  in  his  place  in  Parliament  ?  It  was  this, — that  as 
the  war  had  ceased,  he  did  not  intend  to  propose  a  vote,  which 
might  tend  to  keep  up  a  spirit  of  exasperation  between  the  two 
nations. 

Having  stated  that  fact,  he  would  now  sit  down,  leaving  it  to 
the  good  sense  of  the  House  to  decide,  whether  it  would,  in  this 
case,  create  a  precedent  which,  if  created,  would  be  attended  with 
inconvenience  to  the  best  interests  of  the  country.  Had  the  con- 
flict which  gave  rise  to  this  proposed  vote  of  thanks  taken  place 
with  a  power  with  whom  we  were  at  war,  he  should  not  have 
had  any  reluctance,  even  though  it  was  a  barbarous  power,  to 
confer  the  honour  of  their  thanks  upon  Sir  E.  Codrington  and  his 
brave  followers ;  but  under  present  circumstances,  he  was  obliged 
to  withhold  it,  not  from  any  wish  to  impute  the  slightest  blame  to 
that  gallant  oflicer,  but  from  a  wish  to  guard  the  country  from 
future  difficulty  and  inconvenience.  He  would  not  move  a  nega- 
tive to  the  present  motion,  lest  it  should  be  supposed  he  meant  to 
deny  the  gallantry  and  skill  of  Sir  E.  Codrington ;  but  he  was  sorry 
to  say,  that  the  reasons  which  he  had  stated  to  the  House,  con- 
vinced him  that  it  was  his  duty  to  move  the  previous  question. 

The  motion  was  withdrawn. 


(     531     ) 

CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA. 

MAY  2d,  1828. 

In  pursuance  of  the  notice,  that  he  would  this  day  move  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  Select  Committee  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  the  Civil  Grovernment 
of  Canada, 

Mr.  Secretary  Huskisson  rose,  and  spoke  in  substance  as  fol- 
lows : — 

The  subject  to  which  I  am  about  to  call  the  attention  of  the 
House,  on  the  present  occasion,  is  one  which,  however  it  may 
bear — and  it  chiefly  does  bear — upon  interests  and  feelings  in  a 
great  degree  removed  from  those  which  ordinarily  affect  our- 
selves, is  nevertheless  a  matter  of  considerable  importance.  The 
question  which  I  wish  at  this  time  to  induce  the  House  to  in- 
vestigate is,  w^hether  those  extensive,  valuable,  and  fertile  posses- 
sions of  the  Crown,  known  under  the  name  of  the  Canadas,  are 
or  are  not  administered  under  a  system  of  civil  government, 
adapted  to  the  wants,  the  well-being,  and  the  happiness  of  nearly 
a  million  of  British  subjects,  and  to  the  permanent  maintenance 
of  those  intimate  relations  of  allegiance  and  protection,  which 
ought  always  to  exist  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  coun- 
try. If,  upon  inquiry,  it  shall  be  found,  that  the  present  system  of 
government  in  those  states  is  not  well  adapted  to  all  these  pur- 
poses, and  that  the  remedy  for  the  evil  cannot  be  applied  without 
the  authority  of  parliament — it  will  be  for  parliament  to  deal  with 
the  question,  with  a  view  to  the  introduction  of  such  modifications, 
improvements,  and  alterations  in  the  existing  system,  as  may  ap- 
pear necessary.  ♦ 

But,  Sir,  though  considerable  evils,  and  great  and  acknowledged 
defects  may  be  found  to  exist  in  the  present  system,  and  some 
oversights  may  be  discovered  in  its  administration,  it  by  no  means 
follows,  that  any  particular  individual  is  responsible,  or  can  be 
justly  accused  of  occasioning  those  imperfections.  Sir,  the  con- 
stitution under  which  the  Canadas  are  now  governed,  was  devised 
and  introduced  by  some  of  the  greatest  statesmen  that  ever  ap- 
peared within  these  walls.  But  when  we  consider  how  little  the 
country  in  question  was  then  known,  and  to  what  a  limited  extent 
its  resources  and  interests  were  understood,  it  will  not  appear 
matter  of  astonishment,  that  in  a  country  like  Canada,  imperfectly 
known,  and  so  thinly  peopled  as  it  was  when  the  present  form  of 


532  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA. 

civil  government  wsls  established,  the  system  devised  for  its 
government  should  have  been  found  extremely  defective.  Neither 
will  it  appear  unaccountable,  that,  in  the  details  of  this  system, 
there  should  be  many  difficulties  which  require  to  be  removed, 
many  imperfections  which  require  a  remedy,  many  omissions 
which  it  is  now  our  duty  to  supply. 

In  the  great  and  leading  principle  of  the  present  system — the 
strict  maintenance,  on  the  one  hand,  of  good  faith  towards  the 
descendants  of  the  native  French  population  in- Lower  Canada, 
and  on  the  other,  of  extending  to  that  province,  as  far  as  con- 
sistent with  our  engagements  towards  them,  all  the  advantages^ 
of  British  institutions  and  British  laws — there  can,  I  think,  be  no 
difference  of  opinion  in  this  House.  Neither,  fortunately,  can 
there  be  any  as  to  the  right  of  this  House  to  examine  fully  into 
the  merits  or  defects  of  the  present  constitution  of  Canada,  as 
established  by  the  act  which  first  granted  that  constitution — and 
to  revise  it  in  such  manner,  as  to  us  may  appear  proper.  I  mean 
the  celebrated  Quebec  Act  of  1791.  It  is  unnecessary  to  enter 
into  any  abstract  or  general  argument  upon  this  point ;  because 
not  only  does  this  right  appear  to  be  expressly  reserved  and  de- 
clared by  the  very  wording  of  the  preamble  of  this  act ;  but  if 
there  could  be  any  doubt  on  this  point,  it  would  be  at  once 
removed  by  a  reference  to  the  declarations  made  in  this  House 
at  the  time  when  it  was  introduced.  On  that  occasion,  Mr.  Pitt 
expressly  provided,  that  nothing  which  it  contained  should  be 
held  as  not  liable  to  such  further  alterations  and  amendments  as 
circumstances  might,  from  time  to  time,  appear  to  require.  It 
carries  the  principle  of  modification  or  repeal,  even  to  the  reserved 
lands,  allotted  for  the  use  and  maintenance  of  the  Established 
Church  in  Canada.  It  is,  therefore,  clearly  apparent,  that  we  are, 
at  present,  quite  as  much  at  liberty  to  consider  the  act  of  1791, 
with  reference  to  the  amendment  of  any  imperfection  or  defect 
contained  in  it,  as  we  are  at  liberty  to  consider,  in  a  similar  man- 
ner, any  other  act  of  the  legislature.  I  own  that  I  cannot  but 
think  it  very  fortunate,  that  no  doubt  can  exist  upon  this  point. 
I  am  glad  that  the  supreme  power  of  the  British  Parliament  to 
deal  with  defects  or  difficulties  of  this  nature,  and  to  reform  the 
previous  act  of  the  Legislature,  in  regard  to  the  government  of 
our  Canadian  territories,  cannot  be  disputed.  I  am  the  rather  dis- 
posed to  rejoice  at  this  circumstance,  because,  standing  aloof,  as 
we  do,  from  the  party  feelings  and  local  jealousies  of  the  Cana- 
dians, our  decision  will  be  the  more  respected ;  first,  as  coming 
from  a  high  and  competent  authority,  and  next,  on  account  of  our 
manifest  impartiality.  On  both  these  grounds  I  am  satisfied  that 
the  final  determination  of  Parliament,  with  regard  to  the  civil 
government  of  the  Canadas,  will  be  cheerfully  received,  and 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA.  533 

readily  acquiesced  in.  In  this  view  of  the  subject  I  confess  I  feel 
sanguine  as  to  the  result  of  our  interference.  I  consider  it  cal- 
culated to  allay  the  animosities  of  the  Canadians,  and,  if  wisely 
conducted,  well  adapted  to  place  the  system  of  government  in 
our  North  American  territories  on  a  satisfactory  and  permanent 
footing ;  thus  conducing  at  once  to  the  manifest  benefit  of  the 
colonies,  and  to  the  interests  of  the  mother  country. 

Now,  Sir,  I  will  not  fatigue  the  House  with  any  long  detail  of 
the  constitutional  and  legal  history  of  Canada,  since  it  was  first 
ceded  to  his  Majesty's  Government  by  the  peace  of  1763.     But 
it  is  necessary  to  take  a  short  review  of  the  principal  measures 
which  have  since  been  adopted  by  the  Crown  and  by  Parliament, 
for  the  government  and  settlement  of  these  provinces.     By  the 
treaty  of  Paris  in  1763,  Canada  was  ceded  to  the  British  Crown, 
without  any  stipulation  or  obligation  whatever  with  respect  to 
the  mode  in  which  the  Government  was  to  be  administered.     So 
far  from  there  being  any  condition  or  qualification  connected  with 
the  surrender  of  these  provinces,  they  were  yielded  up  to  Eng- 
land by  France  in  full  sovereignty  and  complete  possession,  as  in 
the  case  of  a  new  conquest.     Perhaps  it  may  be  necessary  to 
state,  that  the  country  was  settled  by  the  French  about  the  year 
1660,  when  the  first  French  governor  was  appointed.     At  that 
time  the  population  was  principally,  if  not  wholly,  confined  to  the 
banks  of  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  two  towns  then  built, 
namely  Montreal  and  Quebec ;  and  at  the  period  of  the  conquest 
the  French  settlers  did  not  exceed  sixty-five  thousand.     This  was 
the  utmost  extent  of  the  colony  at  this  epoch  of  its  history.     But 
though  the  population  was  so  very  limited,  and  although  it  was 
placed  under  circumstances,  and  with  wants  and  necessities,  so 
different  from  what  it  could  possibly  have  experienced  in  the 
mother  country,  it  was  nevertheless  thought  wise  and  just  by  the 
French  government,  to  graft  on  so  extremely  limited  a  stock,  the 
whole  of  the  feudal  system  of  France,  as  it  existed  in  all  its 
odious  deformities,  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
We  may  apply  to  this  conduct  what  has  been  said  of  those  who 
built  country-seats  about  the  same  period — that  they  adopted  all 
the  faults   and  sacrifices  of  comfort  observable  at  Versailles, 
whilst  they  still  wanted  its  grandeur.     Such  was  the  state  of 
Canada  under  the  French  regime.     The  feudal  system  flourished 
in  all  its  vigour  among  a  small  population,  and  in  the  midst  of  a 
desert.     The  mother  country  grafted  upon  the  other  institutions 
of  her  colony  a  law  of  succession — not  the  general  French  law 
of  succession,  which  was  that  of  primogeniture,  but  a  system 
denominated  "  the  Custom  of  Paris."     So  that,  connecting  the 
eflfects  of  this  law  of  succession  with  the  influence  of  the  feudal 
system  in  Canada,  while  under  the  dominion  of  the  French,  the 
45* 


534  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA. 

consequences  to  the  colony  were  anything  rather  than  beneficial. 
The  lords  paramount  held  directly  under  the  Crown,  and  granted 
certain  portions  of  lands  to  their  vassals.  These  seignories  (ac- 
cording to  the  law  of  succession  to  which  I  have  alluded)  were 
not  capable  of  severance ;  but  have  been  divided  and  subdivided, 
ever  since  the  period  of  their  first  institution,  because  the  holder 
of  the  land  owed  suit  and  service  to  the  lord  paramount.  Now, 
however,  they  are  subdivided  into  shares  so  minute  as  to  be 
greatly  to  the  advantage  of  those  who  administer  the  existing 
system  of  civil  law ;  at  the  same  time  that  the  circumstance  is 
equally  disadvantageous  to  the  interests  of  persons  possessing,  or 
claiming  to  possess,  property  in  them.  Such  is  the  natural  con- 
sequence and  effect  of  the  complicated  state  of  tenures  in  the 
Canadas.  It  was  no  longer  ago  than  this  morning  that  I  saw  in 
a  Canada  paper  an  advertisement  of  the  sale  of  a  one-thirteenth 
of  a  hundredth  part  of  a  lordship.  Some  of  the  notices  of  sale 
in  these  colonies  are  extremely  curious,  and  comprehend  frac- 
tional parts  of  fractions  of  estates,  of  a  nature  to  puzzle  Mr. 
Finlayson  himself,  with  all  his  skill  in  figures.  We  read  con- 
stantly of  the  third  of  a  seventh,  and  the  half  of  a  sixth  of  a 
lordship  to  be  disposed  of.  I  recollect  a  notice  of  the  sale  of  a 
forty-fourth  of  a  fourth  of  a  tenth  of  a  sixth  share  of  an  estate ; 
another,  of  an  eleventh  of  a  fourth  of  a  fifth  of  a  sixth ;  and 
another  of  a  forty-fourth  of  a  fifth  of  a  sixth.  Under  this  curi- 
ous and  rather  puzzling  state  of  the  law,  by  which  seignories  are 
divided  into  such  impracticable  shares,  it  is  almost  iriripossible  for 
any  individual  to  tell  to  whom  it  is  that  he  owes  suit  and  service. 
Yet  a  great  many  duties  are  imposed  under  the  feudal  system, 
some  of  them  to  be  paid  in  kind,  and  some  in  money.  For 
instance,  there  are  fines,  annual  duties  on  all  ahenations  of  pro- 
perty, and  various  rights  and  duties  of  a  most  vexatious  and 
harassing  nature. 

Sir,  very  shortly  after  the  treaty,  by  which,  in  1763,  Canada 
was  ceded  to  the  Crown,  the  King  of  England  issued  a  procla- 
mation, inviting  such  of  his  subjects  as  were  so  disposed  to  settle 
in  the  newly-acquired  territory;  declaring  the  royal  intention 
shortly  to  confer  a  Legislative  Assembly  on  the  colony,  and  in- 
forming them,  that  all  persons  settling  in  the  country  should  forth- 
with enjoy  the  benefit  and  protection  derivable  from  British  laws 
and  courts  of  judicature.  Until  the  year  1774,  British  laws  were, 
as  far  as  possible,  introduced  and  carried  into  effect  in  the  colony. 
British  courts  of  justice  were  estabhshed,  with  proper  judges  to 
administer  the  law,  and  the  whole  system  of  British  judicature 
was  set  on  foot,  according  to  the  terms  of  his  Majesty's  procla- 
mation. The  other  part  of  the  proclamation,  however,  contain- 
ing an  assurance  relative  to  the  appointment  of  a  Legislative  As- 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA.  535 

sembly,  was  not  carried  into  effect.  In  1774,  from  the  situation 
in  which  other  provinces  of  America,  then'  belonging  to  the 
Crown,  were  placed,  it  was  not  thought  expedient,  by  the  govern- 
ment of  the  day,  to  grant  a  Legislative  Assembly  to  Canada.  It 
appeared,  about  this  time,  that  the  Canadians  were  greatly  at- 
tached to  their  original  system  of  legislation,  and  not  well  satis- 
lied  with  that  more  recently  introduced  amongst  them.  Accord- 
ingly, it  being  thought  desirable  to  conciliate  the  loyalty,  affection, 
and  good-will,  of  our  Canadian  subjects  at  that  juncture,  in  1774 
it  was,  for  the  first  time,  mentioned  in  Parliament,  that  it  would 
be  desirable  to  pass  an  act  of  the  legislature,  not  for  the  purpose 
of  making  good  the  assurance  of  1763,  but  to  recall  all  the 
pledges  relative  to  the  formation  of  a  system  of  British  jurispru- 
dence, and  the  establishment  of  British  courts  of  justice.  A  bill 
was  accordingly  brought  into  the  House  of  Commons,  for  the 
purpose  of  effecting  this  object.  The  preamble  of  the  act  was 
suggested  by,  and  drawn  up  in  compliance  with,  the  wishes  and 
feelings  of  the  Canadians,  and  went  upon  the  principle,  that  the 
French  laws,  to  which  they  had  been  long  accustomed,  were 
well  adapted  to  their  situation  and  circumstances.  The  bill  itself 
recalls  all  the  declarations  contained  in  the  proclamation  of  1763 ; 
and  re-establishes  the  French  laws  and  customs  as  they  regard 
property,  and  the  system  of  civil  law,  including  the  Custom  of 
Paris.  .  However,  the  same  act  makes  provisions  for  retaining 
the  administration  of  the  criminal  law  of  England  in  Canada ; 
which,  from  1774,  was  to  be  governed  by  the  civil  law  of  France, 
and  the  criminal  code  of  England. 

Between  the  years  1763  and  1774,  the  Crown  had  proceeded 
to  make  grants  of  land  in  Canada,  with  a  view  to  the  settlement 
of  the  colony,  by  an  additional  number  of  new  inhabitants.  In 
all  grants  out  of  immediate  lordships,  the  lands  were  held  under 
tenures  of  free  or  common  soccage,  as  contradistinguished  from 
seignories.  The  holders  were  placed  under  the  influence  of  an 
unintelligible  system  of  law.  One  estate  was  held  by  common 
soccage,  another  by  a  different  tenure.  With  respect  to  civil 
rights,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  French  law  and  administra- 
tion was  established;  but  the  English  system  of  jurisprudence 
prevailed  in  criminal  matters.  In  the  same  year,  1774,  another 
important  act,  and  one  well  calculated  to  conciliate  the  favour- 
able feelings  and  loyalty  of  the  Canadians  towards  the  Crown, 
received  the  sanction  of  the  legislature.  By  this  act,  it  was  pro- 
vided, that  all  customs  and  duties  (and  they  are  numerous, 
onerous,  and  oppressive),  heretofore  imposed  on  the  colonists  by 
France,  and  from  the  date  of  the  conquest  to  that  year  payable 
to  England,  should  thenceforth  and  for  ever  cease  and  determine. 
In  lieu  of  these  imposts,  the  act  appointed  other  duties  of  a  more 


536  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA. 

easy  and  equitable  nature;  the  produce  of  which  was  to  be  ap- 
propriated, not  to  the  advantage  of  the!  mother  country,  but  to 
defray  the  expenses  necessarily  attendant  on  the  administration 
of  civil  justice,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  local  government  of 
Canada. 

In  the  memorable  year  1774,  besides  these  two  boons  to  the 
Canadians— the  restoration  of  the  system  of  civil  law,  of  which 
they  approved  and  under  which  they  had  before  lived,  and  the 
abolition  of  the  French  duties — another  was  conferred.  This 
consisted  in  the  recognition,  by  this  country,  of  the  established 
religion,  and  in  a  provision  being  made  for  its  maintenance  and 
support ; — a  boon  which  I  sincerely  trust  may  never  be  with- 
drawn. I  have  spoken  of  these  measures  adopted  by  England, 
as  boons  to  the  Canadians ;  for  such  they  were  certainly  con- 
sidered by  them  at  the  time,  whatever  may  have  been  the  subse- 
quent effects  of  one  of  them  :  suffice  it  to  say,  they  were  afforded 
in  a  spirit  of  conciliation,  and  accepted  with  feelings  of  gratitude 
and  satisfaction.  Of  the  recognition  and  establishment  of  the 
prevailing  religion  in  Canada,  in  1774,  I  have  already  spoken  in 
terms  of  approbation,  and  have  only  to  repeat  my  hope,  that  the 
gift  may  never  be  disturbed.  No  doubt,  it  was  thankfully  receiv- 
ed, and  is  gratefully  remembered.  The  restoration  of  the  system 
of  French  law,  and  administration  in  civil  cases,  was,  in  all  pro- 
bability, quite  as  much  prized  at  the  time  by  the  parties,  as  the 
provision  made  for  recognising  their  religious  faith.  I  am  satis- 
fied, however,  that  if  not  then  restored  and  re-established,  the 
laws  in  question  (which  are  unfriendly  to  commerce,  and  repug- 
nant to  enlightened  principles  of  unrestricted  dealing)  would  soon 
have  disappeared  under  the  influence  of  British  enterprise.  But, 
passing  by  this  topic  for  the  present,  I  may  be  allowed  to  remark, 
that  the  abolition  of  the  French  duties,  and  the  imposition  of  other 
and  less  burthensome  taxes,  the  proceeds  of  w^hich  were  applied 
to  the  support  of  the  Colonial  Government  and  institutions,  w^as 
a  considerable  benefit  to  the  Canadians. 

In  1778,  a  law  was  passed  in  this  country,  which,  although  not 
immediately  bearing  upon,  or  having  reference  to,  Canada,  was 
yet  of  considerable  importance,  as  well  to  that  as  to  our  other 
colonies.  I  allude  to  the  Declaratory  act,  by  which  this  country 
relinquished  all  future  right  to  tax  its  colonies ;  granting  them  the 
power  to  impose  duties  themselves,  which  duties  were  to  be 
applied  to  the  support  of  their  own  institutions  and  establishments, 
and  were  not  to  form  part  of  the  revenue  of  Great  Britain.  At 
this  time  there  existed,  perhaps,  a  doubt,  as  to  whether  the  act 
applied  to  Canada.  Some  thought  that  the  bill  was  only  meant 
to  apply  to  our  colonies  in  the  West  Indies,  and  to  those  places 
in  America  that  retained  their  allegiance  to  England,  and  had 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA.  537 

legislative  assemblies  of  their  own,  which  were  hereby  authorised 
to  tax  themselves.  But,  however  the  fact  might  be,  in  this  state 
Canada  remained  until  the  year  1791,  when  it  was  thought  neces- 
sary by  Mr.  Pitt  to  introduce  his  bill,  since  known  by  the  appel- 
lation of  the  *'  Quebec  Act."  This  law  attracted  more  notice  at 
the  time  of  its  enactment,  principally  on  account  of  the  then  state 
of  parties  in  the  House  of  Commons,  than  it  might,  in  all  proba- 
bility, have  otherwise  done,  by  reason  of  its  intrinsic  interest  or 
importance.  Mr.  Pitt  thought  it  no  more  than  what  was  due  to 
the  growing  importance  and  wealth  of  Canada,  to  give  that  colony 
a  popular  representation.  By  one  of  the  provisions  of  this  act, 
the  right  and  control  over  all  imposts  was  vested  in  an  assem- 
bly, to  be  so  constituted.  We  should  bear  this  circumstance  in 
mind,  because  what  now  exists  has  reference  to  this  act.  By  the 
act  of  1774,  the  system  of  civil  law  of  the  colony  was  establish- 
ed, and  provisions  were  made  for  the  support  of  its  government,. 
by  means  of  moderate  duties  then  imposed.  Under  the  act  of 
1791,  all  duties  were  to  be  imposed  and  appropriated  as  the 
colonial  legislature  should  determine.  Another  object  of  the  act 
was,  to  divide  the  colony  into  two  separate  provinces — Upper  and 
Lower  Canada, — giving  to  each  a  separate  legislature.  It  was 
considered  desirable  to  encourage  loyaHsts  and  disbanded  sol- 
diers to  become  settlers  in  Upper  Canada,  where  there  were  no 
French  settlers,  and  where  no  feudal  system  was  in  operation. 
The  act  provided,  that  in  the  province  of  Lower  Canada,  the 
legislative  assembly  should  consist  of  not  less  than  fifty  members^ 
while  in  Upper  Canada  (then  about  to  be  settled)  the  population 
being  more  scanty,  the  minimum  of  members  of  assembly  was 
fixed  at  fifteen.  In  Upper  Canada  the  assembly  was  to  be  in- 
creased, as  the  province  should  become  more  thickly  peopled. 
These  details  were  left  to  those  who  administered  the  government 
in  the  colony.  The  gallant  officer  who  administered  the  govern- 
ment of  Canada  in  1792,  divided  the  lower  province  into  eighteen 
counties,  each  sending  two  members  to  the  assembly :  three  coun- 
ties sending  each  one  representative;  two  cities  privileged  to 
elect  four  members;  one  town  sending  two  members,  and  one 
electing  one  representative;  making  a  total  of  fifty.  What  I 
complain  of  is,  that  the  representation  was  not  equally  distributed. 
It  was  a  great  error  to  take  the  density  of  population  many  years 
ago,  and  apply  it,  as  a  permanent  standard,  to  the  number  of 
representatives  to  be  chosen  for  particular  places  and  depart- 
ments. The  effect  of  this  erroneous  principle  has  necessarily 
been,  to  throw  the  chief  power  of  representation  into  the  hand's 
of  the  seignories.  The  same  defect  exists  in  Upper  as  in  Lower 
Canada.  The  English  settlers  are  excluded  from  a  fair  partici- 
pation in  what  ought  to  be  a  popular  representation,  and  the 

3  S 


538  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA. 

power  of  election  is  thrown  into  the  hands  of  the  descendants  of 
the  French. 

Sir,  I  state  these  complaints  with  the  more  confidence,  because, 
in  all  parts  of  Canada,  it  is  agreed  that  the  present  system  works 
so  ill  as  to  stand  in  need  of  alteration.  Under  the  present  prac- 
tice, the  English  settler  is  exposed  to  great  inconvenience,  and 
suffers  an  exclusion  from  advantages,  of  which  it  is  only  just  that 
he  should  enjoy  a  reasonable  share.  I  allude  now  to  the  condition 
of  our  countrymen  in  Lower  Canada ;  but,  in  doing  so,  I  do  not 
desire  to  make  it  a  matter  of  charge  against  those  who  represent 
the  French  seignories,  that  they  act  as  they  do.  It  is  the  system, 
and  not  the  individuals  that  requires  reformation.  There  is  no 
possibility  of  suing  or  being  sued,  except  in  the  French  courts, 
and  according  to  the  French  form  and  practice — no  mode  of 
transacting  commercial  business,  except  under  the  French  cus- 
toms, now  obsolete  in  France  itself.  In  Lower  Canada,  they  go 
upon  the  law  and  system  of  feudal  tenure,  and  the  law  is  more 
incapable  of  ever  being  improved  or  modified  by  the  progress  of 
information  and  knowledge,  than  if  it  still  remained  the  system 
of  France  and  the  model  of  her  dependencies.  Here  in  the  midst 
of  a  wilderness  flourishes  the  French  feudal  system,  and  the  cus- 
tom of  Paris  of  centuries  ago.  The  result  is,  that  Englishmen  in 
Canada  are  as  much  like  aliens  and  settlers  in  foreign  land,  as  an 
equal  number  of  British  subjects,  who  should  have  sat  down  in 
the  centre  of  France  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  to  be  wondered  at.  Sir,  that  our  country- 
men have  had  to  encounter  considerable  difficulty  in  Lower 
Canada,  and  that  but  a  slow  progress  has  been  made  towards  the 
settlement  of  that  province,  as  compared  with  the  Upper.  In 
fact,  the  inconvenience  of  the  existing  condition  of  things  cannot 
be  well  understood  in  this  country.  In  this  colony  the  law  of 
mortgage  is  in  the  worst  state.  The  registration  of  deeds  is 
another  point  deserving  attention ;  and  the  laws  and  usages  re- 
lating to  the  formation  of  roads  are  those  of  the  old  French 
feudal  system.  The  consequence  has  been,  that  in  the  last  fifteen 
years  not  one  single  road-bill  has  been  passed  by  the  legislative 
assembly  of  that  province.  Thus,  there  is  no  opportunity  afford- 
ed to  the  English  townships  of  communicating  with  the  river  St. 
Lawrence,  e'xcept  by  some  of  its  tributary  streams,  on  account 
of  the  interposition  of  the  seignories  between  them  and  that  river. 
In  the  same  manner,  another  part  of  what  I  consider  an  impor- 
tant public  duty  in  a  legislative  assembly  is  overlooked.  I  mean 
the  education  of  the  children  of  the  settlers.  That  is  a  subject 
never  thought  of.  In  point  of  fact,  the  state  of  things  'fs  such, 
that  the  settlers  feel  more  disposed  to  connect  themselves  with 
those  districts  which  border  on  the  United  States,  where  they  can 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA.  539 

have  tlieir  wants  of  this  description  supplied,  and  receive  the 
benefits  of  the  administration  of  justice,  than  to  remain  in  the 
country  to  which  they  owe  allegiance. 

These  evils,  Sir,  have,  I  regret  to  say,  been  of'  some  standing, 
but  they  have  been  more  severely  felt,  as  the  capital  and  popula- 
tion of  this  country  have  been  directed  to  these  colonies,  and  as 
they  have  become  of  greater  importance  to  the  interests  of  the 
mother  country.  Having  become  sensible  of  the  evil,  the  ques- 
tion now  arises  as  to  what  remedy  shall  be  applied  to  it.  One 
was  suggested,  and  attempted  to  be  carried  into  effect,  about  four 
years  back,  by  which  the  two  legislatures  were  to  be  incorporated 
into  one ;  that  is,  the  Upper,  or  English  part  of  the  province,  was 
to  be  reunited  under  one  Government,  with  the  French  or  Lower 
part  of  it.  There  were  various  grounds  on  which  the  bill  which 
my  right  honourable  friend  introduced  with  that  view  was  op- 
posed ;  but  the  principal  one,  I  believe,  was  the  lateness  of  the 
period  of  the  session  at  which  it  was  brought  forward.  That 
bill,  therefore,  did  not  pass.  Whether  the  remedy  it  proposed  is 
the  best  that  can  be  imagined,  I  will  not  undertake  to  say ;  but  it 
is  certainly  open  to  many  serious  objections.  Those,  however, 
will  be  proper  subjects  for  the  consideration  of  the  committee 
which  I  mean  to  propose.  Another  remedy  that  has  been  sug- 
gested is  to  form  all  the  English  townships,  as  they  are,  for  the 
sake  of  distinction,  called,  into  a  third  province.  To  that  scheme 
also  the  objections  are  numerous  and  serious.  Indeed,  none  have 
been  devised  that  are  not  subject  to  many  objections.  It  will  be 
the  duty  of  the  committee  to  point  out  that  course  which  presents 
the  fewest,  to  reconcile  the  conflicting  pretensions  of  the  different 
parties,  and  thus  to  remove  the  great  obstacles  to  the  improve- 
ment of  this  important  colony. 

But,  Sir,  these  are  not  the  only  considerations  that  have  in- 
duced me  to  recommend  the  House  to  take  into  its  consideration 
th^  state  of  the  civil  government  of  Canada.  Besides  the  ob- 
stacles I  have  mentioned,  as  lying  in  the  way  of  the  happiness 
of  this  colony,  another,  of  a  most  formidable  nature,  has  grown 
up  out  of  the  state  of  the  representative  system,  as  I  have  de- 
scribed it.  I  allude  to  the  disputes  which  have  arisen,  concern- 
ing the  extent  of  control  which  the  colonial  legislature  should 
have  over  the  public  revenue  of  the  colony  and  its  fiscal  regula- 
tions. I  have  already  stated  that,  in  1774,  all  the  taxes  that  had 
been  imposed  under  the  French  regime  were  abrogated,  and  other 
duties  levied  in  their  stead,  which  were  appropriated  by  the  Crown 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  administration  of  justice,  and  of  the 
civil  establishment  of  the  colony.  The  duties,  thus  levied  in  lieu 
of  the  old  French  ones,  I  may  describe  technically  as  the  per- 
manent revenue  of  the  Crown.     It  amounts  to  about  35,000/.  per 


540  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA. 

annum,  and  has  been  applied  to  the  purposes  for  which  I't  was 
appropriated  by  the  act  of  1774.  Besides  this,  the  Crown  has  a 
small  revenue  called  "  the  casualty  revenue,"  which  consists  of 
fines,  forfeitures,  and  other  in-comings,  belonging  to  the  Crown, 
as  the  Lord  Paramount.  This  revenue  amounts  to  about  5,000/. 
per  annum,  and  is  at  the  absolute  disposal  of  the  Crown;  but 
this  also  has  been  appropriated  to  the  civil  services  of  the  coun- 
try. The  remaining  revenue  of  the  colony  arises  from  taxes  im- 
posed since  1791,  by  the  colonial  legislature.  Part  of  this  reve- 
nue the  Assembly  has  appropriated  specifically  to  discharge  the 
expenses  of  its  own  sittings,  and  part  to  the  improvement  of  the 
navigation  of  the  river  St.  Lawrence.  The  remainder  has  been 
appropriated  by  the  legislature  to  the  different  expenses  of  the 
colony  generally.  The  amount  thus  collected  by  the  taxes  im- 
posed by  the  Assembly  has  been,  upon  an  average,  about  140,000/. 
per  annum.  There  are  also  some  small  sums  raised,  by  virtue 
of  acts  of  this  House,  passed  for  the  purpose  of  regulating  the 
trade  of  the  colony. 

For  some  time  after  the  passing  of  the  act  in  1774,  nothing 
could  go  on  more  smoothly  than  the  system  it  established.  The 
Crown  had  divested  itself  of  the  power  it  had  over  the  perma- 
nent revenue;  and  the  sum  raised  under  that  name,  although 
small,  was  sufficient  for  the  maintenance  of  the  civil  service,  and 
of  the  judicial  establishments.  Afterwards,  however,  the  neces- 
sity of  making  roads,  and  numerous  other  expenses,  incidental  to 
a  rising  colony,  rendered  this  sum  insufficient.  It  became  neces- 
sary, therefore,  to  raise  a  larger  sum ;  and  this  was  done  by  the 
authority  of  the  House  of  Assembly.  By  what  degrees,  in  what 
manner,  and  under  what  circumstances,  a  difference  grew  up 
between  the  local  legislature  and  the  executive  government,  it  is 
not  necessary  for  me  to  trace,  for  any  of  the  purposes  which  I 
have  now  in  view.  The  present  state  of  the  controversy,  how- 
ever, is  of  this  nature.  The  House  of  Assembly  of  Lower 
Canada  claims  the  right  of  appropriating  the  permanent  revenue, 
item  by  item ;  that  is  to  say,  the  right  of  deciding  what  branches 
of  the  civil  service,  and  what  of  the  judicial  establishments, 
should  receive  their  incomes,  and  in  what  portions,  from  this  fund. 
On  the  other  part,  it  is  maintained,  and,  as  it  appears  to  me,  in  a 
manner  absolutely  incontrovertible  in  law,  that  the  Crown  pos- 
sesses over  this  revenue  a  discretionary  power,  as  to  the  propor- 
tions in  which  it  is  to  be  distributed,  provided  it  be  for  purposes 
directed  by  the  act.  I  believe  there  is  no  lawyer  who  will  deny, 
that  as  long  as  the  Crown  appropriates  that  revenue  to  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice  in  Canada,  and  to  its  civil  government, 
pursuant  to  the  words  of  the  Act  of  1774-^as  long  as  it  fulfils 
all  the  conditions  required  by  good  faith  towards  the  Canadians, 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA.  541 

— it  has  a  right  to  prescribe  the  mode  in  which  the  revenue,  con- 
sistently with  that  Act,  shall  be  expended.  There  is  no  one  who 
will  not  say,  that  the  pretensions  of  the  legislative  body  to  take 
the  whole  management  of  this  money  into  its  own  hands,  are 
neither  founded  in  law  nor  practice.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
House  of  Assembly  holding  the  public  purse  in  its  hands,  having 
the  complete  command  of  the  general  revenue,  in  order  to  en- 
force its  unreasonable  pretensions,  have  refused  to  appropriate 
any  part  of  the  larger  revenue,  of  which  they  have  the  command, 
unless  the  appropriation  of  the  permanent  Crown  revenue  be 
given  up  to  them  also. 

This,  Sir,  is  the  state  of  the  controversy  betw^een  the  executive 
and  legislative  body  in  Canada.  The  consequences  of  the  agita- 
tion of  such  a  question  as  this,  in  which,  both  parties  have  stood 
upon  their  extreme  rights,  have  been  most  unfortunate.  One  of 
the  consequences  has  been,  the  necessity  under  which  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  King  has  found  himself,  of  appropriating  money 
for  the  necessary  services  of  the  colony,  without  the  sanction  of 
the  colonial  legislature.  Such  a  thing  as  this,  in  a  country  with 
a  legislative  assembly,  can  only  be  justified  by  the  absolute  ne- 
cessity of  preventing  general  confusion,  and  the  subversion  of  the 
government  I  do  not  stand  here — living  as  I  do,  in  a  country 
where  the  rights  of  the  popular  branch  of  the  legislature  to  con- 
trol the  expenditure  of  the  money  it  raises  are  so  well  known  and 
universally  acknowledged — to  defend  the  abstract  propriety  of  a 
governor  of  a  colony,  appropriating  its  revenue  without  the  sanc- 
tion of  an  act  of  the  legislature,  as  required  by  law ;  but,  pressed 
by  necessity,  it  ought  not,  perhaps,  to  be  wondered  at,  however 
we  may  regret  the  necessity,  that  a  governor  should  take  all  the 
means  in  his  power  to  maintain  the  tranquillity  of  the  colony 
committed  to  his  charge.  When  principles  are  pressed  to  the 
extreme,  a  legislature  may,  no  doubt,  distress  the  executive 
government  of  a  country,  and  so  wear  it  out  by  continued  oppo- 
sition, as  to  have  the  point  in  dispute  conceded ;  but  what,  in  the 
mean  time,  are  the  unfortunate  results  to  the  people  ? — what,  in 
the  midst  of  these  conflicts,  has  been  the  result  to  the  province  of 
Canada  ?  Nothing  is  expended,  of  the  money  raised  in  this  irregu- 
lar manner,  but  what  is  absolutely  necessary  to  carry  on  the 
government  of  the  province :  all  improvement  is  at  a  stand,  the 
roads  are  neglected,  education  overlooked,  the  public  buildings 
suffered  to  fall  to  decay,  and  the  country  generally  brought  to 
such  a  state  that  there  is  not  a  Canadian  whose  interests  do  not 
suffer. 

Sir,  the  recurrence  of  such  a  state  of  things  it  is  our  duty  to 
prevent ;  and  I  think  I  have  made  out  a  case  suflicient  to  con- 
vince the  House,  that,  if  we  have  the  right  and  the  power,  the 
46 


542  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA. 

time  is  arrived  which  wari'ants  me  in  calling  upon  Parliament  to 
interpose  its  authority,  for  the  purpose  of  quieting  these  feuds,  and 
of  establishing  such  a  system  of  civil  government  in  Canada,  as 
may  give  a  fair  share  to  all  parties  in  the  province,  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  revenues,  so  as  to  render  them  available  for 
the  improvement  of  the  country — such  a  system  as  will,  on  the 
one  hand,  give  to  the  Legislative  Assembly  the  power  of  direct- 
ing the  whole  application  of  the  funds  appropriated  for  the  internal 
improvement  of  the  province ;  and,  on  the  other,  restrain  theni 
from  the  exercise  of  any  authority  over  what  I  may  call  the  civil 
list.  Every  man  who  knows  any  thing  of  the  country  must  be 
aware  of  the  unfitness  of  the  King's  representative  in  the  govern- 
ment, and  the  judicial  estabUshment  for  the  administration  of 
criminal  justice,  which  is  the  same  as  that  of  England,  depending 
for  their  stipends  upon  the  varying  judgments  of  a  popular  as- 
sembly. The  inexpediency  of  this,  with  regard  to  the  judicial 
establishment,  which  in  its  administration  of  justice  might  often 
come  into  collision  with  the  members  of  the  Assembly,  whose 
judgment  is  every  year  to  regulate  the  reward  of  their  services, 
must  be  particularly  obvious.  Judges  have  duties  to  perform,  which 
render  it  essential  that  they  should  be  perfectly  independent 

I  trust  I  need  say  no  more  to  convince  the  House,  that  the 
system  wished  to  be  established  by  the  Canadian  legislature  is  not 
compatible  with  the  independence  and  dignity,  either  of  the  King's 
representative  or  of  the  criminal  judges.  Out  of  what  particular 
fund  these  charges  should  be  defrayed,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say; 
but  the  present  plan  of  paying  a  fixed  sum  out  of  a  variable 
revenue,  I  certainly  think  might  be  amended.  I  think  some  mode 
might  be  found,  for  establishing  what  I  have  styled  the  civil  list ; 
from  which  the  salaries  of  the  judicial  and  other  departments 
should  be  granted  for  life,  or  in  any  other  way  that  would  answer 
the  object  I  have  in  view.  The  remainder  of  the  revenue  should 
then  be  left  at  the  free  disposal  of  the  Colonial  legislature.  And 
I  must  here,  in  justice  to  the  King's  government  in  Canada,  claim 
for  them  their  due.  So  far  were  they  from  wishing  to  have  the 
control  over  any  further  sum  than  that  to  which  I  have  alluded^ 
that  they  have  never  hesitated,  during  the  whole  of  these  troubles, 
to  lay  before  the  legislature  of  the  province  an  account  of  the  ap- 
plication of  the  revenue,  in  order  that  the  Assembly  might  be 
assured  there  was  no  misapplication  of  it.  From  this  it  is  evident, 
that  the  government  there  are  perfectly  willing  to  accede  to  the 
suggestion  I  have  just  made,  respecting  the  share  of  control  which 
it  shall  have  over  the  colonial  revenue. 

Sir,  I  do  not  think  there  are  any  other  topics  connected  with 
the  present  state  of  Canada,  which  would  justify  me  in  detaining 
the  House  longer,  as  I  trust  I  have  said  sufficient  to  support  me 


CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA.  643 

in  the  motion  with  which  I  shall  conclude.  There  are  two 
grounds  on  which  I  principally  rest.  The  first,  is  the  state  of  the 
representative  system  in  Lower  Canada,  and  the  situation  of  the 
revenue  in  respect  to  the  administration  of  justice;  the  second,  is 
the  controversy  which  has  grown  up  respecting  the  powers  of  the 
executive  and  legislative  bodies.  The  case  I  have  made  out  on 
those  two  points  is  sufficient,  I  trust,  to  entitle  me  to  the  commit- 
tee for  which  I  am  about  to  move. 

Sir,  I  should  now  have  concluded  all  that  I  feel  it  necessary  to 
state  to  the  House  on  the  present  occasion,  if  I  had  not  witnessed 
in  some  quarters,  and  I  may  say  in  some  degree  in  this  House,  a 
disposition  to  think  that  all  enquiry  and  concern  about  Canada 
are  unnecessary,  and  that  the  public  interest  of  this  country  would 
be  best  consulted  by  our  at  once  relinquishing  all  control  and 
dominion  over  these  possessions.  Sir,  it  is  very  easy,  but  1  must 
say  it  is  the  proof  of  a  very  shallow  mind,  to  lay  down  a  rule  of 
this  sort  In  British  America  there  are  nearly  a  million  of  our 
fellow-subjects,  born  like  ourselves  in  allegiance  to  the  Crown  of 
this  country,  anxious  to  remain  in  that  allegiance, — fulfilling  all 
the  duties  of  it,  and  having  as  good  a  right  as  ourselves  to  claim 
for  their  persons  and  property  the  protection  which  is  the  conse- 
quence of  that  allegiance.  Is  this  country,  without  necessity, 
without  that  right  being  challenged  by  any  one,  to  incur  the  in- 
delible disgrace  of  withdrawing  that  protection  ?  In  contemplat- 
ing such  a  question,  I  will  not  allow  myself  to  say  one  word  of 
the  advantages,  naval,  commercial,  and  political,  which  we  derive 
from  our  connexion  with  our  colonies.  But  I  may  be  allowed  to 
speak  of  the  political  character  of  the  country — of  the  moral  im- 
pression throughout  the  world  of  such  an  abandonment  as  is  here 
proposed.  I  may  be  allowed  to  say,  that  England  cannot  afl^ord 
to  be  little.  She  must  be  what  she  is,  or  nothing.  It  is  not  Canada 
estimated  in  pounds,  shillings,  and  pence — but  the  proudest  tro- 
phies of  British  valour,  but  the  character  of  British  faith,  but  the 
nonour  of  the  British  name,  which  we  shall  cast  oflf,  if  upon  such 
considerations  as  I  have  heard,  we  cast  oflfCanada  from  our  pro- 
tection. We  cannot  part  with  our  dominions  there,  without  doing 
an  injustice  to  their  fidelity  and  tried  attachment,  and  tarnishing 
the  national  honour.  We  are  not.  Sir,  at  liberty  to  forego  the 
high  and  important  duties  imposed  on  us  by  our  relative  situation 
towards  those  colonies.  It  is  a  country  where  no  distinctions  pre- 
vail, such  as  disturb  some  of  our  other  territorial  possessions 
abroad.  There  are  no  distinctions  of  castes,  no  slavery,  which 
tend  to  engender  dissention  and  disaffection.  We  have  every- 
where displayed  marks  of  a  paternal  government,  and  planted 
improvement,  not  only  on  our  colonies  there,  but  wherever  our 
empire  is  acknowledged. 


544  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  CANADA. 

Sir,  England  is  the  parent  of  nnany  flourishing  colonies — one 
of  them  is  become  an  empire  among  the  most  powerful  in  the 
world.  In  every  quarter  of  the  globe  we  have  planted  the  seeds 
of  freedom,  civilization,  and  Christianity.  To  every  quarter  of 
the  globe  we  have  parried  the  language,  the  free  institutions,  the 
system  of  laws,  which  prevail  in  this  country ; — in  every  quarter 
they  are  fructifying  and  making  progress ;  and  if  it  be  said  by 
some  selfish  calculator,  that  we  have  done  all  this  at  the  expense 
of  sacrifices  which  we  ought  not  to  have  made,  my  answer  is, — 
in  spite  of  these  sacrifices,  we  are  still  the  first  and  happiest  people 
in  the  old  world  ;  and,  whilst  this  is  our  lot,  let  us  rejoice  rather 
in  that  rich  harvest  of  glory,  which  must  belong  to  a  nation  that 
has  laid  the  foundation  of  similar  happiness  and  prosperity  to 
other  nations,  kindred  in  blood,  in  habits,  and  in  feelings  to  our- 
selves. 

But,  Sir,  whether  Canada  be  to  remain  for  ever  dependent  on 
England,  or  to  become  an  independent  state — not,  I  trust,  by 
hostile  separation,  but  by  amicable  arrangement — it  is  never- 
theless the  duty,  as  it  is  the  interest,  of  this  country,  to  imbue  it 
with  English  feeling,  and  to  benefit  it  by  English  laws  and  Eng- 
lish institutions.  I  move.  Sir,  "That  a  Select  Committee  be 
appointed,  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  the  Civil  Government  of 
Canada,  as  established  by  the  Act  31  Geo.  III.,  c.  31,  and  to  re- 
port their  observations  and  opinions  thereupon  to  the  House." 

The  motion  was  agreed  to,  and  a  committee  appointed. 


(     545     ) 


PROVISION  FOR  THE  FAMILY  OF  MR.  CANNING. 

MAY  13th,  1828 

The  House  resolved  itself  into  a  committee  on  the  Officers'  Pensions  Bill, 
in  which  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  moved,  that  the  sum  of  3,000Z.  a 
year  should  be  settled  on  one  of  the  branches  of  Mr.  Canning's  family,  and 
be  vested  in  trustees  for  the  use  of  his  family.  After  the  motion  had  been 
supported  by  Lord  Morpeth,  Sir  Robert  Wilson,  Lord  George  Bentinck,  and 
opposed  by  Lord  Althorp,  Sir  M.  W.  Ridley,  Mr.  Hume,  and  Mr.  Bankes, 

Mr.  Secretary  Huskisson  said,  that  having  been  one  of  the 
nearest  and  dearest  friends  of  the  late  Mr.  Canning,  and  having 
been  connected  with  him  by  the  closest  ties  of  personal  attach- 
ment, throughout  rather  a  long  political  life,  he  felt  perfectly 
sensible,  before  he  came  dow^n  to  the  House,  that,  were  he  to 
appear  prominent  in  this  debate,  he  should  be  liable  to  the  re- 
flection of  being  actuated  by  that  bias,  which  this  connection 
would  naturally  suggest.  He  had,  therefore,  been  anxious  not 
to  say  one  word  upon  the  subject  before  the  House.  But,  after 
the  speech  of  his  honourable  friend*  who  had  spoken  last,  and 
spoken  in  such  a  manner  of  his  lamented  friend — [here  Mr. 
Huskisson  laboured  under  strong  emotion,  and  was  loudly  cheered 
during  a  momentary  pause] — he  could  not  sit  silent;  and  with 
all  these  disadvantages  pressing  around  him,  he  could  not 
refrain  from  giving  vent  to  the  feelings  w^hich  agitated  his 
bosom. 

His  honourable  friend  had  laid  great  stress  upon  what  he  was 
pleased  to  call  this  mischievous  precedent,  and  had  asked  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  whether  he  wished  to  establish 
such  an  example  as  this  grant  would  afford  ?  Now,  his  right 
honourable  friend  meant,  on  this  occasion,  to  establish  no  pre- 
cedent; and  he  must  say,  that  he  looked  with  some  surprise  at 
the  attempt  which  was  made  to  dwell  upon  this  proposition,  as 
one  which  constituted  a  serious  precedent.  What  was  the  fact  ? 
Because  the  Parliament  had,  on  a  former  occasion,  taken  away 
from  the  Crown  certain  offices,  which  having  little  duties,  or 
being  sinecures,  were  no  longer  deemed  desirable  to  be  upheld, 
but  which  had  been  previously  bestowed  as  a  reward  for  eminent 
services,  and  vested  this  power  in  the  Crown  by  way  of  indem- 

*  Mr.  Bankes. 
46*  3T 


546  PROVISION  FOR  THE 

nity,  they  were  to  be  told  that  they  were  creating  a  new  office, 
and  proposing  an  extravagant  waste  of  the  public  money.  He 
remembered  that,  when  the  new  arrangement  was  made,  by 
which  the  Crown  surrendered  its  prerogative  of  rewarding  by 
offices  of  this  description,  it  was  asked,  would  they  limit  the 
Crown  by  the  new  act,  and  shut  it  out  from  the  means  of  reward- 
ing able  and  faithful  services  1  To  this  it  was  at  the  time  answer- 
ed— he  forgot  whether  it  was  by  his  honourable  friend  himself — 
that,  whenever  a  special  case  arose,  it  could  only  be  necessary  to 
apply  to  Parliament,  where  a  desire  would  always  be  found  to  do 
justice  to  eminent  services  performed  for  the  state.  In  this  spirit,  on 
this  occasion,  ministers  had  come  to  Parliament  And,  how  were 
they  met  ?  Not  by  a  fulfilment  of  the  former  pledge  ;  but  by  an 
exclamation — "  You  are  going  to  create  a  most  dangerous  pre- 
cedent." The  answer  was,  they  were  not  going  to  create  any 
such  evil,  but  were  merely  calling  upon  Parliament  to  fulfil  its 
own  expressed  anticipation  of  claims,  for  the  performance  of 
meritorious  services  to  the  state.  The  Crown  had,  upon  condi- 
tions, surrendered  that  which  it  need  not  have  otherwise  conced- 
ed ;  and  it  was  hard  to  say,  when  ministers  now  came  forward  in 
the  full  spirit  of  the  contract,  that  they  were  attempting  to  intro- 
duce a  most  dangerous  precedent  What  had  the  dead-weight 
act  to  do  with  this  discussion,  seeing  that  the  real  object  was  to 
give  efficacy  to  an  act  which  was  entirely  within  the  spirit  of  his 
honourable  friend's  own  principle  of  economy?  The  arrange- 
ment which  pervaded  the  act  given  to  the  Crown,  when  the  sinecure 
offices  were  abolished,  was  simply  this : — the  Crown  was  empow- 
ered to  grant  six  pensions,  not  exceeding  in  the  aggregate,  40,000/. 
a  year,  to  ministers  who  had  performed  eminent  public  services, 
according  to  their  different  stations  and  degrees.  If  the  Crown 
were  in  course  of  paying  the  whole  of  this  sum  (which  was  not 
the  case),  the  public  would  have  no  right  to  complain,  according 
to  the  strict  terms  of  the  agreement ;  for  it  was  a  compensation 
given  by  Parliament,  in  exchange  for  the  surrender  of  a  much 
larger  and  more  valuable  amount  of  patronage.  The  only  limits 
were  six  offices,  and  40,000/. 

What  was  the  present  proposition  ?  To  grant  one  of  these  for 
life  to  the  son  of  Mr.  Canning,  in  consideration  of  those  services 
for  which  his  father  could,  unfortunately,  no  longer  receive  re- 
ward in  his  own  person.  This  entailed  no  increase  upon  the 
principal  of  the  fund :  it  gave  one  claimant  for  another ;  it  substi- 
tuted one  life  for  that  which  had  been  withdrawn.  And  that  act,  be 
it  remembered,  was  passed  in  times  of  infinitely  greater  pressure 
upon  the  finances  of  the  country,  than  could  now  be  said  to  exist 
It  was  passed,  likewise,  while  a  committee  of  finance  was  sitting, 
and  with  a  careful  and  deliberate  attention  to  public  economy. 


FAMILY  OF  MR.  CANNING.  547 

His  honourable  friend  had  said,  that  Mr.  Canning  had  optionally 
given  up  the  lucrative  situation  in  India,  which  had  been  confer- 
red upon  him  when  his  Majesty  called  him  to  a  high  and  honour- 
able situation  in  his  councils  at  home,  and  must  therefore  have 
considered  what  he  had  received,  as  a  full  equivalent  for  that 
which  he  had  surrendered — that,  in  fact,  he  had  heartily  exchang- 
ed the  foreign  service  for  the.  more  glorious  opening  to  his  ambi- 
tion at  hon^e.     Now,  upon  the  sense  entertained  by  Mr.  Canning 
upon  what  his  honourable  friend   had   been  pleased  to  call  his 
choice,  he  begged  to  be  heard  for  one  moment.     He  regretted  to 
be  obliged  to  make  reference,  on  such  an  occasion,  to  information 
derived  from  the  privacy  of  confidential  intercourse.     He  would 
however  state,  upon  his  own  personal  credit, — he  would  declare, 
upon  his  own  reputation  as  a  man,  in  that  house, — that  whatever 
were  the  feelings  of  others,  who  were  justly  near  and  dear  to  Mr. 
Canning,  it  had  for  years  been  his  own  warm  and  anxious  wish 
— owing  to  circumstances  that  were  likely  to  press  upon  the  acute 
and  sensitive  mind  of  such  a  man — to  be  placed  in  some  public 
situation,  however  it  might  sacrifice  or  compromise  the  fair  and 
legitimate  scope  of  his  ambition,  which,  while  it  enabled  him  to 
perform  adequate  public  services,  would  enable  him  also  to  place 
upon  a  better  footing  his  wife's  private  fortune,  which  he  had 
decreased,  and  the  inheritance  of  his  children,  which  he  had  im- 
paired.    He  would  not  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  this  was  a  pros- 
pect fixed  upon  Mr.  Canning's  mind,  or  an  object  that  he  was 
bent  upon  pursuing,  for  it  was  difliicult  to  trace  the  springs  of  so 
susceptible  a  temperament;  but  under  the  circumstances,  it  was 
quite  natural,  considering  his  means  and  his  family,  that  while  he 
honourably  sought  a  situation  to  render  service  to  his  country,  he 
should  not  be  unmindful  of  the  means  of  repairing  the  fortune  of 
his  family,  which  he  had  diminished  while  in  the  service  of  that 
country. 

His  honourable  friend  seemed  to  think,  that  in  these  conflicts 
between  the  acceptance  of  particular  offices,  and  the  performance 
of  diflferent  duties,  the  decisions  were  perfectly  optional.  This 
was  an  egregious  mistake,  and  a  wrong  view  of  the  springs  of 
human  action.  It  was  not  the  principle  which  governed  public 
men  in  this  country — he  hoped  and  believed  not.  The  principle 
of  Mr.  Canning  was,  when  His  Majesty  had  formally  called  upon 
him  to  forego  one  situation  and  fill  another, — not  to  look  to  the 
right  or  to  the  left, — not  to  consider  emolument,  but  public  duty, 
and  to  obey  the  commands  of  his  Sovereign,  if  there  was  nothing 
in  the  nature  of  the  proposition  submitted  to  him  incompatible 
with  his  public  principles  and  persoiial  honour.  He  had  in  his 
possession  a  letter  written  by  Mr.  Canning,  a  very  few  months 
after  the  time  when  he  had  cheerfully  relinquished  the  golden 


648  PROVISION  FOR  THE 

prospects  of  the  East,  and  when,  as  his  honourable  friend  seemed 
to  think,  he  was  indulging  the  gratification  of  his  splendid  ambi- 
tion, in  which,  speaking  of  the  toils,  and  anxieties,  and  pains  of 
his  official  situation,  he  used  these  expressive  words — "Would  to 
God  that  I  were  now  on  board  the  'Jupiter!'" — the  name  of  the 
ship  destined  for  his  voyage  to  India.  So  much,  therefore,  for 
his  lamented  friend's  gratifying  option!  So  much  for  the  plea- 
sures and  profits  of  office,  which  he  was  supposed  to  have  enjoy- 
ed with  so  much  satisfaction ! 

He  entirely  concurred  in  the  expression  of  his  honourable 
friend's  opinion  upon  the  necessity  of  enforcing  a  principle  of 
economy;  but  if  he  was  not  mistaken,  his  honourable  friend  had 
more  than  once  admitted,  that  the  great  offices  of  the  state  were 
not  in  this  country  overpaid.  For  himself,  he  had  indeed  always 
objected  to  having  their  salaries  or  emoluments  increased,  and 
had  always  thought  it  would  be  a  most  unwise  policy,  not  with 
regard  to  economy  alone,  to  raise  the  stipends  of  the  high  officers 
of  state.  His  reason  for  so  thinking  had  been,  because  in  a  coun- 
try like  this,  possessed  of  a  wealthy  aristocracy  and  of  a  number 
of  commoners  of  large  fortune,  talents  well  suited  to  the  service 
of  the  state  must  often  be  found,  to  whom  the  salary  of  office 
would  be  no  object.  Such  a  feeUng  ought,  on  principle,  to  be 
cultivated;  while  at  the  same  time,  the  Crown  should  not  be  pre- 
vented from  looking  elsewhere  for  aid  if  necessary, — should  not 
be  deprived  of  calling  into  its  service  those  talents  which  might 
be  found  placed  in  less  fortunate  circumstances  in  the  community. 
He  should  be  sorry  to  see  the  Crown  restricted  in  the  privilege 
of  benefiting  by  the  talents  of  any  of  these  classes,  whether  by 
being  excluded  from  the  choice  of  servants  among  the  less 
wealthy  ranks,  or — which  he  would  be  still  more  sorry  for — by 
being  tied  down  to  the  aristocracy,  to  the  exclusion  of  whatever 
abilities  might  oflfer  themselves  in  other  quarters.  His  conclusion 
therefore  was,  that  it  was  a  wise  principle  to  keep  the  salaries  of 
high  and  efficient  officers  at  a  comparative  low  rate ;  and  when- 
ever great  services  had  been  received,  and  want  of  adequate 
means  the  result  to  the  individual  or  his  family,  to  come  down  to 
Parliament,  once,  perhaps,  in  a  quarter  of  a  century,  to  make  an 
appeal  for  the  payment  of  the  debts  of  some  minister  like  Mr. 
Pitt,  or  some  provision  for  the  family  of  such  a  man  as  Mn 
Canning.  This  was  an  infinitely  more  economical  course,  than 
any  project  for  raising  the  salaries  of  officers  of  state,  which 
would  entail  a  permanent  and  fixed  expense  to  the  nation.  In- 
stances would  often  occur  when,  as  at  present  in  the  case  of  the 
Minister  for  Foreign  AffairS,*  or  in  that  of  the  late  Secretary  of 
State  for  the    Home   Department,!  salary   would    be   nothing. 

*  The  Earl  of  Dudley.  f  The  Marquis  of  Lansdowne. 


FAMILY  OF  MR.  CANNING.  549 

These  distinguished  persons  having  always  large  establishments, 
would  have  to  incur,  in  consequence  of  official  station,  Httle  or  no 
additional  expenditui'e.  Many  persons  who  had  filled  office  re- 
ceived more  than  their  official  salary  as  the  reward  for  their 
services.  Lord  Grenville,  for  instance,  had  received  other  re- 
wards besides  the  salary  attached  to  the  office,  which  he  had 
filled  with  so  much  honour  to  himself,  and  so  much  advantage  to 
the  country.  He  mentioned  this,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that 
his  honourable  friend  was  not  borne  out  in  his  argument  on  that 
point,  by  a  reference  to  facts.  The  better  and  more  economical 
course  would  be,  not  to  augment  salaries,  but  to  leave  the  door 
open  for  any  special  case  like  the  present,  which  Parliament 
might  think  proper  to  consider. 

Another  charge  of  his  honourable  friend  was,  that  Mr.  Canning 
had  expended  a  large  sum  of  the  public  money,  for  fitting  up  his 
private  residence.  Now  he  did  not  know  the  amount  laid  out 
upon  the  office  in  Downing-street ;  but  he  knew  that,  with  the 
extension  of  the  business  of  the  Foreign  Office,  it  had  become 
necessary  to  enlarge  the  building ;  and  when  the  expediency  and 
value  of  personal  residence  were  evident,  and  when  it  was  con- 
sidered that,  in  that  neighbourhood  it  was  not  easy  to  obtain  a 
house,  with  suitable  accommodations  for  maintaining  the  scale  of 
hospitality  which  the  office  required,  he  thought  it  not  too  much, 
that  some  expense  should  be  incurred  to  secure  such  a  public 
object;  but  he  must  repeat,  that  that  expense  could  not  have 
amounted  to  any  thing  like  the  sum  mentioned  by  his  honourable 
friend,  in  the  way  in  whic^i  he  had  put  it. 

His  honourable  friend  had  said  that,  instead  of  the  country 
being  a  debtor  to  Mr.  Canning  for  his  services,  she  was  his  cre- 
ditor on  account  of  the  expenditure  of  which  he  had  been  the 
cause,  and  which  had  taken  place  in  the  foreign  department  while 
he  was  in  office ;  and  his  honourable  friend  had  told  them  to  look 
to  Portugal,  to  Greece,  and  to  the  passage  of  the  Pruth  by  the 
Russians.  Now,  every  honourable  member  must  see  the  unfair- 
ness,— for  he  could  not  call  it  by  a  milder  name, — of  discussing 
such  questions  on  the  present  occasion.  Standing  there  as  a 
minister  of  the  Crown,  and  a  colleague  of  the  late  Mr.  Canning, 
willing  as  he  was  to  encounter  all  the  responsibility  of  those  mea- 
sures upon  which  his  honourable  friend  opposite  had  passed  such 
a  sweeping  condemnation,  and  ready  as  he  was,  on  the  fit  occa- 
sion, to  enter  upon  the  defence  of  those  measures,  he  would  con- 
fess he  felt,  and  sure  he  was  it  was  a  feeling  in  which  the  House 
participated,  that  it  was  exceedingly  unfair  to  introduce  such  a 
subject  into  this  discussion.  This  much  he  would  say  to  his 
honourable  friend, — that  the  expedition  to  Portugal  was  sent  out 
with  the  concurrence  of  every  Minister  who  then  sat  in  the  Cabi« 


550  PROVISION  FOR  THE 

net,  and  that  the  measure  had  been  approved  of  in  another  House, 
by  the  illustrious  Duke  who  now  presided  over  his  Majesty's 
Councils.  He  would  say  more, — that  the  expedition  was  sent 
out  to  defend  the  oldest  ally  of  this  country  against  foreign  ma- 
chinations and  aggression, — that  that  was  the  sole,  entire,  and 
definite  purpose  for  which  it  was  sent  there ;  and  that  it  had  com- 
pletely accomplished  that  purpose.  The  independence  of  Portu- 
gal had  been  preserved.  She  had  been  secured  against  foreign 
invasion,  and  those  dangers  had  been  dissipated,  against  which 
they  had  been  called  upon,  by  the  faith  of  treaties  and  by  the 
policy  of  this  country,  to  provide.  Nevertheless,  his  honourable 
friend  would  render  Mr.  Canning's  memory  responsible  for  the 
expenses  of  this  expedition — he  would  charge  the  purse  of  his 
family,  if  he  could — and  he  would,  if  it  were  in  his  power,  call 
upon  them  to  pay  for  that  expedition  with  their  last  shilling.  Nay, 
his  honourable  friend  would  go  still  further,  and  charge  upon  the 
memory  of  Mr.  Canning  that  folly  and  infatuation  which  evil 
counsels  had  produced,  in  the  instance  of  the  Prince  Regent  of 
Portugal. 

But  the  Russians,  forsooth,  had  passed  the  Pruth !  and,  accord- 
ing to  his  honourable  friend,  it  was  quite  just  that  Mr.  Canning 
should  be  held  responsible  for  that  likewise.  The  present  was 
not  the  time  to  discuss  the  questions  growing  out  of  the  present 
state  of  things  in  the  east  of  Europe;  but  he  did  not  anticipate 
any  such  direful  consequences  to  this  country  from  them,  as  his 
honourable  friend  seemed  to  apprehend.  Nevertheless,  let  the 
consequences  be  what  they  might,  he  would  tell  his  honourable 
friend,  that  but  for  the  policy  of  Mr.  Canning,  the  passage  of  the 
Pruth  would  have  been  effected  long  since,  and  under  circum- 
stances by  no  means  so  favourable  to  this  country,  as  those  under 
which  it  had  now  occurred. 

His  honourable  friend  had  alluded  to  the  force  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  had  laid  the  expenditure  and  the  occurrences  there 
at  the  door  of  Mr.  Canning.  Did  his  honourable  friend  never  hear 
that  the  Mediterranean  had  been  infested  by  numerous  pirates? — 
that  the  commerce  of  all  nations,  and  particularly  British  com- 
merce, had  suffered  severe  losses  in  consequence  of  their  depreda- 
tions ?  It  was  to  put  down  that  system  of  piracy  that  the  force 
had  been  sent  out  to  the  Mediterranean ;  and  no  blame  could  at- 
tach to  his  lamented  friend,  or  to  those  who  concurred  with  him 
in  the  policy  of  sending  out  that  force,  if  a  shock  had  afterwards 
taken  place,  which  had  never  been  anticipated,  as  one  of  the  con- 
sequences of  those  instructions  which  Mr.  Canning,  in  the  dis- 
charge of  his  duty  to  the  country  and  the  Crowii,  had  prepared. 

The  next  point  to  which  his  honourable  friend  had  adverted, 
was  one  upon  which  it  was  desirable  that  no  discussion  should 


FAMILY  OF  MR.  CANNING.  551 

have  been  provoked.  His  noble  friend,  who  had  addressed  the 
House  with  so  much  eloquence  and  feeling,  had  adverted  to  the 
delay  wiiich  had  taken  place  in  bringing  forward  this  proposition. 
Now,  he  could  assert,  that  there  did  not  exist  in  the  late  Admi- 
nistration, any  indisposition  to  consider  the  claims  of  the  family 
of  Mr.  Canning ;  and  he  could  positively  say,  that  in  the  present 
Administration  there  prevailed  one  unanimous  concurrence  in  the 
present  proposition,  and  that  the  delay  which  had  taken  place  was 
not  to  be  attributed  to  any  desire  on  their  part  to  defeat  the  object 
of  the  proposition.  All  personal  feelings  had  been  laid  aside,  when 
this  question  came  to  be  considered  by  them.  All  angry  passions 
were  for  the  time  forgotten,  and  they  approached  the  considera- 
tion of  the  question  as  public  men,  looking  only  to  the  circum- 
stances which  had  reference  to  the  public  services  of  the  man, 
and  the  loss  which  his  family  had  sustained  by  his  death.  In  this 
they  imitated  the  great  example  of  Mr.  Fox,  who  at  a  period 
when  the  finances  of  the  country  were  greatly  embarrassed,  not- 
withstanding the  many  angry  and  violent  encounters  which  had 
taken  place  between  them  in  Parliament,  was  amongst  the  fore- 
most to  support  the  bill  for  the  payment  of  the  debts  of  Mr.  Pitt, 
and,  with  the  characteristic  virtue  of  great  men,  laid  aside  all 
recollections  of  the  differences  which  had  prevailed  between  him 
and  his  lost  rival. 

He  felt  that  he  had  already  trespassed  too  long  on  the  attention 
of  the  House.  He  would,  however,  say  this  of  Mr.  Canning, — 
that,  during  the  course  of  a  long  parliamentary  life,  he  had  known 
all  the  great  men  who,  for  the  last  twenty-five  years,  had  served 
their  country,  and  that  he  never  knew  one  of  them  who  had  ex- 
ceeded Mr.  Canning  in  the  exclusion  of  every  thing  of  self,  when 
concerned  in  the  discharge  of  public  duties.  In  his  anxiety  to 
discharge  those  duties,  he  was  regardless  of  all  other  considera- 
tions. His  desire  for  power  arose  from  his  love  of  fame ;  and  his 
constant  exertions,  while  in  power,  were  directed  to  the  advance- 
ment of  the  fame  of  his  country.  Animated  with  these  feelings, 
he  had  lighted  up  that  flame  in  the  Peninsula  which  has  blazed 
throughout  Europe,  and  had  at  last  restored  the  peace  of  the  con- 
tinent. The  same  feelings  influenced  him  in  the  latter  part  of  his 
career — the  same  desire  still  animated  his  breast,  to  promote  the 
good  and  to  advance  the  greatness  of  his  country.  The  anxiety 
which  he  exhibited,  and  the  incessant  exertions  which  he  devoted 
to  the  accomplishment  of  that  great  object,  destroyed  a  frame 
which  had  been  otherwise  robust,  and  caused  his  premature 
decease — too  soon,  alas !  for  his  country,  though  not  for  his  own 
fame.  He  last  saw  his  lamented  friend  in  the  month  of  July.  His 
health  was  then  drooping — his  strength  was  gone,  and  his  frame 
was  fast  sinking  to  decay ;  but  his  spirit  was  still  as  young  as 


552  FAMILY  OF  MR.  CANNING. 

ever,  and  his  enthusiasm  in  the  cause  of  his  country  knew  no 
bounds.  If  his  lamented  friend  had  errors,  they  were  the  errors 
of  a  great  mind.  In  none  of  the  illustrious  men  who  had  yielded 
themselves  up  to  the  calls  of  public  duty,  had  he  seen  the  same 
devoted ness  of  soul  to  the  cause  of  the  country,  which  had  been 
uniformly  exhibited  by  Mr.  Canning,  with  the  exception  of  Nelson, 
and,  as  "their  feelings  were  similar,  so  their  fate  was  the  same ; 
for  both  had  fallen  in  the  service  of  their  country.  If  departed 
spirits  retained  the  feelings  which  animated  them  in  their  earthly 
sojourn,  sure  he  was  that  those  kindred  spirits  were  still  pervaded 
with  the  desire  for  England's  fame  and  England's  greatness. 
That  was  the  all-pervading  ambition  which  influenced  the  public 
conduct  of  Mr.  Canning,  and  it  was  on  that  account  that  he  called 
on  the  House  to  adopt  the  present  motion.  His  honourable  friend 
opposite  had  calculated  what  he  reckoned  Mr.  Canning  to  have 
cost  the  country,  and  had  estimated  it  at  sixty  thousand  pounds. 
No  doubt  his  honourable  friend  had  discharged  what  he  conceived 
to  be  a  public  duty,  in  opposing  this  proposal ;  but  gladly  would 
the  family  of  Mr.  Canning  relinquish  more  than  sixty  thousand 
pounds,  if  they  could  have  restored  to  them  that  parent  who  had 
fallen  a  sacrifice  to  his  devotion  to  his  country. 

The  committee  divided :  For  the  motion,  161.    Against  it,  54. 


(    553    ) 


AMERICAN   TARIFFS. 

JULY  18th,  1828. 

Mr.  HusKissoN  said,  that  in  submitting  the  motion  of  which  he 
had  given  notice,  he  begged  to  assure  his  right  honourable  friends 
on  the  Treasury  bench,  that  nothing  could  be  farther  from  his 
intention  than  to  elicit  from  the  Government  any  premature  dis- 
closure of  their  views  and  sentiments,  in  reference  to  the  conduct 
of  the  United  States,  as  bearing  on  the  commerce  and  industry 
of  this  country.  Neither  was  it  his  intention  to  state  any  specific 
opinion  of  his  own  on  a  subject  of  so  much  importance,  though 
he  felt  it  necessary  to  take  some  notice  of,  he  would  not  say  the 
intention,  but  the  tendency  of  the  acts  which  had  lately  been 
passed  by  the  legislature  of  the  United  States :  which  he  con- 
sidered mainly  detrimental  to  their  own  interests,  and  calculated 
to  injure  and  impede  the  commerce  of  this  country.  Seeing  the 
many  other  urgent  matters  that  must  have  engaged  the  attention 
of  Government,  and  looking  especially  to  the  circumstances  at- 
tending the  situation  of  the  department  to  which  the  considera- 
tion of  these  subjects  peculiarly  belonged,  it  could  not  be  expect- 
ed that  they  had  yet  been  able  to  give  to  the  new  American 
Tariffs  all  the  consideration  which  their  importance  deserved.  In 
1815,  very  soon  after  the  termination  of  the  unfortunate  war  in 
which  we  had  been  engaged  with  the  United  States,  a  convention 
of  commerce  was  entered  into  between  the  two  countries  for 
four  years.  This  convention  was  renewed  in  1818.  The  prin- 
ciple on  which  it  was  framed  was  very  short  and  simple.  It  was 
one  of  those  treaties  which  had  been  since  so  much  abused,  under 
the  name  of  reciprocity  treaties,  and  was  the  model  on  which 
other  treaties  were  subsequently  constructed.  The  principle  was, 
that  all  articles  of  produce,  trade,  or  manufactures,  should  be  re- 
ceived in  either  country,  on  the  payment  of  duties  as  low  as  were 
paid  on  the  same  articles  by  any  other  country ;  and  that  there 
should  be  no  discriminating  duty,  with  respect  to  the  ships  in 
which  they  were  imported.  This  treaty  or  convention  was  con- 
cluded for  ten  years,  and  would  expire  on  the  10th  of  October  in 
the  present  year. 

The  policy  of  the  United  States  was  at  first  sound  and  wise, 
and  they  had  only  laid  on  articles  imported  for  the  consumption 
of  their  population,  such  duties  as  were  sufficient  to  provide  for 
47  3U 


554  AMERICAN  TARIFFS. 

the  exigencies  of  the  state.  The  duties  on  the  woollens  of  this 
country  were  15  per  cent.,  and  those  on  our  hardware  and  our 
cotton  goods  were  even  lower.  In  1823,  whilst  the  convention 
was  still  binding  on  both  countries,  they,  strange  to  say,  adopted 
a  change  in  their  tariff,  imposing  much  higher  duties  on  tnose 
articles  which  they  considered  the  great  staples  of  our  manufac- 
ture. Hardware  was  taxed  thirty  and  forty  per  cent.;  cotton 
about  the  same;  and,  as  if  to  give  a  proof  of  their  intention 
deliberately  to  violate  the  existing  convention,  they  raised  the 
duty  on  rolled  iron  one-half  higher  than  that  on  hammered  iron ; 
thus  taxing  even  our  improvements  in  machinery.  Upon  a  re- 
monstrance from  this  country,  the  executive  government  admit- 
ted, much  to  its  credit,  that  no  such  increase  of  duty  ought  to  be 
imposed,  nor  any  duty  laid  on,  in  reference  to  the  expedition  with 
which  it  was  forged. 

Subsequently,  an  attempt  was  made  to  induce  us  again  to  enter 
into  a  commercial  convention  for  another  term  of  ten  years.  He 
had  been  the  individual  charged  with  arranging  the  renewal  of 
the  convention ;  and  in  the  course  of  the  discussions,  he  had 
taken  two  objections  to  such  renewal.  The  first,  that  as  the  Con- 
gress had  taken  this  course  with  the  iron,  there  was  nothing  to 
prevent  it  from  doing  the  same  with  the  other  articles  of  our  ex- 
ports to  the  United  States ;  for  instance,  cotton  goods ; — that,  in 
fact,  if  at  all  admitted,  the  principle  would  go  to  deprive  us — a 
great  manufacturing  country — of  all  the  benefit  of  our  improve- 
ments in  machinery.  The  second  objection  was,  that  the  scale 
of  duties  on  other  articles  had  been  attempted  to  be  increased  in 
1824,  1825,  and  1826,  and  was  only  rejected  by  the  casting-vote 
of  the  President.  He  therefore  proposed,  that  the  parties  should 
not  be  bound  to  a  term  of  ten  years,  but  should  conclude  a  new 
convention  determinable  at  any  period,  provided  twelve  months 
notice  were  given  by  either  party.  This  convention,  leaving  the 
two  countries  comparatively  unfettered,  was  concluded  last 
August.  Whilst  iron,  cotton,  and  hardware,  were  rendered  liable 
to  duties  which  almost  amounted  to  a  prohibition,  being  the  staples 
of  this  country,  the  productions  of  other  countries  were,  in  the 
same  proportion,  lowered ;  evidently  showing  an  intention  to  in- 
jure, if  not  altogether  to  ruin,  the  extensive  trade  carrying  on  by 
this  country  in  articles  of  its  own  manufacture.  The  fatal  vote 
of  this  year  was  carried  by  as  small  a  majority  as  it  was  lost  by 
in  the  preceding  year;  and  the  best-informed  Americans  candidly 
confessed,  that  they  felt  this  conduct  to  be  extremely  unwise  and 
impolitic.  Be  that  as  it  might,  each  country  had  a  right  to  do  in 
this  respect  as  it  liked,  and  we  had  no  right  to  complain.  He  for 
one  made  no  remonstrance  as  to  the  principle ;  but  we  had  the 
remedy  within   ourselves.     He  was,  however,  not  disposed   to 


AMERICAN  TARIFFS.  555 

enter  on  a  war  of  restrictions  or  prohibitions  in  commerce.  He 
deeply  regretted  what  had  been  done  in  this  respect ;  yet  a  man 
must  be  bhnd  to  the  interests  of  ttiis  country,  who  should  consent 
to  deprive  Government  of  the  means  of  promptly  meeting  the 
effect  of  such  restrictive  measures  by  corresponding  regulations 
here.  If  we  were  not  in  a  condition  to  vindicate  ourselves,  there 
was  at  once  an  end  of  all  equality;  nor  could  we  account  satis- 
factorily to  other  countries,  with  whom  we  were  still  allowed  to 
trade  on  fair  terms  of  reciprocity,  for  this  tame  endurance  in  in- 
jury. Neither  was  it  consistent  with  the  dignity  of  a  great  com- 
mercial nation  like  this,  to  sit  in  apathy  and  affect  not  to  feel  the 
impediments  thrown  in  the  way  of  its  commerce.  If  we  were 
to  take  raw  materials  for  our  manufactures  from  the  United 
States,  we  certainly  should  ensure  for  our  articles,  when  manu- 
factured from  those  materials,  an  equally  favourable  reception  in 
the  market  as  they  experienced  in  other  countries,  not  deriving 
in  turn  such  considerable  intercommercial  advantages.  Whilst 
we  were  dependent  on  that  country  for  the  raw  material,  were 
they  to  be  encouraged  and  aided  in  their  determination  to  be 
henceforth  independent  of  our  manufactured  goods,  of  which 
they  had  till  now  required  so  large  a  supply  ?  It  was  a  more 
manly  course,  in  order  both  to  assert  the  character  and  protect 
the  commerce  of  this  country,  to  protest  against  a  system  framed 
for  the  unjust  exclusion  of  our  articles  of  manufacture.  That 
system  of  commercial  hostility  he  deeply  regretted.  There  were 
two  descriptions  of  articles  imported  into  this  country.  Of  the 
first  class,  such  as  tobacco,  rice,  and  turpentine,  he  should  speak 
as  of  articles  which  were  not  essential  to  our  commerce  or  manu- 
factures, and  were  mere  articles  of  consumption.  We  could,  he 
was  satisfied,  soon  be  abundantly  supplied  wi^h  tobacco  from  the 
East-Indies,  by  wise  and  prudent  inducements  held  out  to  induce 
its  improved  cultivation.  The  rice  of  India  would  soon  (indeed 
it  was  already  doing  so)  usurp  the  place,  in  our  list  of  imports, 
which  that  of  Carolina  had  held.  In  other  articles,  the  same 
change  would  soon  be  observed.  With  reference  to  cotton,  that 
raw  article  so  essential  in  our  great  staple  trade,  it  was  only 
necessary  to  give  its  culture  in  India  the  same  encouragement 
and  protection  which  the  indigo  trade  had  obtained,  to  ensure  its 
cultivation  with  equal  success,  and  the  growth  of  as  good,  as 
durable,  and  as  fine  an  article.  The  result  would  soon  be,  that 
the  cotton  of  India  would  rival  and  supplant  the  cotton  of  the 
western  worM,  as  the  indigo  of  India  already  excelled  that  of 
Guatemala,  to  which  it  was  formerly  so  much  inferior,  and  would 
still  have  continued  so,  but  for  the  judicious  encouragement 
aflforded  to  it. 

Unless  we  asserted  our  dignity  and  protected  our  interests, 


556  AMERICAN  TARIFFS. 

what  would  be  thought  of  us  by  the  people  of  Brazil,  who  ad- 
mitted all  our  articles  of  manufacture  upon  a  payment  of  only 
fifteen  per  cent. '(  What  could  we  with  consistency  say  to  India, 
which  was  compelled  to  receive  all  our  exports  at  a  duty  of  2^ 
per  cent,  on  being  landed  in  the  ports  of  India,  and  had  scarcely 
any  staple  wherewith  to  repay  itself  in  the  way  of  commerce 
with  us  ?  What,  in  fact,  could  be  our  answer  to  the  new  states 
of  South  America  1  This  was  an  important  consideration.  But 
there  was  another ;  which  was,  that  if  the  United  States  pursued 
this  course,  and  drove  us  to  other  countries  for  a  supply  now  almost 
all  their  own,  we  should  see  that  supply  brought  to  this  country  in 
English  bottoms  and  thus  employing  English  industry,  instead  of, 
as  it  was  now,  employing  American  ships  and  seamen,  and  under 
the  American  flag.  It  was  become  a  question  of  too  great  im- 
portance, any  longer  to  be  overlooked  by  any  Government  anxi- 
ous to  protect  its  commerce  from  the  too  palpable  attempt  to  ex- 
clude the  produce  of  English  industry  from  the  market  of  the 
United  States.  But  was  it  to  be  supposed  that  the  effort  could  be 
crowned  with  success ;  or  was  it  not  right  to  infer,  that  if,  cir- 
cumstanced as  our  provinces  in  Canada  were, — so  large  a  coun- 
try as  the  United  States  were  prohibited  from  obtaining  a  legiti- 
mate supply,  human  industry  and  ingenuity  would  devise  means 
of  obtaining  at  a  cheap  rate,  and  without  duty  at  all,  that  which 
was  so  superior  in  manufacture  to  any  other  they  could  obtain? 
He  should  deeply  regret  if  things  turned  into  such  an  illicit  chan- 
nel, as  it  could  hardly  fail  to  increase  the  rivalry  between  the 
states  bordering  on  the  line  of  demarcation  in  North  America, 
and  possibly  be  productive  of  hostile  feeling,  and  frequent  per- 
sonal rencontres.  Strengthened  as  Government  had  felt  itself  by 
all  these  concurrent  encouragements,  it  would  not  have  become 
it  to  have  acted  otherwise  than  it  did,  with  respect  to  the  com- 
mercial convention  last  concluded.  It  appeared  to  him  that  the 
people  of  the  United  States  had  been  led  into  an  error,  and  in- 
duced to  believe  that  we  should  have  regarded  all  this  with  com- 
parative apathy,  as  coming  from  themselves ;  because  this  coun- 
try had  been  so  uniformly  moderate  and  forbearing  with  an 
infant  and  rising  state,  connected  with  us  so  intimately  by  com- 
munity of  language  and  a  common  origin. 

He  thought  that  the  present  extent  of  our  trade  with  America 
did  honour  to  the  spirit  of  enterprise  in  both  countries ;  but  if 
America  should  persevere  in  the  system  disclosed  in  the  tariff  of 
this  year,  the  day  might  arrive  when  the  commerce  between  her 
and  this  country  might  become  as  restricted,  and  as  insignificant, 
as  that  between  us  and  France.  The  commerce  of  America 
with  this  country  amounted  to  more  than  one  half  of  the  whole 
of  her  commercial  transactions  with  the  rest  of  the  world ;  but 


AMERICAN  TARIFFS.  557 

our  dealings  with  America,  though  conducted  on  such  an  exten- 
sive scale,  did  not  amount  to  one-sixth  of  our  general  commerce. 
He  would  leave  it  to  those  who  had  an  interest  in  the  prosperity 
of  that  country,  to  say,  whether  they  would  risk  the  loss  of  more 
than  half  her  trade  in  the  vain  endeavour  to  impede  us  in  one- 
sixth  of  ours.  The  rapid  increase  of  the  cotton  trade  between 
America  and  this  country  was  a  proof,  not  only  of  the  general 
prosperity  of  both,  but  of  the  increased  comforts  which  were 
possessed  by  every  class  of  our  population.  In  the  years  1817 
and  1818,  one  half  of  the  cotton  manufactured  in  this  country 
was  consumed  at  home.  As  the  quantity  of  the  raw  material 
had  doubled  in  the  course  of  ten  years,  the  inference  was  obvi- 
ous, that  the  quantity  of  manufactured  cotton  had  more  than 
doubled.  That  was  a  great  improvement  in  so  short  a  period ; 
and  it  was  the  more  important,  as  it  indicated  a  corresponding 
increase  in  the  comforts,  and  he  might  say  the  luxuries,  of  the 
people.  He  hailed  it  as  an  evidence  of  the  advantages  which  a 
long  peace  was  calculated  to  diffuse  over  the  face  of  the  earth, 
that  in  the  whole  of  the  civilized  world,  the  comforts  and  advan- 
tages of  society  were  rapidly  increasing.  He  rejoiced  to  think 
that  they  were  increasing  in  other  countries  as  well  as  our  own; 
for,  as  they  increased,  the  wants  of  those  countries  would  in- 
crease, with  their  wants  commerce,  and  with  commerce  that 
beneficial  intercourse  which  it  must  be  the  wish  of  every  man  to 
cultivate  and  encourage. 

If  the  United  States  of  America,  by  a  fatal  poUcy,  should  per- 
severe in  shutting  out  our  commerce  from  her  ports,  it  was 
absurd  to  suppose  that  she  could  annihilate  that  portion  of  our 
commerce.  All  she  could  do  was  to  alter  its  course, — to  send 
us  into  other  ports  of  the  same  continent,  to  send  us  into  Asia, 
and  into  the  vast  islands  which  covered  the  Asiatic  seas. 

To  follow  up  the  subject  still  further.  He  would  say,  that 
those  gentlemen  who,  in  another  place,  laboured  with  so  much 
useless  industry  in  the  inquiry  concerning  the  low  price  of  En- 
glish wool,  were  mistaken  if  they  supposed  that  it  was  any  proof 
of  declining  prosperity.  The  wool  trade  had  decreased,  because 
the  cotton  trade  had  increased.  They  were  articles  in  competi- 
tion with  each  other,  and  nothing  could  tend  so  much  to  raise 
the  price  of  wool,  as  raising  the  price  of  American  cotton.  It 
was  a  satisfaction  to  know  that  the  trade  in  foreign  wool  had 
increased.  That  was  a  fact  which  no  man  could  deny,  and  as 
it  was  not  accompanied  with  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  ex- 
port, it  was  decisive  of  an  increase  in  the  comforts  of  the  people. 
The  idea  of  laying  an  additional  tax  on  foreign  wool  would  be 
a  species  of  madness,  only  equal  to  that  which  America  would 
exhibit,  by  persevering  in  the  system  disclosed  in  the  late  tariff. 
47  # 


558  AMERICAN  TARIFFS. 

On  looking  at  the  fourth  report  of  the  Finance  Committee,  they 
would  find  that  a  great  increase  had  taken  place  in  the  comforts, 
as  well  as  in  the  productive  powers  of  the  industrious  classes. 

It  was  with  regret  that  he  should  make  any  allusion  to  the 
differences  between  this  country  and  America,  in  the  year  1825. 
But,  what  had  occurred  at  that  period  between  the  United  States 
and  the  British  colonies  in  the  West-Indies?  He  had  then 
proposed  an  act,  throwing  open  the  trade  of  those  colonies,  upon 
certain  conditions,  to  other  nations.  The  United  States,  how- 
ever, so  far  from  acting  upon  a  principle  of  reciprocity,  had  im- 
posed restrictions  upon  British  shipping  entering  their  ports, 
which  amounted  to  complete  exclusion.  For  one  long  year  this 
country  had  patiently — he  had  almost  said  too  patiently — sub- 
mitted to  the  regulation,  without  adopting  any  retaliatory  mea- 
sure. At  the  end  of  that  period,  his  Majesty  was  advised  to 
issue  an  order  in  council  prohibiting  the  intercourse  between 
America  and  our  West-India  possessions.  The  intercourse  was 
interdicted;  and  then  came  America,  with  a  tardy  proposal, 
accepting  the  terms  which,  up  to  the  moment  of  the  prohibition, 
this  country  had  offered  to  her  in  vain.  The  advice  for  the 
issuing  of  that  order  in  council  was  given  with  reluctance ;  but 
if  they  must  again  be  driven  to  measures  unfriendly  to  commer- 
cial intercourse,  it  became  them  to  persist  in  it  with  firmness. 

With  respect  to  the  present  tariff,  he  would  say  to  ministers, — 
"  Do  not  be  hasty  to  determine :  look  at  the  various  bearings  of 
the  question,  with  a  view  to  your  interests,  your  character,  and 
your  trade."  But  if,  after  such  deliberation,  they  were  forced  to 
adopt  a  course  of  retaliation,  all  he  would  enjoin  them  was,  that 
when  once  they  had  adopted  the  course,  they  should  adhere  to  it 
with  firmness.  He  would  now  move,  "  That  there  be  laid  before 
the  House,  a  copy  of  the  Tariflf  established  in  the  United  States 
of  America,  in  the  present  year ;  together  with  a  copy  of  their 
Tariflfofthe  year  1824." 

The  motion  was  agreed  to. 


(     659     ) 


EAST  RETFORD  DISFRANCHISEMENT  BILL. 

MAY    5th,  1829. 

Mr.  Tennyson  moved  for  leave  to  bring  in  a  Bill,  "  to  exclude  the  Borough 
of  East  Retford  from  electing  Burgesses  to  serve  in  Parliament,  and  to  enable 
the  town  of  Birmingham  to  return  two  representatives  in  lieu  thereof."  Mr. 
Nicholson  Calvert  expressed  his  anxiety,  that  the  franchise  should  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  hundred  of  Bassetlaw,  and  Mr.  Secretary  Peel  stated,  that  if  the 
honourable  member  should  move  an  amendment  to  that  effect,  it  should  have 
his  support. 

Mr.  HusKissoNT  rose  and  said* : — 

From  the  settled  aversion  which  I  feel  to  every  system  of 
what  is  called  parliamentary  reform,  I  cannot  say  that  I  hail 
with  much  satisfaction  any  question  which  brings,  even  indirectly, 
that  subject  more  or  less  under  the  review  and  discussion  of  this 
House.  I  am  as  far  as  any  man  from  courting  any  thing  which 
looks  like  a  general  revision  of  the  Constitutional  body :  but  when 
the  existence  of  such  abuses  and  general  corruption  as  have  been 
proved  long  and  habitually  to  exist  in  the  borough  of  East  Ret- 
ford are  brought  to  light  and  exhibited  in  proof  before  us,  we 
have  no  alternative  but  to  apply  some  remedy  to  the  specific  evil. 
Further  than  this  I  shall  never  be  prepared  to  go.  I  take  my  stand 
upon  the  aggregate  excellence  of  our  representative  system,  and 
I  leave  to  others  to  take  what  delight  they  may  in  hunting  out  the 
anomalies  of  its  detail,  having  no  desire  myself  to  join  in  that 
critical  examination. 

Without  intending  the  slightest  disrespect  to  the  honourable 
members  who  have  preceded  me,  I  must  say  it  does  appear  to 
me,  that  a  great  part  of  the  debate  of  this  evening  would  have 
been  better  applied  to  a  stage  of  this  measure  which  I  understand 
to  be  now  gone  by.  The  honourable  member  for  Corfe-Castlef 
has  addressed  his  arguments  to  the  House,  as  if  it  were  now  con- 
sidering the  effect  of  the  evidence  which  was  formerly  taken,  and 
not  as  if  it  were  considering  what  the  consequences  are  which 
ought  to  follow  upon  that  evidence.  The  honourable  gentleman 
says,  that  in  the  courts  of  law  you  cannot  institute  any  proceed- 

*  From  Mr.  Huskisson's  MS.  Notea.  f  Mr.  George  Bankes, 


560  EAST  RETFORD  DISFRANCHISEMENT  BILL. 

ings  to  punish  bribery  and  corruption,  unless  you  do  so  within 
two  years  of  the  period  when  the  parties  were  guilty  of  that 
bribery  and  corruption.  This  House,  however,  is  not  placed  in 
that  situation.  It  is  not  so  restricted  in  its  jurisdiction.  It  has, 
moreover,  decided  on  a  former  occasion,  that  in  the  borough  of 
East  Retford  there  had  been  a  gross,  habitual,  and  long-con- 
tinued state  of  corruption  and  bribery.  The  only  question,  there- 
fore, which  we  have  to  discuss  is,  in  what  nnode  we  shall  deal 
with  its  forfeited  franchise — whether  we  shall  transfer  it  to  sonne 
great  comnnercial  and  manufacturing  town,  like  Birmingham — 
whether  we  shall  pursue  the  course  which  we  pursued  in  the  case 
of  Grampound,  when  we  transferred  it  to  a  county — or  whether 
we  shall  retain  this  universally  corrupt  borough,  and  only  en- 
deavour to  correct  or  countervail  its  corruption,  by  giving  a  con- 
current right  of  voting  to  the  freeholders  of  the  adjacent  hundred 
of  Bassetlaw. 

I  have  heard.  Sir,  with  regret,  and  I  must  add  with  no  small 
degree  of  surprise,  the  declaration  made  this  evening  by  my  right 
honourable  friend,  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Home  Depart- 
ment, that  the  whole  weight  and  authority  of  Government  is  to 
be  put  forth  in  support  of  the  amendment  of  the  honourable  mem- 
ber for  the  county  of  Hertford.  That,  under  such  auspices,  and 
backed  by  such  power,  it  will  be  successful,  I  cannot  doubt.  I 
shall  regret  this  success,  because  I  cannot  help  thinking,  that  it 
will  be  at  variance  with  the  sentiments  generally  entertained  by 
the  sound  and  intelligent  part  of  the  community ;  I  shall  regret 
this  success,  because  I  am  convinced,  that  it  will  increase,  in  the 
public  mind,  the  feeling  which  already  exists  in  favour  of  parlia- 
mentary reform ;  I  shall  regret  this  success,  because  I  feel  that 
it  will  ensure  the  adoption  of  a  course,  which  must  pave  the  way 
for  a  general  parliamentary  reform.  When  I  say  that  I  feel  sur- 
prise, as  well  as  regret  at  the  course  which  they  have  adopted,  I 
will  tell  his  Majesty's  ministers  what  is  the  ground  of  that  sur- 
prise. I  had  persuaded  myself,  from  the  conduct  which  they 
have  hitherto  pursued  during  this  session,  and  above  all  from 
the  arguments  by  which  they  have  vindicated  that  conduct,  that 
they  were  not  insensible  to  the  march  of  events,  and  to  the  state 
and  progress  of  public  opinion  in  this  country. 

See,  Sir,  what  that  march  and  that  progress  have  been !  Two 
short  years  only  have  elapsed  since  the  honourable  and  learned 
member  for  Winchelsea,*  to  the  great  surprise  of  the  country, 
thought  proper  one  day  to  quit  the  seat  which  he  now  occupies, 
and,  crossing  the  floor  of  the  House,  to  take  another  upon  one  of 
the  upper  benches  behind  the  Treasury-bench.     No  sooner  had 

*  Mr.  Brougham. 


EAST  RETFORD  DISFRANCHISEMENT  BILL.  561 

this  leader  of  a  party  in  this  House — for  upon  this  occasion,  he 
was  followed  by  many  others — effected  this  lodgment  in  an  out- 
work, which  had  long  been  occupied  and  guarded  by  the  stead- 
iest and  most  tried  of  the  troops  of  his  opponents,  than  these 
veterans,  one  and  all,  were  seized  with  a  sudden  panic — they  fled 
and  dispersed  themselves  in  every  direction,  and  in  every  part  of 
the  House.  As  soon  as  they  had  a  little  recovered  from  this 
state  of  breathless  alarm,  and  had  been ,  able  to  talk  it  over 
among  themselves,  it  was  announced,  that  the  foundation  of  all 
their  fears  was  this — that  the  position  taken  by  the  honourable 
and  learned  gentleman  implied  a  great  change  in  the  warfare  of 
politics — that  they  inferred  from  the  support  which  he  was 
about  to  give  to  the  other  leader  on  this  side  of  the  House,  that 
three  most  alarming  consequences  were  to  be  expected — first, 
they  saw  in  it  the  repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts — 
secondly,  they  saw  in  it  the  settlement  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
question,  and  thirdly,  they  saw  in  it  nothing  less  than  parliament- 
ary reform. 

Well,  Sir,  to  their  great  surprise,  the  campaign  of  1827  closed 
without  any  of  those  positions  being  either  assailed  or  carried. 
At  the  opening  of  the  campaign  of  1828,  the  honourable  and 
learned  leader  had  evacuated  his  post  on  this  side  of  the  House, 
and  had  returned  to  his  former  position.  New  leaders  were 
appointed  on  this  side — leaders  of  whom  it  might  then  be  said, 
that  had  those  situations  been  elective  by  those  who  had  been 
thrown  into  such  dismay  last  year,  they  would  have  been  the 
objects  of  their  unanimous  choice,  as  the  most  approved  cham- 
pions to  whom  could  be  committed  the  defence  of  those  two  great 
bulwarks  of  the  constitution,  the  Test  Act  and  the  Catholic 
code.  In  consequence,  those  tried  and  veteran  troops  resumed 
their  former  positions  in  the  most  entire — but,  such  is  the  uncer- 
tainty of  all  sublunary  blessings,  in  a  false  and  delusive — security. 
Whether  the  learned  Leader,  in  crossing  back  to  his  former 
position,  had  left  behind  him  the  indefatigable  chief  of  his  staff, 
the  famous  "  Schoolmaster y^  of  whom  he  had  often  sounded  the 
praise — by  what  arts  he  succeeded  in  winning  over  the  chiefs  and 
a  great  part  of  the  garrisons — it  will  be  the  task  of  history  to 
explore.  The  simple  facts  are,  that  one  of  those  bulwarks  was 
surrendered  early  in  1828,  upon  the  first  summons,  and  after  a 
very  feeble  resistance ;  and  that  the  second  and  more  important 
fortress  was  surrendered  at  the  opening  of  the  present  campaign, 
without  even  a  summons,  and  upon  conditions  more  favourable 
than  any  that  had  been  offered,  and  offered  in  vain,  by  the  suc- 
cession of  great  commanders  who  had  assailed  it  for  the  last  five 
and  twenty  years, 

I  rejoice,  Sir,  at  these  surrenders ;  but  Parliamentary  Reform, 

3V 


662  EAST  RETFORD  DISFRANCHISEMENT  BILL. 

thank  God,  still  remains  to  be  resisted.  There,  I  trust,  the  resist- 
ance will  ever  be  firm — will  ever  be  successful.  But  sure  I  am, 
that  the  means  of  successful  resistance  will  be  greatly  strengthen- 
ed by  our  adopting  the  advice  of  the  honourable  member  for 
Blechingly* — that  it  will  be  greatly  impaired  by  our  acting  upon 
the  plan  of  the  honourable  member  for  the  county  of  Hertford. 
Should  the  latter  proposition  be  adopted,  we  shall  see  parliament- 
ary reform,  backed  by  a  powerful  auxiliary  out  of  this  House — 
I  mean  public  opinion,  and  the  power  of  the  press — made  an 
annual  question  of  discussion. 

It  is,  Sir,  on  grounds  like  these,  that  I  am  anxious  to  give  my 
support  to  my  honourable  friend  the  member  for  Blechingly.  I  will 
not  condescend  to  argue  the  question  as  one  between  the  landed 
and  the  commercial  interests  of  the  country.  It  is  to  me  matter 
of  wonder,  that  any  man  should  even  suppose  that  the  character 
of  the  House  will  be  changed,  by  giving  this  franchise  either  to 
the  hundred  of  Bassetlaw  or  to  the  town  of  Birmingham.  I  object 
to  the  distinction  which  some  honourable  members  are  drawing 
between  the  landed  and  the  commercial  interests.  I  contend,  that 
the  history  of  this  country,  and  still  more  emphatically  the  history 
of  Ireland,  proves  that  it  is  on  the  co-operating  industry  and  suc- 
cess of  the  commercial  industry,  that  the  prosperity  of  the  landed 
interest  mainly  rests.  Destroy  the  energies  of  commerce,  and 
your  land  will  soon  fall  into  that  unproductive  state,  in  which  it 
was  before  those  great  stimuli  to  improvement  were  created. 

It  has  been  stated,  as  a  justification  of  the  course  which  his 
Majesty's  Government  have  determined  to  follow  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  this  bill,  that  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  are  divided  in 
opinion,  as  to  the  best  mode  of  dealing  with  forfeited  franchises, 
and  that  the  present  has  been  adopted,  as  forming  a  middle 
course,  on  which  both  can  agree.  I  admit  it  to  be  true,  that  on 
the  present  question,  the  two  Houses  are  divided  in  opinion.  The 
House  of  Commons  has  shown  by  its  votes  on  more  than  one 
occasion,  that  it  is  of  opinion  that  the  great  manufacturing  towns 
which  are  unrepresented,  ought  to  send  representatives  to  Parlia- 
ment. It  has  sent  up  bills  in  which  that  opinion  has  been  for- 
mally avowed.  The  other  House  has  rejected  them ;  and,  up  to 
this  hour,  both  Houses  seem  firmly  attached  to  their  respective 
opinions.  Indeed,  I  understand  my  right  honourable  friend  the 
Home  Secretary  not  to  be  unfriendly  to  the  principle  which  I  am 
supporting;  and  therefore  I  am  the  more  surprised  to  find  him 
supporting  the  amendment  of  the  honourable  member  for  Hert- 
fordshire. 

Sir,  many  of  the  reasons  which  prevailed  with  those  who  had 

*Mr.  Tennyson. 


EAST  RETFORD  DISFRANCHISEMENT  BILL.  563 

hitherto  opposed  Catholic  concession,  to  give  their  support  to  it 
this  year,  would  apply  in  the  present  case — here  is  the  sanne  divi- 
sion of  opinion  between  the  two  Houses;  here,  too,  the  young 
are  with  us,  and  the  parties  who,  upon  principle,  oppose  all  trans- 
fer to  great  towns  are  the  same,  of  whom  it  was  said  in  another 
place,  by  a  right  reverend  prelate,*  they  must  soon  go  to  their 
account  elsewhere — and  here  again,  the  public  feeling  out  of 
doors  is  strong  in  favour  of  giving  representatives  to  these  great 
towns,  and  strongly  against  giving  it  to  the  particular  hundred  to 
which  this  borough  is  to  be  annexed.  We  were  also  told,  during 
the  late  discussion  on  the  Catholic  claims,  now  so  happily  adjust- 
ed, that  it  was  important  to  win  all  Protestants  to  our  side,  in 
order  that  we  mieht,  with  greater  effect,  oppose  any  dangerous 
pretensions,  if  any  such  there  should  be,  of  the  Roman  Catholics. 
And  is  it  nothing,  I  would  ask,  of  importance,  in  the  course  of  the 
various  domestic  questions  which  may  hereafter  arise  on  the  sub- 
ject of  parliamentary  reform,  to  win  over  to  our  side.  Sir,  not 
only  public  opinion,  over  which  the  press  now  exercises  such 
powerful  influence,  but  also  those  congregated  masses  of  intellect 
and  of  wealth,  which  always  exist  in  large  commercial  towns  ? 
Will  it  be  nothing  of  importance,  I  would  ask,  that  the  population 
of  Birmingham  shall  have  beefi  made  content,  by  being  gifted 
with  the  power  to  return  members  to  represent  them  in  Parlia- 
ment? 

I  should  have  thought.  Sir,  and  more  especially  after  recent 
events  and  recent  avowals,  that  this  was  an  occasion  to  recollect 
those  words  of  forecast  and, wisdom,  which  are  somewhere  to  be 
found  in  the  writings  of  Mr.  Burke — "  Early  reforms  are  amica- 
ble arrangements  with  a  friendly  power ;  late  reforms,  capitula- 
tions with  a  conquering  enemy."  Is  there  no  risk,  Sir,  that  the 
measure  which  immortalizes  the  present  session  should  appear 
hereafter  an  exemplification  of  this  remark?  Is  it  no  drawback 
to  an  act  of  justice  and  grace,  to  have  it  exhibited  as  yielded  to 
necessity,  and  as  only  a  lesser  evil  than  civil  war?  and  if  such  a 
view  of  what  we  have  done  subtracts,  on  the  one  hand,  from  the 
value  of  the  boon,  does  it  add  nothing,  on  the  other  hand,  to  the 
danger  of  the  example  ?  When  the  excitation  of  the  late  discus- 
sion shall  have  gone  by — when  the  swell  and  rolling  of  the 
waters,  after  their  late  violent  agitation,  shall  have  subsided — that 
man  must  be  little  read  in  the  history  of  human  passions,  or  in  the 
political  history  of  free  states,  who  can  imagine  that  the  people 
of  this  country,  a  sober,  calculating,  and  observing  people,  or  the 

f)eople  of  Ireland,  certainly  quite  as  shrewd,  though  perhaps  a 
ittle  more  mercurial  in  their  character,  will  look  at  nothing  but 

*  The  Bishop  of  Oxford. 


664  EAST  RETFORD  DISFRANCHISEMENT  BILL. 

the  mere  change  in  the  law,  effected  by  what  is  called  Catholic 
Emancipation,  quite  abstractedly  from  any  recollection  of  the 
battles  by  which  it  has  been  won,  of  the  mode  and  circumstances 
in  which  it  was  opposed  for  twenty-five  years,  and  of  the  mode 
and  circumstances  and  accompanying  declarations,  by  which  it 
w^as  finally  conceded ;  that  they  will  look  at  the  history  of  this 
question  abstractedly  of  the  influence  which  it  has  had  upon  party, 
upon  the  formation  of  and  breaking  up  of  administrations,  and 
upon  all  the  great  events  which  have  agitated  the  public  mind  in 
our  time. 

Sir,  I  say  again — that  man  must  be  little  read  in  human  pas- 
sions or  political  history,  who  supposes  that  some  other  leading 
question  embodying  the  means  of  excitation,  will  not  ere  long 
take  the  place  of  the  Catholic  question ;  that  new  aspirations  of 
ambition  and  distinction,  w^ill  not  arise  ;  that  feelings  hitherto  dor- 
mant will  not  be  called  into  action ;  and  that  we  shall  not  ere 
long  be  sensible  of  the  vibration  of  strings  which  have  hitherto 
remained  untouched.  Every  thing  connected  with  this  question 
is  hurrying  us  forward  to  good  or  evil,  according  to  the  direction 
which  may  be  given  to  the  stream.  The  present  session,  in  fact, 
will  become  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  public  power  of  this 
country.  In  this  state  of  things,  divisions  between  the  House 
which  represents  the  people  and  the  Upper  House  ought  to  be 
carefully  avoided  as  much  as  possible.  Because  you  have  most 
wisely  and  most  fortunately  stopped  the  principal  crater  of  that 
immense  volcano,  which  threatened  Ireland  with  wide-spreading 
conflagration,  are  you  to  neglect  to  look  into  the  recesses  of  those 
subterraneous  caverns  where  the  elements  of  fire  must  still  be 
enkindling,  and  the  latent  springs  of  danger  preserved  with  all 
their  elastic  force  ?  You  have  stopped  the  great  evil — you  have 
laid  the  foundation  of  much  good.  But  it  is  rather  the  preHmi- 
nary  than  the  actual  completion  of  a  work — rather  the  qualifying 
to  enable  us  to  begin,  than  the  end  and  close  of  our  labours.  In 
the  present  state  of  society  in  Ireland — in  the  absence  of  poor 
laws  for  that  country — (upon  the  policy  or  applicability  of  which 
I  now  pronounce  no  opinion) — in  the  want  of  adequate  capital  to 
afford  employment  to  an  impoverished  race — in  the  comparative 
relation  of  landlord  and  tenant — in  all  the  various  ramifications 
arising  out  of  such  a  disorganized  state  of  things,  much  remains 
unsettled.  There  is  much,  very  much  to  be  done  by  the  Parlia- 
ment and  the  Government,  and  many  duties  to  be  performed,  in 
the  reconciliation  of  supposed  adverse  interests. 

Now,  Sir,  is  it  possible  to  glance  at  the  proximity  of  these  diffi- 
cult questions,  without  seeing  how  much  they  must  be  aggravated 
by  the  disfranchising  of  this  borough  of  East  Retford,  for  the  mere 
purpose  of  transferring  the  franchise  to  the  adjoining  hundred  of 


EAST  RETFORD  DISFRANCHISEMENT  BILL.  535 

Bassetlaw  ?    My  honourable  friend,  the  member  for  Hertfordshire, 
was  indeed  so  well  convinced  of  this  himself,  and  so  entirely  per- 
suaded of  the  universal  corruption  which  reigned  throughout  the 
borough,  that,  in  his  first  bill,  he  proposed   to  disfranchise  the 
whole  of  these  corrupt  voters  en  masse^  and  throw  open  the  fran- 
chise to  the  county.     He  has  since,  however,  forgetful  of  his  first 
and  juster  intention,  merely  changed  the  form  of  election  in  the 
borough,  and  extended  it  to  the  hundred  of  Bassetlaw.     [Mr.  N. 
Calvert. — "  You  mistake.  I  did  not  bring  in  a  bill  of  that  specific 
description.     I  brought  in  two  bills;  one  for  the  disfranchisement 
of  those  who  were  guilty  of  gross  bribery  and  corruption ;  the 
other  for  transferring  the  franchise."]     Then,  the  tenderness  dis- 
played Jn  the  alteration  is  not  justice,  in  the  general  principle 
which  ought  to  govern  such   a  case.     It  is  creating,  or  rather 
superinducing,  embarrassment  where  none  previously  existed;  for 
the  ca«e  originally,  and  indeed  at  present,  is  simply  this: — we 
were,  as  the  committee  had  left  the  subject  upon  the  facts,  at 
perfect  liberty,  more  than  parliament  had  been  on  any  previous 
occasion,  to  disfranchise  East  Retford,  and  to  carry  the  franchise 
so  forfeited  to  any  part  of  the  country  we  thought  proper.     The 
moment  that,  upon  just  grounds,  such  a  decision  was  come  to,  I 
know  nothing  in  the  history  of  the  constitution,  in  the  precedents 
of  our  former  proceedings  upon  the  like  grounds,  in  the  analogy 
of  the  decisions  upon  any  cases  appertaining  to  such  principles, 
which  attaches  a  preference  in  the  transference  to  mere  vicinity 
or  proximity,  rather  than  to  any  other  part  of  the  kingdom.    This 
being  the  fact,  whence,  Sir,  the  policy  of  overlooking  the  claims 
of  such  a  town  as  Birmingham,  with  a  population  of  one  hundred 
and  forty  thousand  souls,  to  bring  in  some  local  hundred — with 
the  palpable  knowledge  of  Birmingham,  the  great  quarter  of  a 
staple  of  the  country — iron — being  unrepresented  in  Parliament; 
"at  the  same  time  knowing,  likewise,  Leeds,  the  great  mart  of  the 
woollen  trade,  to  he  in  the  same  state,  and  hkewise  Shefl^eld,  the 
depository  of  the  hardware  trade  1     Is  this  a  time,  when  such  a 
question  is  raised,  to  decide,  that  Birmingham  shall  not  be  repre- 
sented at  all,  and  that  a  forfeited  franchise  shall  be  assigned  to 
one  of  the  hundreds  which  was  represented  directly  by  the  county 
members,  as  well  as  indirectly  by  the   borough  members.     So 
that  in  the  hundred  the  electors  are  to  have  the  exercise  of  the 
representative  functions  twice,  and  to  have  a  two-fold  capacity 
of  returning  members,  while  the  large  towns,  with  the  great  inter- 
ests which  I  have  named,  are  to  be  deprived  of  the  chance  of  a 
single  nomination.     Ought  any  man  in  his  right  senses  to  hesitate 
as  to  the  course  which  it  is  proper  to  adopt  under  such  circum- 
stances ?     If  Birmingham  ought  to  be  represented  at  all,  ought  a 
question  to  be  raised  upon  the  alternative,  whether  such  shall  be 
48 


566  EAST  RETFORD  DISFRANCHISEMENT  BILL. 

the  case,  or  whether  a  hundred  in  the  county,  like  Bassetlaw — 
one  emphatically  named  in  the  local  topography  as  "  The 
Dukery,^^  shall  have  the  chance  of  being  directly  represented  ?  It 
is  a  matter  of  indifference  to  me  in  whom  the  nomination  shall  lie, 
in  such  a  case  ;  it  is  enough  for  me,  upon  the  general  principle,  to 
know,  that  the  county  of  Nottingham  has  now  eight  representa- 
tives, and  that  Warwickshire,  the  depository  of  great  trading  in- 
terests, has  only  six,  with  a  population  so  much  denser  and  more 
conflicting,  and,  under  every  circumstance,  so  very  differently  con- 
stituted. 

Why,  Sir,  there  has  not  been  for  a  century  so  good  an  oppor- 
tunity of  remedying  a  state  of  things,  arising  out  of  the  altered 
condition  of  society.  It  is  unnecessary  to  go  into  the  condition  of 
these  boroughs  in  Nottinghamshire,  and  the  interests  involved  in 
them;  nor  do  I  mean  to  trench  upon  the  principle 'of  virtual  re- 
presentation. I  am  not  arguing  against  that  principle,  when  I 
seek  for  the  settlement  of  the  present  question.  But  I  contend, 
that  if  great  and  influential  interests  have  silently  grown  up  in  the 
country,  mixing  private  speculations  with  large  public  results,  the 
principle  of  virtual  representation  becomes  inapplicable  to  their 
immediate  condition ;  and  that,  when  a  safe  opportunity  arises, 
their  direct  claims  ought  to  be  attended  to.  When  the  power  of 
selection  is  pressed  upon  Parliament  by  any  particular  occur- 
rence, what  answer  can  be  given  to  the  claims  of  such  a  town  as 
Birmingham,  with  trading  interests  largely  mixed  up  in  the  gene- 
ral commercial  bearings  of  the  manufactures  of  the  country? 
When  such  measures  as  the  renewal  of  the  Charter  of  the  East- 
Jndia  Company,  and  that  of  the  Bank  of  England,  are  in  pro- 
gress, is  it  to  be  said,  that  the  people  of  a  town  like  Birmingham 
have  no  greater  interest  in  the  result  than  those  who  reside  in 
the  hundred  of  Bassetlaw  ?  Are  they,  at  a  time  of  such  general 
and  momentous  considerations,  to  be  consigned  to  a  mere  virtual 
representation,  and  refused  the  benefit  of  a  just  and  seasonable 
opportunity  of  having  a  direct  presence  in  the  legislature  ?  No 
class,  in  fact,  more  directly  requires  this  aid  than  the  people  of 
Birmingham ;  who  are  now  to  be  refused  it,  notwithstanding  the 
eminent  advantages  which  the  country  could  not  fail  to  derive 
from  the  pursuit  of  a  different  course.  Indeed,  when  I  survey 
those  weighty  interests,  and  the  incalculable  benefits  that  would 
result  from  the  concession  now  called  for,  I  cannot  help  appeal- 
ing to  my  right  honourable  friends  on  the  Treasury  Bench,  and 
recalling  to  them  the  apposite  and  beautiful  quotation  lately  made 
by  a  noble  friend  in  the  other  House,*  at  the  head  of  the  law,  who 
repeated  it  as  it  was  used  by  a  great  luminary  of  this  House — 

*  Lord  Lyndhurst. 


EAST  RETFORD  DISFRANCHISEMENT  BILL.  567 

Mr.  Burke — when  describing  the  benign  effects  which  had  re- 
sulted from  the  adjustment  of  the  ill-proportioned  representation 
of  Wales, — "  From  that  moment,  as  by  a  charm,  the  tumults 
subsided — obedience  was  restored ;  peace,  order,  and  civilization 
followed  in  the  train  of  liberty — when  the  day-star  of  the  English 
Constitution  had  arisen  in  their  hearts,  all  was  harmony  within 
and  without."  By  pursuing  the  policy  of  the  act  of  Henry  VIII. 
in  the  present  case,  the  same  happy  consequences  would  follow — 
the  same  guarantee  would  be  obtained  for  the  loyalty  of  a  patient 
and  enduring  people.  These  great  advantages  are  now  within 
your  reach.  Never  before  have  you  had  an  equal  opportunity 
of  effecting  so  desirable  an  object,  so  readily,  and  so  quietly. 

My  honourable  friend,  the  member  for  Hertfordshire,  alluded 
to  the  boroughs  in  the  west  of  England,  and  remarked  how  well 
they  worked.  Upon  this  point,  I  will  offer  nothing  more  than 
that  I  know  enough  of  these  matters  to  wish  to  avoid  discussing 
them  in  detail.  After  all.  Sir,  the  question  is — has,  in  the  particu- 
lar instance  before  us,  that  degree  of  forfeiture  been  incurred 
by  bribery  which  justifies  the  total  disfranchisement  of  the  bo- 
rough 1  It  is  not  necessary  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  principle  which 
governs  these  transactions,  that  each  individual  shall,  in  the  pur- 
suit of  what  he  conceived  to  be  his  private  interest,  have  violated 
his  public  trust ;  it  is  enough  to  show,  that  the  general  corruption 
is  so  notorious  in  the  body  exercising  the  franchise,  that  they  do 
not  deserve  to  be  invested  with  public  rights.  Their  franchise 
becomes,  in  such  a  case,  vitiated.  In  fact,  there  is  no  other  w^ay 
of  dealing  with  the  principle.  We  must  act  upon  the  general 
condition  of  the  place. 

I  know.  Sir,  that  in  enforcing  these  opinions  I  am  exposing 
myself  to  the  repetition  of  the  imputation  of  having  been  of  late 
governed  very  much  by  revolutionary  theories.  I  have  been 
charged  by  some,  whose  esteem  and  good-will  I  greatly  value, 
as  having,  in  matters  of  commerce,  as  well  as  in  those  of  the 
general  policy  of  the  country,  been  too  prone  to  alterations,  and 
as  being  the  author  in  some  instances,  and  the  promoter  in  others, 
of  innovations  of  a  rash  and  dangerous  nature.  I  deny  the 
charge.  I  dare  the  authors  of  it  to  the  proof  I  am  ready  to 
join  issue  with. them,  whenever  it  is  brought  forward  in  a  sub- 
stantive, tangible,  and  intelligible  shape.  For  the  present,  I  will 
content  myself  with  reminding  those  gentlemen,  when  they  talk 
of  the  dangers  of  innovation,  that  they  ought  to  remember,  with 
Lord  Bacon,  "  that  Time  has  been  and  is  the  great  Innovator." 
Upon  that  Innovator,  I  have  felt  it  my  duty  cautiously  to  wait,  at 
a  becoming  distance,  and  with  proper  circumspection ;  but  not 
arrogantly  and  presumptuously  to  go  before  him,  and  endeavour 
to  outstrip  his  course.   Time  has  raised  these  great  interests ;  and 


568  EAST  RETFORD  DISFRANCHISEMENT  BILL. 

it  is  the  business  of  a  statesman  to  move  onwards  with  the  new 
combinations  which  have  grown  around  him. 

This,  Sir,  is  the  principle  by  which  my  feelings  have  been  con- 
stantly regulated  during  a  long  public  life,  and  by  which  I  shall 
continue  to  be  governed,  so  long  as  I  take  any  part  in  the  public 
affairs  of  this  country.  It  is  well  said,  by  the  most  poetical  genius, 
perhaps,  of  our  own  times — 

"A  thousand  years  scarce  serve  to  form  a  state, 
An  hour  may  lay  it  in  the  dust" — 

This  is  the  feeling  which  has  regulated — which  will  continue  to 
regulate — my  conduct.  It  was  by  a  reference  to  it,  that  I  governed 
myself  in  the  great  measure  which  has  recently  occupied  the  at- 
tention of  Parliament ;  verily  believing  that  if,  in  an  evil  hour, 
the  Government  had  resolved  upon  a  permanent,  uncompromising 
system  of  resistance  to  the  Catholic  claims,  they  would  have  gone 
far  to  illustrate  in  this  country  the  last  words  of  the  quotation — 
"  An  hour  may  lay  it  in  the  dust." 

I  claim,  therefore,  for  myself,  that  I  have  never  been  one  of 
those  who  think  that,  in  order  to  warrant  any  change  in  the  es- 
tablished policy  of  the  state,  it  is  sufficient  to  show  that  the 
change  is  in  accordance  with  natural  rights,  or  founded  upon 
some  general  principle,  the  abstract  truth  of  which  cannot  be 
denied.  At  the  same  time,  I  do  not  mean  to  deny,  that  when  we 
come  to  that  which  is  the  practical  duty  of  statesmen, — to  weigh 
the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  one  course  of  proceeding 
against  another,  and  to  make  our  choice  between  them,- — it  will 
generally  be  found  that  the  balance  will  incline  on  the  side  of 
justice  and  of  sound  principle.  But  I  go  no  further.  I  am  no 
advocate  for  changes  upon  mere  abstract  theory.  I  know  not, 
indeed,  w^hich  is  the  greatest  folly — that  of  resisting  all  improve- 
ment, because  improvement  implies  innovation — or  that  of  re- 
ferring every  thing  to  first  principles,  and  to  abstract  doctrines 
The  business  of  the  practical  man  is  to  make  himself  acquainted 
with  facts — to  watch  events — to  understand  the  actual  situation 
of  affairs,  and  the  course  of  time  and  circumstances,  as  bearing 
upon  the  present  state  of  his  own  country  and  the  world. 

These  are  the  grounds  by  a  reference  to  which  his  reason  and 
judgment  must  be  formed — according  to  which,  without  losing 
sight  of  first  principles,  he  must  know  how  to  apply  them,  and  to 
temper  their  inflexibility.  This  is  the  task  of  practical  legislation. 
We  cannot  frame  new  laws,  or  change  those  under  which  we 
have  hitherto  lived,  without  a  reference  to  the  situation  of  the 
country,  and  to  all  the  circumstances  in  which  we  are  placed. 
But  neither,  as  some  appear  to  imagine,  can  we  stand  still,  whilst 


EAST  RETFORD  DISFRANCHISEMENT  BILL.  569 

those  circumstances  are  changing,  and  every  thing  around  us  is 
in  motion. 

Now,  Sir,  the  surest  way  to  prevent  rash  and  dangerous  inno- 
vation is  to  stop  that  course  of  vacillation,  which  temporising 
and  incomplete  measures  are  sure  to  create.  In  every  thing  which 
I  have  said,  I  beg  the  House  to  bear  in  mind,  that  I  am  not 
pressing  for  the  adoption  of  any  theory,  unknown  to  the  consti- 
tution ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  enforcing  the  practical  application 
of  a  very  old  principle,  and  endeavouring  to  show  how  completely 
it  is  in  unison  with  it,  that  means  should  be  taken,  safely  and 
without  forcing  the  occasion,  to  provide  for  the  wants  of  those 
great  towns,  which  have  grown  up  under  peculiar  circumstances, 
and  which  call  for  a  course  of  treatment,  more  consistent  with 
their  exigencies  than  the  one  now  provided  for  them. 

The  House  divided.  For  the  motion.  111 ;  against  it,  197.  Majority  against 
bringing  in  the  bill,  86.    Mr.  Huskisson  voted  with  the  minority. 
48*  3W 


(     570     ) 


MR.  HUSKISSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  STATE  OF 
BRITISH  POLITICAL  AND  COMMERCIAL  RELA- 
TIONS WITH   MEXICO. 

MAY  20th,  1830. 

In  pursuance  of  his  notice,  that  he  would  this  day  present  a  petition  from 
Liverpool,  respecting  the  present  state  of  our  political  and  commercial  rela- 
tions with  Mexico, 

Mr.  HusKissoN  rose  and  said ; — 

The  petition,  Sir,  which  I  now  rise  to  present,  is  one  which, 
in  my  judgment,  connects  itself  with  interests  and  considerations 
of  the  highest  importance  to  this  country.  I  trust  that  this  will 
afford  some  apology  for  me,  if  I  venture  upon  this  occasion  to 
detain  the  House  longer  than  is  usual,  or,  generally  speaking, 
acceptable,  upon  the  presentation  of  petitions.  The  petitioners 
are  that  portion  of  the  merchants  of  Liverpool,  who  are  engaged 
in  deahngs  and  commercial  intercourse  with  the  State  of  Mexico. 
In  substance,  their  petition  is  entirely  in  accordance  with  the 
representations  which  have  been  made  to  this  House  by  other 
great  trading  and  manufacturing  communities — Glasgow,  Man- 
chester, London,  and  other  places,  whose  pursuits  give  them  an 
equal  interest  in  the  condition  of  the  New  States  of  America. 
The  petition  states  that,  since  Mexico  became  independent,  its 
trade  with  this  country  has  increased  ;  that  it  now  forms^  a  very 
important  item  of  our  foreign  commerce,  and  that  it  is  suscepti- 
ble, under  favourable  circumstances,  of  a  still  greater  increase; 
that  it  has,  however,  unfortunately  been  exposed  to  various  inter- 
ruptions, losses,  and  uncertainties,  in  consequence  of  occasional 
enterprises  undertaken  against  Mexico  from  Cuba,  and  that  these 
enterprises  have  been  the  cause  of  considerable  disorders  in 
Mexico,  and  of  expense  and  losses,  which  fall  mainly  upon  neu- 
tral commerce.  The  petitioners  further  state  that,  last  summer, 
an  expedition  was  despatched  from  Cuba,  which  entailed  great 
losses  upon  British  subjects,  and  they  add,  that  they  have  reason 
to  believe  that  other  expeditions  of  a  similar  nature  are  fitting  out. 
Such  are  some  of  the  statements  contained  in  the  petition. 

Of  the  magnitude  and  importance  of  the  objects  at  stake  there 
cannot  be  two  opinions.     When  we  look  at  the  extent  and  pecu- 


COMMERCIAL  RELATIONS  WITH  MEXICO.  571 

liar  productions  of  the  Mexican  territory — at  its  actual  population 
— a  population  now  amounting  to  nearly  seven  naillions,  and 
capable  of  being  greatly  increased — a  population  not  our  rivals 
in  shipping  or  manufactures,  but  able  and  willing  to  afford  us  the 
mineral  productions  of  their  country,  in  return  for  our  goods,  to 
the  great  encouragement  of  our  trading  and  shipping  interests — 
it  will  appear  to  all  that  we  are  deeply  interested  in  the  tranquil- 
lity, welfare,  and  prosperity  of  Mexico.  Upon  the  value  of  our 
political  connexion  with  that  country — upon  the  importance  of  its 
being  able  to  maintain  itself  in  a  state  of  entire  and  secure  inde- 
pendence— I  will  not  now  expatiate,  though  I  shall  have  occasion 
to  notice  this  consideration  before  I  sit  down.  The  petitioners 
pray  the  House,  "  to  adopt  measures  to  protect  their  interests,  and 
induce  Spain  to  desist  from  such  expeditions,  or  else  to  prevent 
them,  as  they  can  only  terminate  in  disgrace  and  loss  to  herself, 
and  injury  to  other  parties  connected  with  Mexico."  There  are 
two  questions  which  naturally  arise  from  considering  this  prayer. 
First,  have  we  the  right,  or  rather  have  we  not  incurred  the  obli- 
gation, to  interfere  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  attacks  of 
Spain  upon  the  New  States,  at  least  attacks  proceeding  from 
Cuba?  Secondly,  if  we  have  not  incurred  that  peculiar  obliga- 
tion, have  we  not,  nevertheless,  a  general  right,  in  common  with 
all  maritime  neutral  states,  or  I  might  say  in  common  with  all 
civilized  nations,  to  insist  upon  a  suspension  of  hostihties  between 
Spain  and  her  late  colonies  on  the  continent  of  America — I  say, 
"  a  suspension  of  hostilities,"  because,  whilst  I  shall  contend  that 
neutral  nations  have  that  right,  I  fully  admit  that  they  cannot 
carry  it  further,  and  that  the  time  and  mode  of  recognition  is  a 
question  for  Spain,  and  not  for  them  to  determine. 

First,  in  respect  to  our  peculiar  obligation  to  prevent  attacks 
from  Cuba,  I  will  state,  as  I  understand  them,  the  facts  and  cir- 
cumstances which  bear  upon  this  question.  Late  in  the  year 
1824,  or  I  believe  in  the  beginning  of  1825,  when  this  country 
had  recently  recognized  Colombia  and  Mexico  as  independent 
powers,  those  States,  being  belligerents  against  Spain,  thought 
proper,  with  a  view  to  prevent  attacks  upon  their  own  territories, 
to  concert  an  attack  on  the  island  of  Cuba.  On  the  part  of 
Mexico,  a  very  considerable  body  of  forces  assembled  at  Cam- 
peachy,  under  the  command  of  General  Santa  Anna,  the  same  to 
whom  General  Barradas  surrendered  last  autumn.  Colombia 
had  collected  her  naval  forces  at  Carthagena,  and  had  brought 
down  some  of  her  best  troops  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  in  a  de- 
scent on  Cuba.  At  that  time  the  island  thus  menaced  was  weakly 
garrisoned,  and  such  a  feeling  prevailed  amongst  the  inhabitants, 
as  rendered  it  probable  that  it  might  separate  itself  from  the 
mother  country,  if  opportunity  and  encouragement  were  afforded. 


572  STATE  OF  BRITISH  POLITICAL  AND 

When  I  recollect  that  at  the  period  in  question  the  two  powers — 
Mexico  and  Colombia— possessed  great  financial  and  other  re- 
sources, joined  with  high  credit,  it  is  only  reasonable  to  conclude 
that  the  attempt  upon  Cuba,  if  made,  would  have  been  successful. 
But  the  matter  does  not  rest  upon  my  conjecture  or  my  authority ; 
I  shall  quote  the  authority  of  an  individual,  whose  official  station 
in  the  Government  of  the  United  States  gave  him  the  most  ample 
means  of  information — means,  of  which,  doubtless,  he  made  the 
best  use,  as  his  country  was  deeply  interested  in  the  question. 
The  authority  to  which  I  allude  is  contained  in  a  letter  addressed 
by  Mr.  Clay,  then  Secretary  of  State,  to  one  of  the  ministers  of 
the  United  States  in  Europe,  and  dated  the  10th  of  May  1825, 
from  which  the  following  is  an  extract : — "  The  success  of  the 
enterprise  is  by  no  means  improbable.  Their  (Colombia  and 
Mexico)  proximity  to  the  islands  (Cuba  and  Porto  Rico),  and 
their  armies  being  perfectly  acclimated,  will  give  to  the  united 
efforts  of  the  republics  great  advantages.  And  if  with  these  be 
taken  into  the  estimate,  the  important  and  well-known  fact,  that 
a  large  portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  island  is  predisposed  to 
a  separation  from  Spain,  and  would,  therefore,  form  a  powerful 
auxiliary  to  the  republican  arms,  their  success  becomes  almost 
certain." 

In  a  subsequent  letter,  written  in  the  same  year,  Mr.  Clay  says, 
— "  The  fall  of  the  castle  of  Saint  Juan  de  Ulloa,  which  capitu- 
lated on  the  18th  day  of  last  month,  cannot  fail  to  have  a  power- 
ful effect  within  that  kingdom  (Spain).  We  are  informed  that 
when  information  of  it  reached  the  Havannah,  it  produced  great 
and  general  sensation  ;  and  that  the  local  government  immediate- 
ly dispatched  a  fast-sailing  vessel  to  Cadiz  to  communicate  the 
event,  and,  in  its  name,  to  implore  the  King  immediately  to  termi- 
nate the  war  and  acknowledge  the  new  republics,  as  the  only 
means  of  preserving  Cuba  to  the  monarchy." 

I  beheve,  that  it  would  not  have  been  preserved  but  for  the 
interposition  of  the  United  States  and  his  Majesty's  Government, 
which  both  directed  their  efforts,  though  acting  without  concert, 
and  upon  a  view  of  their  own  separate  interests,  to  prevent  the 
severing  of  Cuba  from  the  Crown  of  Spain.  The  meditated 
attack  naturally  excited  uneasiness  in  this  country  and  in  the 
United  States.  The  position  of  Cuba  induced  America  to  inter- 
pose, for  the  purpose  of  persuading  the  New  States  to  abandon 
the  expedition ;  and  Mr.  Canning  on  the  part  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment, had,  I  doubt  not  (although  no  official  record  of  the  fact 
appears  to  have  been  preserved  in  the  records  of  the  Foreign 
Office),  an  interview  with  the  Mexican  and  Colombian  ministers 
on  the  subject.  Mr.  Canning  is  understood  to  have  explained  to 
those  individuals  the  feelings  of  pain  and  regret  with  which  Eng- 


COMMERCIAL  RELATIONS  WITH  MEXICO.  573 

land  viewed  the  progress  of  the  expedition ;  and  to  have  added, 
that  we  should  not  be  indifferent  to  any  event  that  might  tend  to 
disturb  the  tranquillity  of  Cuba.  I  have  a  general  recollection 
that  the  ministry  of  this  country  did  thus  interpose,  and  1  feel 
bound  to  say,  that  those  who  advised  his  Majesty  at  that  period 
would  have  been  guilty  of  a  great  oversight  and  neglect  of  duty, 
if  they  had  not  endeavoured  to  prevent  an  attempt,  which,  by 
making  Cuba  the  theatre  of  a  civil  war,  a  war  in  which  the  black 
population  would  almost  inevitably  have  taken  a  part,  might  not 
only  have  endangered  the  safety  of  the  most  valuable  colony  of 
Great  Britain,  but  would,  in  its  results,  have  exposed  to  great 
hazard  the  state  of  peace  now  happily  existing  between  all  the 
great  maritime  powders  of  the  world. 

It  is  probable  that  Mr.  Canning  urged  as  a  further  ipnotive  for 
forbearance  on  the  part  of  Mexico  and  Colombia,  that  they  would 
thereby  place  this  country  in  a  better  situation  to  mediate  and 
call  upon  Spain  to  listen  to  propositions  of  amity  and  conciliation 
as  between  her  and  her  late  colonies.  But,  be  that  as  it  may, 
these  states  were  clearly  inclined  at  the  time  (as  their  conduct 
showed)  to  receive  with  the  greatest  deference  the  expression  of 
the  wishes  of  this  country.  They  relied  with  a  reverential  con- 
fidence on  our  friendly  disposition  towards  them,  and  on  our  sin- 
cere desire  to  consult  and  promote  their  happiness.  I  am  sorry 
to  perceive  that  an  impression  has  since  arisen  in  some  quarters, 
that  we  now  repent  ourselves  of  our  former  generosity  towards 
these  states,  and  that  we  are  rather  ashamed  of  our  new  con- 
nexions: however,  I  am  convinced  that  the  opinion  has  no  found- 
ation whatever  in  truth.  I  am  convinced  that  it  is  impossible 
for  this  country,  after  all  that  has  occurred,  not  to  entertain  the 
greatest  anxiety  for  the  welfare,  prosperity,  and  general  tranquil- 
lity of  the  new  governments.  It  was  under  the  influence  of  such 
a  feeling  that  his  Majesty  was  advised  to  recognise  those  states, 
and  I  am  sure  that  the  same  favourable  feeling  still  exists.  But 
to  return  from  this  digression :  in  consequence  of  the  interposition 
of  England  and  America,  the  republics  desisted  from  their  enter- 
prise, which  they  totally  abandoned,  notwithstanding  the  expense 
that  had  been  incurred  in  preparations,  and  sent  their  troops  into 
the  interior.  Four  or  five  years  have  elapsed  since  this  interposi- 
tion on  our  part,  and  during  that  time  the  ministers  of  the  New 
States,  I  am  assured,  have  more  than  once  inquired  whether  the 
same  principles  of  interposition  continued,  in  the  event  of  an 
attack  upon  Cuba  being  meditated.  They  were  told  that  our 
objections  to  an  attack  still  continued  in  full  force.  During  these 
four  or  five  years  what  has  Spain  been  doing?  She  has  been 
employed  in  recruiting  her  forces,  and  adding  to  her  resources : 
availing  herself  of  the  advantage  of  having  her  towns  garrison- 


574  STATE  OF  BRITISH  POLITICAL  AND 

ed  and  her  police  managed  by  the  troops  of  a  foreign  power,  she 
was  enabled  to  unite  her  forces  at  Cuba  for  the  purpose  of  attack- 
ing and  endeavouring  to  recover  her  ancient  colonies. 

Land  forces  and  a  marine  having  been  collected,  an  expedition 
proceeded  in  the  month  of  August  last  from  the  Havannah 
against  Mexico.  I  would  ask,  was  the  British  Government  ap- 
prised of  this  expedition  ?  And  I  should  like  to  know  whether 
we  made  any  remonstrance  against  it?  Did  Ministers  say  to 
Spain — "  As  we  protected  Cuba  from  the  republics,  we  feel 
bound  not  to  allow  Cuba  to  be  made  the  rendezvous  of  expedi- 
tions intended  for  the  attack  of  those  States  ?  If  ministers  did 
not  act  in  this  way,  at  least,  they  have  not  fulfilled  the  obligations 
of  a  strict  and  impartial  neutrality;  and,  if  such  remonstrances 
were  made,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  they  have  not  been  attended 
to  by  Spain,  which,  in  this  respect,  acted  differently  from  the  New 
States  of  South  America.  The  expedition,  which  seems  to  have 
been  projected  under  the  mistaken  impression  that  the  inhabitants 
of  the  republics  would  declare  in  favour  of  Spain  upon  the  ar- 
rival of  a  Spanish  armament,  sailed  from  Cuba  and  landed  with- 
out opposition  on  the  continent,  where  they  remained  some  time 
before  a  force  could  be  collected  to  attack  them.  During  all  this 
time  they  were  not  joined  by  a  single  Mexican,  and  the  inhabit- 
ants did  not  even  supply  them  with  provisions :  eventually,  they 
were  obliged  to  lay  down  their  arms. 

I  have  no  difficulty  in  saying,  that  it  must  be  the  wish  of  every 
maritime  power  in  Europe,  (and  of  England  above  all  others,  as 
being  the  greatest  maritime  and  commercial  nation  in  the  world,) 
that  Cuba  should  remain  tranquilly  and  peaceably  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Spain,  as  I  hope  it  will.  It  must,  therefore,  be  the  wish 
of  all,  but  more  especially  of  this  country,  that  none  of  those 
occurrences  out  of  which  maritime  contests  might  arise,  should 
take  place;  and  upon  this  ground  I  am  justified  in  saying,  that 
Cuba  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  become  the  point  from  which 
expeditions  should  proceed  to  attack  Mexico  or  Colombia. 

When,  early  in  the  session,  this  subject  w^as  brought  before  the 
House  by  my  gallant  friend  opposite,*  the  right  honourable  Secre- 
tary for  the  Home  Department  said,  that  England  would  thence- 
forward observe  between  the  belligerents  the  most  careful  and 
strict  impartiality.  If  the  right  honourable  gentleman  meant  by 
impartiality  that,  as  w^e  were  not  able  to  prevent  the  attacks  of 
Spain  upon  her  ancient  colonies  from  Cuba,  w^e  would  now  re- 
move our  interdict,  and  allow  the  States  of  Mexico  and  Colombia 
to  attack  Cuba  in  their  turn,  such  an  impartiality  is  no  better  than 
a  mockery.     To  be  impartial,  we  must  place  the  parties  as  they 

*  Sir  Robert  Wilson. 


COMMERCIAL  RELATIONS  WITH  MEXICO.  575 

stood  in  1825,  or,  if  we  cannot  do  that — and  there  is  no  question 
that  we  cannot — our  only  mode  of  proceeding  is,  to  put  Cuba 
under  the  same  interdict  as  regards  warlike  expeditions  against 
the  New  States,  as  that  which  we  imposed  upon  them  with  re- 
spect to  armaments  directed  from  their  shores  against  Cuba. 
Although  at  the  present  moment  it  is  impossible  for  the  New 
States  to  attack  Cuba,  yet,  in  the  course  of  the  war,  if  it  be  con- 
tinued, the  tables  may  be  turned,  and  perhaps  they  will  be  in  a 
situation  to  do  so.  If  so,  in  all  probability,  our  impartiality  will 
be  again  at  fault,  and  we  shall  (eel  it  necessary  to  protect  Cuba, 
as  we  have  done  before. 

Taking  the  matter  in  another  light, — Spain  is  a  belligerent.  As 
long  as  she  continues  so,  her  possessions — Cuba  or  any  other — 
are  exposed  to  all  the  hazards  of  war;  there  is  no  preventing 
this  risk  upon  any  fair  principle.  Neither  is  this  the  only  danger 
to  which  the  continuance  of  war  exposes  that  most  valuable  pos- 
session of  the  Spanish  monarchy.  Recollect  what  occurred  at 
Cadiz  in  1820.  Is  there  no  danger  in  having  a  large  body  of 
Spanish  troops  collected  in  the  island  of  Cuba?  Is  there  no 
danger  of  feelings  of  dissatisfaction  being  created  among  those 
who  have  to  support  the  troops?  Is  there  no  danger  of  con- 
sequences at  the  Havannah  similar  to  those  which  were  the  result 
of  a  like  assemblage  at  Cadiz,  and  which  might  afford  a  pretence 
for  a  foreign  force  taking  possession  of  Cuba,  as  the  mutiny  at 
Cadiz  led  to  the  occupation  of  Spain  by  the  armies  of  France  ? 
Under  such  circumstances,  the  best  interests  of  all  parties  should 
induce  Spain  to  put  an  end  to  the  warfare  altogether,  or  at  least 
to  consent  that  the  island  of  Cuba  should  be  excepted  from  its 
operations.  Let  it  continue  exempt  from  attack ;  but  then  it 
must  not  be  made  the  means  of  aggression.  If  this  principle  be 
once  established  and  acted  on,  we  shall  have  made  great  progress 
towards  the  termination  of  hostilities. 

But  I  do  not  stop  here.  I  maintain  that  it  is  consistent  with 
every  principle  of  the  law  of  nations,  that  Spain  should  now  be 
required  to  put  an  end  to  this  useless  war.  This  is  not  only  an 
abstract  right  recognized  by  all  the  great  authorities  upon  inter- 
national law,  but  a  right,  the  practical  enforcement  of  which,  in 
the  present  instance,  it  becomes  the  duty,  as  much  as  it  is  the 
interest,  of  other  States  to  concert  together.  Seven  years  have 
elapsed  since  Spain  held  one  foot  of  soil  in  the  New  States;  seven 
years  are  the  ordinary  period  of  what  is  even  considered  a  long 
war,  but  here  the  combat  has  been  protracted  for  one-and-twenty. 
It  is  now  nearly  seven  years  since,  in  the  Minute  of  an  official 
conference  between  Mr.  Canning  and  Prince  Polignac,  we  find 
it  recorded,  that  the  contest  was  utterly  hopeless,  and  that  the 
irreversible  course  of  events  had  finally  decided  the  separation 


576  STATE  OF  BRITISH  POLITICAL  AND 

of  Spain  from  her  former  colonies.  "When  a  contest  becomes 
ahogether  hopeless,  and  the  object  of  it,  however  just  in  its 
origin,  is  admitted  on  all  hands  to  be  unattainable,  the  interests 
of  humanity  require  it  to  be  terminated;  because  war  in  the  ab- 
stract, and  of  itself,  is  too  great  an  evil  to  admit  of  its  being  con- 
tinued indefinitely,  to  gratify  the  spite  or  animosity  of  individuals. 
But  if  this  be  a  general  principle,  founded  upon  the  exercise  of 
what  waiters  upon  the  law  of  nations  would  call  "  an  imperfect 
right,"  in  neutral  states,  the  application  of  this  principle  becomes 
infinitely  more  imperative,  when  the  essential  interests  of  those 
neutral  states,  and  eventually,  perhaps,  the  preservation  of  peace 
and  harmony  between  themselves,  are  involved.  This  is  the 
habitual  practice  of  nations. 

What  did  w^e  do  with  respect  to  Greece?  Did  w^e  not  inter- 
pose, by  the  treaty  of  the  6th  of  July  1827,  when  the  civil  war 
between  Turkey  and  Greece  had  been  carried  on  only  four  or 
five  years?  Even  after  so  short  a  period  of  hostilities,  feeling 
the  ill  effects  of  piracy  and  other  interruptions  to  commerce,  the 
great  powers  of  Europe  considered  that  they  had  abundant  rea- 
son to  interpose.  Have  there  been  no  piracies,  and  those  of  the 
most  atrocious  character,  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico?  Has  no  injury 
been  inflicted  on  British  commerce,  in  consequence  of  the  pro- 
tracted struggle  betw^een  Spain  and  her  late  colonies?  Why, 
Sir,  so  far  back  as  in  1822,  we  w^ere  even  on  the  point  of  issuing 
letters  of  reprisal  for  the  injuries  done  to  British  commerce. 
However,  a  treaty  was  signed  with  Spain,  guaranteeing  jemune- 
ration  for  our  losses;  and  after  a  lapse  of  nine  or  ten  years,  I 
believe  we  have  at  length  obtained  about  thirty  or  forty  per  cent, 
of  their  amount.  Is  any  Gentleman  prepared  to  say,  that  a  war 
involving  and  compromising  such  interests  is  to  be  permitted  to 
continue,  till  the  States  of  Mexico  and  Colombia  shall  cease  to 
assert  their  independence,  or  Spain  be  disposed  to  acknowledge 
it?  If  such  a  principle  be  propounded  and  recognised,  the  war 
may  be  interminable. 

I  know  that  in  the  State  Paper  to  which  I  have  alluded,  Mr. 
Canning  said,  he  should  observe  a  strict  neutrality  in  the  contest. 
This  declaration  necessarily  assumed  that,  every  legitimate  object 
of  the  war  being  at  an  end,  the  war  itself  would  not  be  indefinite- 
ly continued.  This,  in  reason  and  common  sense,  is  the  prescrip- 
tive term  of  every  war,  and  at  that  term  the  present  contest  has 
long  since  arrived.  To  argue  otherwise,  would  be  to  admit,  that 
a  war  once  begun  between  two  belligerents  might  be  intermin- 
able, whatever  were  the  evils  and  dangers  with  which  it  threaten- 
ed third  parties. 

The  wise  policy  of  Spain  would  be  frank  and  unreserved  re- 
cognition ; — would  be  .conciliation,  and  the  revival,  for  the  mutual 


COMMERCIAL  RELATIONS  WITH  MEXICO.  577 

benefit  of  both  parties,  of  those  sentiments  of  kindred  and  com- 
mon origin,  which  twenty  years  of  warfare  may  have  weakened, 
but  have  not  eradicated.  These,  however,  are  matters  for  her 
own  consideration.  If,  from  mistaken  pride,  or  from  a  false  sense 
of  dignity,  she  will  not  enter  into  relations  of  amity  with  the 
New  States,  she  is  the  mistress  of  her  own  feelings,  and  it  is  our 
duty  to  respect  those  feelings.  All  that  we  have  a  right  to  re- 
quire is  a  truce  to  the  useless  evils  of  war.  To  grant  such  a 
truce  can  be  no  disparagement  to  the  crown  of  Spain.  The 
monarch  of  the  present  day  would  only  be  acting  upon  a  prin- 
ciple of  which  the  annals  of  Spain,  in  the  prouder  days  of  her 
power,  furnish  the  example.  In  1609,  after  a  struggle  of  many 
years  duration  with  her  revolted  provinces  in  the  Netherlands — 
a  struggle  in  which  torrents  of  blood  had  been  shed,  and  civil 
war  had  raged  in  its  fiercest  character,  Spain  consented  to  a 
truce  for  twelve  years;  though  it  was  not  till  the  year  1648  that 
she  entered  into  a  regular  treaty  of  peace  with  those  provinces, 
by  which  she,  for  the  first  time,  recognised  them  as  an  indepen- 
dent sovereign  state.  Let  the  present  government  of  Spain  grant 
a  truce  for  twelve  years,  and  I,  for  one,  shall  be  then  satisfied  to 
wait  her  own  leisure  for  the  period  of  their  recognition. 

But,  Sir,  if  there  are  great  political  interests  which  should  in- 
duce us  to  endeavour  to  maintain  to  Spain  her  present  sovereignty 
and  possession  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  there  are  other  political 
considerations  which  make  it  not  less  important — if  possible,  still 
more  important — that  Mexico  should  settle  into  a  state  of  inter- 
nal peace  and  tranquillity,  and  of  entire  and  secure  independenca 
If  the  United  States  have  declared  that  they  cannot  allow  the 
island  of  Cuba  to  belong  to  any  maritime  power  in  Europe,  Spain 
excepted,  neither  can  England,  as  the  first  of  those  maritime 
powers — I  say  it  fearlessly,  because  I  feel  it  strongly — suffer  the 
tJnited  States  to  bring  under  their  dominion  a  greater  portion  of 
the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  than  that  which  they  now  pos- 
sess. Within  the  last  twenty-seven  years  they  have  become  mas- 
ters of  all  the  shores  of  that  gulf  from  the  Point  of  Florida  to 
the  river  Sabine,  including  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi  and  of 
other  great  rivers,  the  port  of  New  Orleans,  and  the  valuable  and 
secure  harbours  of  Florida ;  and,  within  these  few  days,  we  hear 
of  their  intention  of  forming  a  naval  station  and  arsenal  at  the 
islands  of  the  Dry  Tortugas,  a  commanding  position  in  the  Gulf- 
stream  between  Florida  and  Cuba.  With  all  this  extent  of  coast 
and  islands,  we  know,  further,  that  designs  are  entertained,  and 
daily  acted  upon — I  will  not  say  by  the  present  government  of 
the  United  States,  but,  notoriously,  by  the  people — to  get  posses- 
sion of  the  fertile  and  extensive  Mexican  province  of  Texas.  To 
borrow  an  expression  of  a  deceased  statesman  of  that  country, 
49  3X 


578  STATE  OF  BRITISH  POLITICAL  AND 

"  the  whole  people  of  America  have  their  eye"  upon  that  pro- 
vince. They  look  to  all  the  country  between  the  river  Sabine 
and  the  river  Bravo  del  Norte  as  a  territory  that  must,  ere  long, 
belong  to  their  union.  They  have  also,  I  believe,  that  same  eye 
upon  some  of  the  western  coast  of  Mexico,  possessing  valuable 
ports  in  the  Gulf  of  California.  Should  they  obtain  these  dis- 
tricts, the  independence  of  Mexico,  I  will  venture  to  say,  will  be 
no  better,  or  more  secure,  than  that  of  the  Creek  Indians,  or  any 
other  Indian  tribe  now  living  within  the  circle  of  the  present  re- 
cognised limits  of  the  United  States ;  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
will  become  as  much  a  part  of  their  waters  as  the  Black  Sea 
was  once  of  the  waters  of  Turkey,  or  as  the  channel  which 
separates  Eqgland  from  Ireland  may  be  considered  as  part  of  the 
waters  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

I  may  be  told,  Sir,  that  these  are  visionary  alarms,  contem- 
plating schemes  of  aggrandizement  and  ambition  which  never 
have  been,  and  probably  never  will  be,  entertained  in  any  quarter. 
At  this  moment,  I  willingly  admit  that  there  exists  a  friendly  dis- 
position in  the  government  of  the  United  States,  and  I  cannot 
doubt  that  his  Majesty's  Government  fully  reciprocates  that  dis- 
position. Upon  every  account  I  am  glad  to  see  these  two  power- 
ful States  living  upon  terms  of  honourable  and  mutual  confidence, 
each  relying  upon  the  peaceful  councils  of  the  other.  But  it  is 
not  to  be  imputed  to  me  that  I  am  undervaluing  this  good  under- 
standing, or  that  I  am  guihy  of  want  of  respect  towards  the 
United  States,  or  even  of  discretion  as  an  individual  Member  of 
Parliament,  if,  on  this  occasion,  I  do  not  lose  sight  of  those  cir- 
cumstances of  a  permanent  nature  which  belong  to  the  fixed 
policy  of  the  United  States,  and  to  those  motives  of  action  which, 
however  dormant  at  present,  would  probably  be  revived,  under 
contingencies  that,  in  the  course  of  events,  may  hereafter  arise, 
— contingencies,  which  the  views  and  passions  of  the  American 
people  would  not  fail  to  turn  to  account  for  the  attainment  of  a 
long-cherished  and  favourite  object. 

At  all  periods  of  our  history,  the  House  of  Commons  has  held 
topics  of  this  nature  to  be  fair  grounds  of  Parliamentary  consider- 
ation. Jealousy,  for  instance,  of  the  aggrandizement  of  the 
House  of  Bourbon  has  always  been  held  an  element  entitled  to 
enter  into  every  general  discussion  affecting  the  balance  of  power 
in  Europe ;  and  lam  sure  there  is  nothing  in  the  general  charac- 
ter of  democratic  republics,  or  in  the  past  conduct  of  the  United 
States,  from  which  we  can  infer,  that  their  aspirations  after 
power  and  aggrandizement  are  less  steadily  kept  in  view  than 
those  of  an  absolute  monarch  in  Europe.  In  looking  to  the  future, 
let  us  consult  the  experience  of  the  past.  But,  in  the  case  of  the 
New  World,  we  have  something  more  than  the  history  of  the 


COMMERCIAL  RELATIONS  WITH  MEXICO.  579 

last  thirty  years  to  guide  our  judgment.  The  views  and  senti- 
ments of  those  who,  during  that  period,  have  directed  or  influenc- 
ed the  affairs  of  the  United  States,  have  been  brought  before  us 
by  the  pubUcation  of  their  Correspondence.  I  am  afraid  the  Uving 
statesmen  of  this  country  have  scarcely  had  time  to  make  them- 
selves acquainted  with  those  views  and  sentiments,  as  they  stand 
disclosed  in  the  Memoirs  and  Correspondence  of  a  deceased 
statesman  of  America,  I  mean  the  late  Mr.  Jefferson,  a  man  who, 
from  the  period  of  their  first  declaration  of  independence, — a  de- 
claration of  which  he  was  the  author, — to  the  close  of  his  Hfe, 
seems  to  have  possessed  the  greatest  ascendancy  in  the  councils 
of  his  country,  and  whose  avowed  principles  and  views  appear  to 
become  every  day  more  predominant  in  the  public  feelings  of 
his  countrymen. 

In  respect  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  the  immense  interests, 
commercial,  colonial,  and  maritime,  which  are  closely  connected 
with  the  navigation  of  that  Gulf,  these  Memoirs  are  full  of  instruc- 
tion— I  might  say  of  admonitions, — well  deserving  the  most  seri- 
ous attention  of  the  people  of  this  country.  I  will  not  trouble  the 
House  with  any  long  extracts  from  them  ;  but  I  cannot  deny  my- 
self the  opportunity  of  pointing  their  attention  to  a  few  passages, 
which  show  how  soon  the  United  States,  after  they  became  a 
separate  nation,  fixed  their  eye  upon  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and 
how  steadily  and  successfully  they  have  watched  and  seized  every 
opportunity  to  acquire  dominion  and  ascendancy  in  that  part  of 
the  world.  Within  seven  years  after  the  time  when  their  inde- 
pendence had  been  established,  and  finally  recognised  in  1783,  we 
find  them  setting  up  a  claim  of  positive  right  to  the  free  navi- 
gation of  the  Mississippi,  from  its  source  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico ; 
and  it  is  not  a  little  curious  to  see  what  was  the  opportunity 
which  they  took  of  asserting  their  right  against  Spain, — a  povs^er 
which  had  materially  assisted  them  in  obtaining  their  indepen- 
dence. In  the  year  1790,  it  will  be  recollected  that  a  dispute  had 
arisen  between  England  and  Spain  respecting  Nootka  Sound. 
Whilst  these  two  countries  were  arming,  and  every  thing  appear- 
ed to  threaten  war  between  them,  the  United  States  thought  that 
they  saw,  in  the  embarrassment  of  Spain,  an  opening  to  claim 
this  navigation  as  of  right.  Whether  such  a  claim  could  or 
could  not  be  sustained  by  any  principle  of  the  law  of  nations,  is  a 
question  which  I  will  not  now  stop  to  examine.  The  affirmative 
was  at  once  boldly  assumed  by  America,  and  her  demand  pro- 
ceeded upon  that  assumption.  The  right  once  so  aflirmed,  what 
does  the  House  think  was  the  corollary  which  the  government  of 
the  United  States  built  upon  their  assertion  of  that  supposed 
right?  I  will  give  it  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Jefferson  himself,  not  a 
private  individual,  but  the  Secretary  of  State,  conveying  the  in- 


580  STATE  OF  BRITISH  POLITICAL  AND 

structions  of  his  government  to  Mr.  Carmichael,  then  the  Ameri- 
can Envoy  at  Madrid  :  "  You  knov\^,"  writes  Mr.  Jefferson,  "  that 
the  navigation  cannot  be  practised  without  a  port,  where  the  sea 
and  river  vessels  may  meet,  and  exchange  loads,  and  where  those 
employed  about  them  may  be  safe  and  unmolested.  The  right  to 
use  a  thing  comprehends  a  right  to  the  means  necessary  to  its 
use,  and  without  which  it  would  be  useless."  I  know  not  what 
the  expounders  of  the  law  of  nations  in  the  Old  World  will  have 
to  say  to  this  novel  and  startling  doctrine.  In  this  instruction, 
which  is  dated  the  2d  of  August  1790,  the  principle  is  only  laid 
down  in  the  abstract. 

I  will  now  show  the  House  the  special  application  of  it  to  the 
claim  in  question,  by  quoting  another  letter  from  Mr.  Jefferson  to 
Mr.  Short,  the  American  Envoy  at  Paris,  d^ted  only  eight  days 
after  the  former,  namely,  the  10th  of  August.  It  is  as  follows; — 
"  The  idea  of  ceding  the  island  of  New  Orleans  could  not  be 
hazarded  to  Spain,  in  the  first  step :  it  would  be  too  disagreeable 
at  first  view ;  because  this  island,  with  its  town,  constitutes,  at 
present,  their  principal  settlement  in  that  part  of  their  dominions 
(Louisiana),  containing  about  ten  thousand  white  inhabitants,  of 
every  age  and  sex.  Reason  and  events,  however,  may,  by  little 
and  little,  familiarize  them  to  it.  That  we  have  a  right  to  some 
spot  as  an  entrepot  for  our  commerce  may  be  at  once  affirmed. 
I  suppose  this  idea  (the  cession  of  New  Orleans)  too  much  even 
for  the  Count  de  Montmorin  at  first,  and  that,  therefore,  you  will 
find  it  prudent  to  urge,  and  get  him  to  recommend  to  the  Spanish 
Court,  only  in  general  terms,  a  port  near  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
with  a  circumjacent  territory,  sufficient  for  its  support,  well  de- 
fined, and  extra-territorial  to  Spain,  leaving  the  idea  to  future 
growth." 

Contrary  to  the  expectation  of  the  United  States  when  those 
instructions  were  given.  Great  Britain  and  Spain  settled  their 
differences  without  an  appeal  to  arms ;  and,  in  consequence,  these 
practical  applications  of  the  law  of  nations  were  no  longer  press- 
ed by  the  United  States.  Soon  after,  Spain  became  involved  in 
war  with  France,  and  that  war  terminated  in  her  being  compel- 
led to  cede  Louisiana  to  the  latter  power.  In  1803,  that  whole 
province  was  sold  by  France  to  the  United  States.  By  this  pur- 
chase they  acquired  not  only  New  Orleans,  but  a  very  extensive 
territory  within  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  I  next  go  to  the  year  1806. 
Mr.  Jefferson  was  then  no  longer  Secretary  of  State — he  had 
been  raised  to  the  more  important  post  of  President  of  the  United 
States.  In  that  character  we  find  him  writing  to  Mr.  Monroe, 
then  the  American  Minister  in  London,  in  the  following  terms  : — 
"  We  begin  to  broach  the  idea,  that  we  consider  the  whole  Gulf- 
stream  as  of  our  own  waters,  in  which  hostilities  and  cruising  are 


COMMERCIAL  RELATIONS  WITH  MEXICO.  581 

to  be  frowned  on  for  the  present,  and  prohibited  so  soon  as  cither 
consent  or  force  will  permit  us."  The  letter  from  which  this  is 
an  extract,  is  dated  the  4th  of  May,  1806. 

If  the  United  States  "  broached  this  idea"  in  1806,  they  are  not 
likely  to  have  abandoned  it  in  1819,  when,  in  addition  to  Lou- 
isiana, they  procured,  by  treaty  with  Spain,  the  further  important 
cession  of  the  Floridas.  That  it  is  a  growing,  rather  than  a 
waning,  principle  of  their  policy,  I  think  we  may  infer  from  a 
letter,  which  we  find  in  this  Correspondence,  not  written,  indeed, 
by  Mr.  Jefferson  in  any  public  character,  but  addressed  by  him, 
as  a  person  exercising  from  his  retirement  the  greatest  sway  in 
the  councils  of  the  Union,  to  the  President.  This  letter,  dated  so 
lately  as  the  24th  of  October  1823,  discusses  the  interest  of  the 
United  States  in  respect  to  Cuba  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and 
these  are  the  statements  which  it  avows : — "  I  candidly  confess, 
that  I  ever  looked  on  Cuba  as  the  most  interesting  addition  which 
could  ever  be  made  to  our  system  of  States.  The  control  which, 
with  Florida  Point,  this  island  would  give  us  over  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  the  countries  and  isthmus  bordering  on  it,  as  well  as 
all  those  whose  waters  flow  into  it,  would  fill  up  the  measure  of 
our  political  well-being.  Yet  I  am  sensible  that  this  can  never 
be  obtained,  even  with  her  own  consent,  but  by  war." 

That  a  war  arising  out  of  these  pretensions  may  one  day  occur 
is,  perhaps,  but  too  probable.  The  progress  which  the  United 
States  have  already  made  towards  the  attainment  of  objects  so 
manifestly  within  their  contemplation,  calls  upon  us  not  to  regard 
that  contingency  as  one  which  provident  statesmen  may  safely 
dismiss  from  their  minds.  It  is  their  duty  to  neglect  no  measure 
of  justice  within  their  power  to  prevent  it.  The  rest  must  be  left 
to  Providence.  But  if  there  be  any  one  course  of  policy,  on  the 
part  of  this  country,  more  likely  than  another  to  retard  that 
calamity,  it  is  to  be  found  in  those  measures  which  are  most  like- 
ly to  heal  the  wounds  of  Mexico, — to  enable  her  to  establish  her 
government  upon  a  firm  and  solid  basis, — to  encourage  her  in- 
dustry, and  to  put  her  in  a  condition  to  guard  her  territory  against 
every  attempt,  either  openly  made,  or  indirectly  pursued,  to  trench 
upon  her  power  and  independence.  For  this  purpose,  she  must 
be  relieved  from  the  necessity  of  maintaining  a  military  force, 
disproportioned  to  her  resources,  by  the  constant  dread  of  desul- 
tory attacks  from  Cuba.  The  government  and  supreme  authority 
of  the  state  must  no  longer  be  the  sport  of  an  army,  licentious 
because  ill  paid,  wasting  the  productive  capitals  of  the  country, 
partly  from  the  necessity,  but  more,  perhaps,  from  the  extrava- 
gant and  demoralizing  habits  which  such  elements  of  revolution 
never  fail  to  engender.  Let  Mexico  be  at  her  ease  in  respect  to 
attacks  from  Spain,  and  she  will  soon  become  a  valuable  ally  of 
49* 


582  STATE  OF  BRITISH  RELATIONS  WITH  MEXICO. 

this  country,  with  all  her  interests  bound  up  and  identified  with 
the  best  interests  of  Great  Britain  in  the  New  World.  On  the 
other  hand,  let  her  remain  much  longer  in  her  present  harassed 
and  exhausting  condition,  and  the  poverty  of  her  treasury, — the 
necessity  of  making  head  against  those  attacks,  may  throw  her 
into  the  arms  of  the  United  States,  and  force  her  to  sacrifices 
which  would  inevitably  bring  on  a  maritime  war,  unless  this 
country  be  prepared  to  abandon  her  colonial  empire,  her  com- 
mercial pretensions,  and,  with  them,  her  maritime  ascendancy  in 
the  New  World. 

Sir,  I  will  not  pursue  these  topics  further.  I  trust  I  have  said 
enough  to  point  the  attention  of  Parliament  and  of  the  country 
to  their  vast  importance ;  and,  if  so,  I  am  sure  that  I  shall  stand 
justified  for  the  unusual  length  at  which  I  have  detained  the 
House  upon  the  mere  presentation  of  a  petition.  One  part  of  the 
subject,  however,  remains  to  be  noticed,  and  it  is  brought  to  my 
recollection  by  the  motion  of  the  honourable  member  for  Calling- 
ton,*  which  stands  for  this  evening.  It  is  from  Mexico  that  the 
great  supply  of  the  precious  metals  is  derived,  and  the  whole  of 
Europe  is  now  suffering  from  the  obstruction  of  that  supply.  The 
only  speedy,  certain,  and  efficacious  relief  for  that  suffering,  so 
far  as  it  is  produced  by  a  general  depression  of  prices,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  productiveness  of  the  mines  of  that  country.  I  have 
never  denied  that  the  pressure  which  prevails  in  this  country, 
upon  all  the  active  classes  of  the  community,  is,  in  a  great  de- 
gree, to  be  ascribed  to  the  progressive  fall  in  the  money  value  of 
all  commodities.  This  fall  has  occasioned  great  hardship,  and 
produced  considerable  discontent  in  every  part  of  Europe.  There 
is  no  state,  therefore,  that  has  not  the  greatest  interest  in  the  com- 
plete restoration  of  the  mining  industry  of  Mexico.  But  this  is 
not  to  be  hoped  for  so  long  as  war  continues.  Where  there  is  so 
great  a  common  concern,  a  joint  but  decided  effort  ought  to  be 
made  by  all  the  powders  of  Europe  for  the  speedy  restoration  of 
peace  between  Spain  and  her  former  colonies.  Let  them,  one 
and  all,  insist  upon  the  termination  of  hostilities,  useless  for  every 
object  of  legitimate  warfare, — calamitous  to  both  the  belligerent 
parties, — and  seriously  affecting  the  comfort  and  happiness  of 
every  other  civilized  community.  I  have  now  only  to  move  that 
the  petition  be  brought  up. 

*Mr.  Attwood. 


(    583    ) 


MR.  HUSKISSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  STATE 
OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

MARCH  16th,  1830. 

This  day  Mr.  E.  D.  Davenport  moved,  "  that  the  Petitions  presented  to 
the  House,  complaining  of  the  Distresses  of  various  classes  of  the  Community, 
be  referred  to  a  Committee  of  the  whole  House,  with  a  view  to  inquire  into  the 
causes  of  their  grievances  and  the  remedy  thereof."  Upon  which,  Sir 
Charles  Burrell  moved,  as  an  amendment,  "  that  a  Select  Committee  be  ap- 
pointed to  inquire  into  the  causes  of  the  national  distress,  and  whether  any 
and  what  remedies  can  be  applied." 

Mr.  HusKissoN  rose,  and  spoke  in  substance  as  follows : — 

Sir; — The  principal  arguments  which  have  hitherto  been  ad- 
duced in  favour  of  the  motion, — I  might,  indeed,  say  the  whole 
— by  those  who  have  given  it  an  unqualified  support,  turn  upon 
some  undefined  alteration,  which  they  wish  to  effect  in  our  Cur- 
rency. 

The  honourable  baronet  who  immediately  preceded  me,  has 
ventured  into  the  field  of  prophecy.  He  predicts,  that  we  must, 
ere  long,  come  to  one  of  these  alternatives — either  a  depreciation 
of  the  currency,  by  a  return  to  an  inconvertible  paper  circula- 
tion, or  a  national  bankruptcy.  The  honourable  baronet  fortifies 
himself  in  this  prediction  by  quoting  one  from  Mr,  Hume,  whom 
he  describes  as  a  true  prophet,  for  having  foretold,  in  his  Essay 
upon  Public  Credit,  "  that  bankruptcy  would  be,  at  no  distant 
period,  the  inevitable  result  of  the  extension  of  our  debt."  Many 
years  have  elapsed — more  than  seventy — since  this  prediction  of 
the  philosopher  was  given  to  the  world.  I  hope  that  the  honour- 
able baronet  may,  for  as  many  years,  continue  to  survive  his 
prophecy,  and  to  serve  his  country ;  but  however  long  his  life  may 
be,  I  trust  that  many  more'  years  will  pass  away,  as  in  the  case 
of  Mr.  Hume,  before  the  honourable  baronet  is  found  to  have  been 
a  truer  prophet  than  his  predecessor  has  proved. 

Now,  Sir,  I  trust  that  neither  the  honourable  member  for 
Shaftesbury,  who  has  originated  this  motion,  nor  my  honourable 
friend,  the  member  for  Shoreham,  who  has  moved  the  amend- 
ment, will  consider  that  I  am  wanting  in  respect  to  them,  if  I 
decline  to  argue,  at  any  length,  the  state  of  our  Currency,  in 
reference  to  the  alterations  which  were  made  in  it  between  the 


584  MR.  HUSKISSO>rs  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 

origin  of  its  derangement  in  1797  and  its  final  restoration  in 
1819.  From  the  period  of  the  Bullion  Committee,  of  which  I 
was  a  member  in  1810,  I  have  so  often  had  occasion  to  state  my 
opinions  on  this — the  great,  though  not  the  only,  source,  of  the 
difficulties  of  the  country — thatl  willingly  leave  to  others  the  task 
of  following  the  honourable  gentlemen  upon  this  exhausted  sub- 
ject. I  will  only  state,  that  in  1819,  when  the  Bill,  now  called 
Mr.  Peel's  Act,  was  brought  in,  I  was  unavoidably  kept  away 
from  the  House  by  illness ;  otherwise  I  should  have  given  to  that 
measure  my  active  and  cordial  support.  In  1822,  when  a  motion 
was  brought  forw^ard  by  the  honourable  member  for  Essex,  for 
revising  that  act,  and  altering  the  standard  of  value,  I  had  an 
opportunity  of  stating  very  fully  my  sentiments  upon  the  subject. 
To  that  motion  I  moved  an  Amendment  in  the  following  words, 
"  That  this  House  will  not  alter  the  standard  of  the  gold  and  silver 
coins  of  this  realm,  in  weight,  fineness,  or  denomination."  In  this 
amendment,  after  two  nights'  debate,  the  House  concurred,  by  a 
majority  of  194  to  30. 

If  this.  Sir,  was  the  resolution  of  the  House,  three  years  only 
after  the  act  of  1819,  how  much  more  ought  we  to  adhere  to  it 
in  1830 !  The  greatest  of  all  curses  to  an  opulent  and  commer- 
cial country,  is  a  system  of  vacillation,  unsteadiness,  and  alterna- 
tion in  its  standard  of  value,  frequently  disturbing  and  unsettling 
the  property  and  fortunes  of  individuals,  and  destroying  the  foun- 
dation of  confidence  and  security  in  all  contracts  and  pecuniary 
dealings  betwee^  man  and  man,  as  well  as  in  the  honour  and 
good  faith  of  the  government.  I  wush  I  could  say^  that  there  are 
no  other  causes  connected  with  our  Currency  (even  as  it  now  is), 
which,  by  aflfecting  commercial  credit,  render  alternations  in  its 
value  far  too  frequent,  and  which  I  think  it  ought  to  be  our  duty 
to  endeavour  to  correct. 

Were  I  prepared  to  admit — jwhich  I  certainly  am  not — that 
in  1819  we  should  have  been  justified  in  lowering  the  standard 
of  our  currency,  instead  of  simply  restoring  it,  I  must  not  the  less 
contend,  that  we  can  exercise  no  such  discretion  now.  I  know 
there  are  many  well-informed  persons  who  take  a  different  view 
from  me,  of  the  course  which  we  might  have  pursued  in  1819, 
when  we  had  to  make  a  choice  upon  this  subject.  It  is  quite 
consistent  in  them,  thinking  that  we  committed  an  error  in  1819, 
to  maintain,  as  most  of  them,  I  believe,  do,  that  it  is  now  better 
to  endure  the  evils  which  that  error  has  brought  upon  us,  than  to 
venture  to  disturb  the  settlement  once  made,  at  the  risk  of  all  the 
disquietude,  alarm,  and  derangement,  which  would  inevitably 
attend  such  an  attempt.  From  the  prevalence  of  this  feeling,  I 
am  not  afraid  that  any  such  attempt  will  find  many  partisans  in 
this  House ;  and  I  own  that  I  consider  it  a  necessary  preliminary 


STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  585 

to  the  efficacy  of  every  suggestion  of  relief,  that  we  should,  if 
possible,  pronounce  ourselves  so  decidedly  on  the  permanence  of 
our  present  monetary  system,  as  finally  to  set  at  rest  all  hopes 
and  fears  on  this  too  long  agitated  question. 

There  is  one  branch,  indeed,  of  this  subject  whicli  does  not,  I 
admit,  involve  any  necessary  alteration  in  the  standard  of  our 
currency :  I  mean,  the  circulation  of  one-pound  notes,  convertible 
into  coin  upon  demand.  Their  suppression  rests  upon  distinct 
grounds.  It  is  manifest  that  notes,  of  the  same  denomination  with 
our  principal  gold  coin,  cannot  be  allowed,  without  the  effect 
being  to  drive  the  latter  out  of  circulation.  Such,  therefore, 
would  be  the  consequence  of  small  notes  being  again  permitted. 
Upon  the  first  excitement  in  trade,  leading  to  a  general  improve- 
ment in  prices,  these  notes  would  be  largely  issued  to  facilitate 
speculations.  The  foreign  exchanges,  for  a  time,  w^ould  not  be 
materially  affected,  because  these  speculations,  as  far  as  they  led 
to  payments  abroad,  would  be  provided  for  by  the  exportation  of 
our  gold  coin.  In  this  mode,  the  greater  part  of  our  coin,  as  well 
that  deposited  in  the  Bank,  as  that  in  circulation,  might  gradually 
disappear,  the  exchanges  still  remaining  very  slightly  affected. 
The  importation  of  foreign  goods  would  be  promoted  by  this 
large  exportation  of  our  coin,  and  by  the  rise  of  all  commodities 
in  this  country.  Every  thing  would  appear  prosperous;  but  the 
prosperity  would  be  short-lived  and  delusive.  The  time  would 
come  in  which  the  Bank  of  England,  alarmed  for  its  own  safety 
by  the  lowering  of  its  treasure,  would  be  under  the  necessity  of 
taking  decisive  measures  to  protect  itself  The  effect  would  be 
a  renewal  of  the  panic  of  1825,  and  of  all  the  miserable  conse- 
quences by  which  it  has  been  followed.  If,  therefore,  we  make 
up  our  minds  again  to  encourage  the  circulation  of  small  notes, 
we  must  be  prepared  for  one  of  these  alternatives — either  their 
paving  the  way  for,  and  gradually  leading  to,  another  Bank  Re- 
striction (from  which  we  so  narrowly  escaped  at  the  end  of  the 
year  1825), — or  for  alternations  of  fictitious  prosperity,  such  as 
immediately  preceded  that  crisis,  to  be  followed  by  overwhelm- 
ing distress,  such  as  that  by  which  it  was  terminated.  Upon  this 
ground,  it  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  me  to  find,  that  his  Majesty's 
Government  have  resolved  to  maintain  the  suppression  of  one- 
pound  notes  in  England ;  not  because  they  are  in  themselves  de- 
preciation, but  because,  so  long  as  they  are  suffered  to  exist,  you 
can  only  escape  the  greater  calamity  of  restriction,  leading  to  an 
inconvertible  paper  currency,  by  the  evil  only  second  to  it  in 
degree,  that  of  such  a  calamity  as  befell  us  in  the  autumn  of  1825. 

Looking  to  the  motion,  however,  in  its  more  general  character, 
I  am  not  one  of  those  who  have  underrated  the  present  distress. 
The  numerous  petitions  attest  its  existence,  and  a  document, 

3Y 


586  MR.  HUSKISSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 

recently  distributed  to  the  members  of  this  House,  is  unfortunate- 
ly no  slight  confirmation  that  their  allegations  are  but  too  well 
founded.  The  document  to  which  I  allude,  is,  "  An  Account  of 
the  monthly  amount  of  the  sums  paid  in  and  paid  out,  on  account 
of  Savings'  Banks,  for  the  last  two  years."  The  year  1828  exhibits 
the  following  amounts — paid  in,  945,448/. — drawn  out,  678,420/. : 
—the  year  1829,  paid  in,  449,493— drawn  out,  1,444,937/.  The 
figures,*  and  the  comparison  which  they  afford,  speak  for  them- 
selves, and  must  be  taken  as  a  strong  indication  of  the  increasing 
difficuhies  of  the  laborious  classes  in  the  year  1829.  But  whilst 
I  acknowledge,  and  deeply  lament,  the  intensity  of  suffering  and 
misery  which  have  been  endured  in  many  quarters,  especially 
,  during  the  last  severe  winter,  I  cannot  take  that  gloomy  and 
hopeless  view  of  our  situation,  to  which  some  appear  to  yield 
themselves  up.  I  never  can  believe,  that  a  country  like  England, 
however  crippled  for  a  time  by  some  derangement  in  the  system 
of  its  interior  economy,  can  be  reduced,  all  at  once,  to  a  helpless 
weakness,  and  irremediable  decay.  I  have  a  more  just  reliance 
upon  the  sources  of  our  wealth  and  power,  and  in  every  branch 
which  constitutes  the  substantial  riches  and  real  strength  of  the 
country,  its  agriculture,  its  commerce,  its  manufactures,  its  im- 
mense accumulation  of  fixed  capital,  the  energy  of  our  national 
character,  and  the  indefatigable  industry  of  an  ingenious,  enter- 
prising, and  orderly  population.  I  have  a  further  ground  of  well 
founded  confidence  for  the  present,  and  of  sanguine  hope  for  the 
future,  in  an  enlightened  public  opinion,  exercising  every  year 
more  and  more,  under  the  benefits  of  free  discussion,  its  salutary 
influence  upon  the  councils  of  ministers,  as  well  as  upon  the  deli- 
berations of  Parliament.  There  is  no  man,  I  think,  who  can 
read  the  signs  of  the  times,  who  can  recollect  the  occurrences  of 
the  last,  or  who  witnesses  those  of  the  present  session — those  I 
might  say  which  have  marked  the  present  week, — without  feel- 
ing this  consolation.  This  growth  of  intelligence,  it  is  true,  is  not 
in  itself  either  productive  industry  or  national  weahh :  but  it  is 
the  shield  which  protects  both  against  the  encroachments  of  power, 
and  the  errors  of  empiricism.  It  is  the  finger-post,  which,  in  the 
hour  of  doubt  and  difficulty,  points  the  path  of  safety,  and  guides 
us  in  the  career  of  national  improvement. 

Admitting  then,  as  I  do,  the  existence  of  distress,  but  hoping, 
at  the  same  time,  that,  for  the  present  at  least,  we  have  seen  its 
w^orst,  it  still  becomes  my  duty,  whilst  I  cling  to  that  hope,  to 
inquire  into  the  causes  which,  in  the  midst  of  profound  peace, 

*  The  difference  has,  in  some  degree,  been  since'  accounted  for  by  a 
change  in  the  law,  and  in  the  reduction  of  the  rate  of  interest  allowed  by 
Government,  which  took  place  in  November  1828. 


STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  587 

have  produced  such  frequent  recurrences  of  public  embarrass- 
ment. 

It  appears  to  me,  Sir, — and  it  is  well  known  to  several  of  my 
right  honourable  friends,  that  my  opinion  is  of  much  longer  stand- 
ing than  the  present  emergency, — that  the  main  ditliculty,  not  an 
occasional,  but  rather  an  habitual  difficulty,  under  which  this 
country  labours,  is  the  too  great  pressure  upon  the  springs  and 
sources  of  productive  industry :  and  that  this  pressure,  from  the 
very  circumstance  of  its  being  too  great  in  ordinary  times,  be- 
comes excessive,  and  is  subject  to  fits  of  exacerbation,  from  any 
incidental  casualty,  such  as  an  ungenial  season,  or  a  temporary 
derangement  in  any  considerable  branch  of  our  manufactures  or 
trade.  To  a  casualty  of  this  description  we  must  always  be 
liable,  but  it  ought  not  to  reduce  us  to  suffering  like  that  which 
we  now  endure,  if  we  had  been  before  in  a  robust  and  healthy 
condition. 

If  I  am  asked  the  cause  of  the  habitual  existence  of  this  too 
great  pressure,  I  can  only  state  the  impression  of  my  own  mind. 
It  is  simply  this,  that,  in  the  distribution  of  the  annual  income  of 
the  country,  by  which  I  mean  every  thing,  having  value  in  ex- 
change, that  is  raised  and  produced  by  the  labour  of  its  inhabit- 
ants, and  from  which  fund  are  derived  the  subsistence,  the  com- 
forts, and  the  enjoyments  of  all,  from  the  monarch  to  the  pea- 
sant,— I  say  that,  in  its  distribution,  the  portion  of  it  reserved  for 
reproduction  is  now,  and  has  been  for  some  years,  less  than  it 
ought  to  be,  either  for  the  well-being  of  the  labouring  classes — 
the  immediate  instrument  of  that  reproduction, — or  for  the  due 
maintenance,  and  progressive  growth,  of  the  capitals  by  which 
their  labour  is  called  into  active  exertion. 

I  am  aware  that,  in  this  statement,  I  have  only  said  in  other 
words,  that  the  wages  of  labour  have  been  too  low,  and  the  pro- 
fits of  fructifying  or  productive  capital  less  than  they  ought  to  be: 
but  there  is  an  advantage,  in  a  discussion  like  the  present,  in 
describing  these  evils,  so  as  to  trace  them  to  their  elementary 
causes. 

Many  concurrent  circumstances  have  contributed,  since  the 
restoration  of  peace,  to  produce  this  unsatisfactory  state  of  things. 
Over  some  of  the  causes  to  which  it  may  be  traced,  we  have, 
from  different  reasons,  little  or  no  control :  for  instance,  we  can- 
not regulate  the  course  of  the  seasons,  or  the  competition  of  other 
countries  with  the  products  of  our  own  in  the  foreign  market. 
Neither  can  we  interpose  our  authority — God  forbid  we  should ! 
— to  stop  the  progress  of  improvement  in  mechanical  or  chemical 
science,  or  to  interfere  between  landlord  and  tenant  or  in  the 
other  pecuniary  dealings  of  society.  To  the  consequences  of 
other  causes  of  difficulty  we  have  deliberately  submitted,  as  the 


688  MR.  HUSKISSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 

only  way  of  escaping  from  far  greater  evils ;   for  instance,  in 
putting  an  end  to  an  inconvertible  paper  currency. 

But  there  are  causes  which,  if  they  have  produced  any  part  of 
the  evil,  are  completely  within  our  control.  I  allude  now  to  that 
change  in  our  commercial  policy,  to  which  so  much  of  our 
present  distress  has  been  ascribed,  by  clamour  out  of  doors,  and 
by  more  than  one  speaker  in  this  debate.  When  people  are  suffer- 
ing, nothing  is  more  easy,  and,  with  superficial  observers,  more 
common,  than  to  raise,  or  join  in,  any  cry  which  saves  the  trouble 
of  thinking.  Free  Trade,  as  it  has  been  absurdly  nicknamed,  by 
those  who  use  words  without  knowing  what  they  themselves 
mean,  has  in  this  way  been  denounced  by  the  disappointed  selfish- 
ness of  some,  and  adopted  without  consideration  by  others,  as  the 
source  of  all  our  dilBculties.  It  has  been  so  designated  by  the 
honourable  Alderman,*  one  of  the  members  for  the  City  of  Lon- 
don, by  the  honourable  members  for  Cornwall  and  Newark,  and 
by  others;  but  none  of  these  honourable  members  ever  con- 
descend to  tell  us  what  they  mean,  or  understand,  by  Free  Trade. 
It  is  of  this  that  I  have  before  complained,  and  that  I  again  com- 
plain on  this  occasion.  Do  they  know  the  changes  which  have 
been  made  in  our  commercial  policy,  since  the  restoration  of 
peace  ?  If  they  do,  why  not  point  out  to  this  house  specifically 
the  alterations  of  which  they  disapprove,  and  move,  as  it  is  fully 
competent  for  them  to  do,  for  the  repeal  of  the  particular  Acts 
by  which  they  have  been  affected,  and  for  the  revival  of  Acts, 
now  no  longer  upon  the  Statute  Book,  by  which  industry  and 
trade  would  again  be  placed  under  their  former  regulations? 
Would  not  this  course  be  more  consistent  with  the  straightforward 
duty  of  legislation,  than  to  give  their  countenance  to  a  senseless 
clamour,  and  to  keep  up  delusion  and  irritation  among  a  suffering 
people,  instead  of  making  any  attempt  to  administer  that  relief, 
which,  if  they  have  faith  in  their  own  declamations,  it  is  in  their 
power  to  propose  ?  I  say  now,  as  I  have  said  before,  it  is  the  duty 
of  those  gentlemen  to  tell  us,  intelligibly  and  in  detail,  what  it  is 
that  has  been  done  "which  ought  to  be  undone,  and  what  they 
would  substitute  for  that  which  is  now  in  existence.  Every 
challenge  of  this  sort  they  have  hitherto  declined,  forgetting  that 
it  is  scarcely  fair  to  arraign  a  system  which  they  are  not  pre- 
pared to  amend,  and  that  they  are  sent  here,  not  to  aggravate 
what  is  wrong  by  inflammatory  denunciations,  but  to  correct  it 
by  calm  counsel  and  appropriate  remedies.  This  is  a  duty  which 
tliey  cannot  expect  to  devolve  upon  those  who  differ  with  them 
in  jprinciple ;  and  if  they  are  not  prepared  to  act  upon  it  them- 
selves, their  omission  is  equally  unjustifiable  towards  those  w^ho 

*  Alderman  Waithman. 


STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  589 

concur  in  their  opinions,  and  towards  Parliament,  of  which  the 
measures  are  the  objects  of  their  obloquy  and  abuse;  and  when 
I  say  Parliament,  perhaps,  as  the  individual  in  this  House  most 
immediately  responsible  for  those  measures,  and  who,  as  such, 
has  come  in  for  the  greatest  share  of  that  obloquy  and  abuse,  I 
too  may  be  allowed  personally  to  complain  of  the  injustice 
towards  myself  of  this  continued  dereliction  of  their  duty.  Six 
or  seven  hundred  statutes,  passed  for  improving  the  commerce 
and  industry  of  the  country  by  a  system  of  protection,  prohibi- 
tion, restriction,  and  interference,  have  been  repealed.  How 
many  of  these  laws  do  they  propose  to  re-enact  ?  Or  do  they 
wish  to  revive  the  whole,  with  all  their  vexatious,  conflicting,  fre- 
quently contradictory,  and  invariably  absurd,  regulations?  Do 
they  wish  again  to  introduce  prohibition  as  a  principle  for  the 
encouragement  of  trade,  and  to  revive  monopoly  as  a  benefit  to 
the  consumer?  If  they  do,  in  God's  name,  let  them  make  the  at- 
tempt, and  let  Parhament,  under  the  guidance  of  common  sense 
and  public  opinion,  decide  between  the  advocates  of  such  a 
system,  and  the  support  of  what  they  deride,  but  dare  not  discuss, 
as  the  system  of  Free  Trade, 

The  honourable  Baronet  who  spoke  last  indeed,  the  member 
for  the  county  of  Cornwall,  has  denounced  that  system  as  one 
which  has  for  its  sole  object  to  f<rrce  exports.  There  cannot  be 
a  more  mistaken  view  of  the  subject.  A  forcing  system,  either 
of  exports  or  imports,  is  altogether  at  variance  with  the  policy 
which  it  has  been  my  duty  to  recommend.  That  policy  has  been 
rather  to  put  an  end  to  such  a  system,  and  without  any  forcing, 
to  leave  to  individuals  to  follow  their  own  views,  to  regulate 
their  own  speculations,  and  to  consult  their  own  interests.  This 
I  consider  to  be  a  general  rule,  applicable  alike  to  the  industry 
and  the  commerce  of  the  country.  Exceptions  to  it  may  be 
justified  upon  grounds  of  special  expediency;  but  they  ought  to 
be  watched  with  the  more  jealousy,  as  every  such  exception  is  a 
departure  from  that  course  which,  in  the  long-run,  must  be  most 
conducive  to  public  prosperity. 

We  are  told,  indeed,  by  the  honourable  Alderman,  and  others 
of  his  school,  who  cannot  deny  that  the  quantity  of  goods  export- 
ed of  late  years  has  greatly  increased,  that  the  more  you  export, 
the  greater  your  loss ;  and  the  foundation  of  this  almost  ludicrous 
doctrine  is,  that  the  aggregate  value  of  such  exports  has  diminish- 
ed in  a  greater  proportion  than  the  quantity  exported  has  in- 
creased. Do  the  advocates  of  this  doctrine  seriously  mean  to 
contend,  that  our  export  trade,  upon  an  average,  is  a  losing  con- 
cern, and  that  it  goes  on  increasing,  year  after  year,  in  proportion 
as  it  becomes  more  and  more  unprofitable?  When  I  ask  them 
this  question,  I  do  not  mean  to  deny  that  some  adventures  have 
50 


590  MR.  HUSKISSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 

been  attended  with  loss ;  that  upon  others  the  profit  has  been  very- 
small  ;  but  I  cannot  believe  that  men  of  common  sense,  prudence, 
and  calculation,  w^ould,  for  a  great  length  of  time,  persevere, 
much  less  that  they  should  voluntarily  increase  their  speculations, 
in  any  trade,  wrhen  the  amount  of  loss  and  not  of  profit  (however 
low  the  latter)  was  to  be  measured  by  the  scale  of  such  specula- 
tions. In  fact,  Sir,  I  have  one  short  answer  to  the  tenets  of  that 
school  of  which  the  honourable  Alderman  and  the  honourable 
member  for  Newark  are  now  the  acknowledged  chiefs.  It  is 
this, — If  you  resort  at  all  to  the  foreign  market,  you  must  be  con- 
tent to  sell  your  commodities  for  the  prices  which  you  can  pro- 
cure in  competition  with  the  like  articles,  the  produce  of  any- 
other  countries.  You  cannot  control  their  capital, — you  cannot 
regulate  their  industry — and  do  you  expect  to  improve  the  chance 
of  meeting  them  at  equal  prices,  by  subjecting  your  own  people 
to  restraints  and  burthens,  from  which  those  with  whom  they 
have  to  compete  are  free  ?  The  honourable  Alderman,  therefore, 
must  make  his  election ;  either  our  export  trade  must  cease,  or 
we  must  be  content  with  the  price  which  the  foreign  market  will 
yield.  The  purchaser  in  that  market  concerns  himself  very  little 
about  the  cost  of  production  here,  or  elsewhere ;  quality  and  price 
are  the  considerations  by  which  he  is  governed,  in  his  choice 
between  the  British  and  the  foreign  competitor.  Now,  if  this  be 
the  principle  which  regulates  every  foreign  market  to  which  our 
merchants  resort,  does  it  not  follow,  as  a  necessary  consequence, 
that  the  price,  in  our  own  market,  of  every  article,  the  like  of 
which  we  export  for  foreign  consumption,  must  be  regulated  by 
the  selling  price  abroad  ?  If  the  price  abroad  be  permanently  de- 
pressed, the  home  price  must  partake  of  that  depression.  This 
must  be  my  first  answer  to  those  who  tell  us,  that  the  home 
market  of  the  country  is  every  thing,  the  only  market  deserving 
of  encouragement.  The  home  trade  must,  of  necessity,  be  of 
great  importance,  and  value ;  but  it  has  been  sacrificed,  ruined, 
and  put  down  (we  are  told)  by  the  forcing  and  encouragement 
given,  under  the  new  system,  to  our  export  trade.  To  maintain 
this  position  the  following  argument,  if  argument  it  can  be  called, 
is  had  recourse  to.  The  increase  of  our  export  trade  has  been 
followed  by  a  more  than  proportionate  decrease  of  the  home 
trade ;  by  forcing  the  one  you  have  injured  the  other,  and  the 
result  is,  that  both  have  become  unprofitable.  I  know  not  how- 
to  measure  the  home  trade,  except  by  the  home  consumption.  It 
may  be  difficult,  especially  for  an  individual  like  myself,  unaided 
by  the  facilities  which  office  affords,  to  ascertain  accurately  the 
amount  of  that  consumption.  I  have,  however,  endeavoured,  by 
a  reference  to  the  returns  to  this  House,  and  with  the  aid  of  some 
most  intelligent  friends  in  the  mercantile  line,  to  collect  informa- 


STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  591 

tion  upon  this  point ;  and  I  will  now,  with  the  permission  of  the 
House,  state  the  result.  I  have  selected  articles  of  the  most  ex- 
tensive use  in  the  manufactures  of  this  country,  and  I  have  made 
my  comparison  upon  the  consumption  of  five  years ;  namely,  from 
1816  (I  select  this  as  the  year  of  the  highest  return)  to  1820,  both 
inclusive,  and  in  like  manner  for  the  last  five  years,  from  1824  to 
1828. 

The  first  article  to  which  I  shall  refer  is  Cotton  Wool.  The 
average  annual  importation,  from  1816  to  1820,  was  139,141,646 
lbs.:  —  the  average  annual  importation  from  1824  to  1828  was 
210,886,992  lbs.  The  average  annual  exportation  of  Cotton  Wool 
for  the  same  periods  was,  for  the  first,  11,873,800  lbs.,  for  the 
second,  21,298,800  lbs.;  leaving  of  Cotton  Wool  for  manufac- 
ture in  this  country,  an  annual  average,  for  the  first  period,  of 
127,267,846  lbs.;  and  for  the  second,  189,588,192  lbs.  These 
respective  quantities  were  disposed  of  in  each  period,  in  the 
manufactured  state,  as  nearly  as  can  be  ascertained,  as  follows : 
first — Cotton  Yarn  exported  (one-eighth  being  added  for  waste), 
the  annual  average  of  the  first  period,  19,984,664  lbs. — in  the 
second  period,  48,472,202  lbs. : — secondly — Cotton  Cloth  exported 
(computing  six  yards  of  cloth  of  all  kinds  to  be  produced  from 
one  pound  of  cotton),  annual  average  of  the  first  period, 
255,507,058  yards — in  the  second  period,  360,265,256  yards : — 
thirdly, — Cotton  Cloth  retained  for  home  consumption  (computing 
one  pound  of  cotton  to  make  five  yards  of  cloth),  in  the  first 
period,  227,003,484  yards— in  the  second  period,  399,678,923 
yards.  I  may  here  just  observe,  that  the  estimate  of  six  yards  to 
the  pound  of  cotton  for  foreign,  and  of  five  for  home,  consump- 
tion, is  supposed  to  be  the  nearest  approach  to  accuracy,  by  those 
who  are  pratically  most  conversant  with  the  manufacture. 

The  next  article  is  Sheep's  Wool.  The  annual  average  im- 
portation of  the  first  period  is  14,443,834  lbs.; — of  the  second, 
28,356,417  lbs.:  retained  for  home  use,  in  the  first  period, 
14,430,917  lbs.;— in  the  second,  27,629,561  lbs.:  official  value 
of  woollens  exported  in  the  first  period  —  annual  average, 
5,313,429/.;— in  the  second,  5,763,632/.  Now,  the  principal 
quantity  of  the  wool  imported  is  of  the  finer  qualities ;  and  as  the 
increase  of  export  in  the  manufactured  articles  of  woollen  cloth 
is  very  trifling,  it  follows  that  a  great  increase  of  consumption 
must  have  taken  place  in  this  country ;  unless  it  be  maintained 
(which  it  certainly  cannot,  the  reverse  being  the  fact),  that  the 
growth  of  British  Wool  has  been  diminished  in  a  degree  corre- 
sponding with  the  increased  foreign  supply.  The  increased  home 
consumption  is  principally  in  fine  cloth  made  of  Saxon  and  the 
high-priced  wools. 

The  next  article  of  import  is  Silk.  The  averages  are  as  follows 


592  MR.  HUSKISSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 

— Raw  and  waste,  from  1816  to  1820,  1,444,000  lbs. — thrown 
ditto,  303,126  lbs.— from  1824  to  1828,  Raw  and  waste,  3,437,432 
lbs.; — thrown,  447,504  lbs.; — the  export  of  manufactured  silk 
goods  has  varied  very  little,  upon  a  comparison  of  these  two 
periods. 

The  importation  of  Flax  is,  for  the  first  period,  368,371  cwt. ; 
— for  the  second,  830,421  cwt.  I  have  not  been  able  to  obtain 
any  satisfactory  information  as  to  the  quantity  of  Linen  Cloth 
exported,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  a  greatly  increased  con- 
sumption at  home. 

Hides,  in  the  first  period,  imported,  679,996; — re-exported, 
221,200;  retained  for  home  use,  458,796; — in  the  second  period, 
imported,  1,873,314; — re-exported,  211,448; — retained  for  home 
use,  1,661,866. 

The  next  articles  are  Tallow  and  Palm  Oil,  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  candles  and  soap.  Imported  in  the  first  period,  of  tallow, 
545,540  cwt. — palm  oil,  34,910  cwt. — soap  exported,  official 
valuation,  116,037/.; — candles  exported,  weight,  4,931,597  lbs. : 
second  period,  tallow  imported,  946,760  cwt. — palm  oil,  95,942 
cwt. — soap  exported,  official  value,  183,849/.;  candles  exported, 
weight,  7,818,718  lbs. 

The  last  article  which  I  shall  mention  is  that  of  fir  Timber ; 
the  annual  average  import  of  the  first  period  was  289,379  loads : 
— in  the  second,  for  four  years,  ending  1827  (I  have  not  been 
able  to  procure  the  return  for  1828),  541,654  loads. 

There  remains,  however,  one  other  branch  of  our  national 
wealth  and  industry,  to  which  I  must  advert  before  I  quit  this 
part  of  the  subject.  From  its  importance,  both  in  a  commercial 
and  political  point  of  view,  I  could  not  pass  it  over,  even  if  it  had 
been  omitted  by  the  honourable  members  who  have  preceded  me 
in  this  debate.  I  allude.  Sir,  to  our  Shipping,  which  is  stated  to 
be  fast  verging  to  decay  and  ruin.  If  it  had  been  asserted,  that 
the  profits  of  the  Ship-Owner  were  very  greatly  diminished,  as 
compared  to  the  period  of  war,  and  that  they  were  small,  even 
when  calculated  upon  the  present  reduced  value  of  the  ship,  I 
certainly  should  not  deny  the  position.  I  regret  that  the  returns 
of  capital  in  this,  as  in  other  branches  of  productive  industry,  are 
less  than  I  could  wish  them  to  be ;  but  when  the  interest  of  money 
and  the  profits  of  stock  are  generally  low,  it  would  be  vain  to 
expect  that  the  capital  employed  in  Shipping  should  form  an  ex- 
ception. Indeed,  from  circumstances  peculiar  to  the  shipping 
interest,  it  was  likely  to  suffer  a  greater  revulsion  than  any  other 
from  the  restoration  of  peace. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  our  shipping  had  engrossed  the  naviga- 
tion of  other  countries ;  and  near  one  sixth  of  the  tonnage  of  our 
merchant  ships  was  employed  in  the  public  service  as  transports. 


STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  593 

The  commerce  and  navigation  of  other  nations  are  now  returned 
to  their  usual  course  in  peace,  and  nine-tenths  of  our  transports 
have  been  discharged  from  the  public  service.  By  the  Returns, 
which  were  laid  before  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  course  of 
last  session,  it  would  appear,  that,  in  the  year  1816,  we  had 
25,864  registered  vessels,  measuring  2,783,940  tons; — and  that 
in  1828,  the  number  of  registered  vessels  was  only  24,095, 
measuring  2,508,191  tons.  This  diminution  has  been  commented 
upon,  as  showing  conclusively  the  gradual  and  melancholy  decline 
of  the  Shipping  Interest.  It  is,  perhaps,  scarcely  worth  while  to 
observe,  that  by  the  same  Return  the  tonnage  appears  to  have 
been  reduced,  so  early  as  1823,  to  2,506,760  tons;  that  in  1827, 
it  is  stated  at  2,460,500  tons; — being  in  the  first  of  these  two 
years,  a  trifle,  and  in  the  second  48,000  tons  less  than  in  the  year 
1828.  But  it  is  more  material  to  state,  that  in  the  year  1816,  the 
amount  of  tonnage  was  swelled  by  returning  many  ships  which 
had  long  ceased  to  exist,  and  that  at  present  the  Returns  are 
accurately  made. 

There  is  another  parliamentary  paper,  however,  which  was 
also  furnished  last  session,  and  which,  if  properly  considered,  in 
conjunction  with  that  to  which  I  have  now  referred,  will  throw 
great  and  very  satisfactory  light  upon  this  subject.  It  is  the 
paper  which  exhibits  the  number  and  tonnage  of  British  vessels, 
entered  inwards  and  cleared  outwards,  in  our  trade  with  all 
foreign  parts,  for  the  same  period  as  the  former  paper,  namely, 
from  1814  to  1828,  both  inclusive.  We  have  already  seen  that 
in  1816  the  total  tonnage  of  our  registered  shipping  was  2,783,940: 
now,  in  that  year,  the  total  tonnage  entered  inwards  from  all 
foreign  parts  was  1,415,723 — cleared  outwards  to  all  foreign 
parts,  1,340,277  tons — making  together  2,756,000 — being  a  frac- 
tion more  than  one  ton  of  shipping  for  every  ton  of  goods  enter- 
ed inwards  and  cleared  outwards.  In  1828  our  whole  tonnage, 
as  I  have  already  stated,  was  2,508,191 ;  but  in  that  year  the 
entries  inward  were  2,094,357 — and  the  clearances  outwards 
2,096,397 — making  together  4,190,754  tons,  being  somewhat  less 
than  five-eighths  of  a  ton  of  registered  shipping  to  every  ton  of 
goods  entered  inwards  and  cleared  outwards,  and  being,  more- 
over, a  positive  increase  upon  the  entries  and  clearances  of  1816, 
to  the  amount  of  1,434,754  tons; — rather  more  than  either  of 
them  separately  amounted  to  in  that  year.  I  might  further  state, 
that  the  account  of  vessels  entered  inwards  and  cleared  outwards 
for  1829  has  been  delivered  this  morning,  and  is  as  follows : — 
inwards  2,184,535 — outwards  2,063,179,  making  together  4,247,- 
714  tons, — an  increase,  as  the  House  will  perceive,  upon  the 
antecedent  year.  Now  I  need  scarcely  remark  to  the  House, 
that  the  quantity  of  goods,  carried  to  and  fro  between  this  coun- 
50*  3Z 


594  MR.  HUSKISSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 

try  and  all  foreign  parts,  in  British  ships,  within  a  given  period, 
is  the  true  measure  of  the  degree  of  employment  and  activity  of 
our  commercial  marine.  If  our  ships  had  been  navigated  back- 
wards and  forwards,  at  the  same  rate  of  movement  in  1828  as 
in  1816,  it  would  have  required  upwards  of  4,200,000  tons  to 
have  executed  the  transference  of  goods,  which,  in  1828,  was 
performed  by  2,500,000  tons  of  registered  shipping. — On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  accelerated  movement  of  1828  had  prevailed  in  1816, 
the  transference  of  goods  which,  in  that  year,  required  2,783,940 
tons,  might  have  been  accomplished  by  about  1,700,000  tons  of 
registered  shipping.  If  gentlemen  think  this  change  a  misfortune, 
nothing  can  be  more  easy  than  to  rectify  it.  We  have  only  to 
restore  the  vexatious  and  contradictory  laws,  partly  fiscal,  partly 
protective,  as  they  were  called,  partly  commercial,  which  threw 
impediments  and  delays  in  the  way  of  our  commerce  and  naviga- 
tion. We  have  only  to  take  care  that  ships  should  not  load  and 
unload,  make  their  entries,  and  obtain  their  clearances,  with  the 
present  ease  and  dispatch.  We  have  only  to  restore  in  our  Cus- 
tom-Houses the  regulations  which  harassed  the  ship-owner  and 
the  merchant,  and  to  provide  that  the  convenience  and  expedition, 
now  so  conspicuous  in  our  commercial  docks,  should  be  so  check- 
ed, and  encumbered  with  dilatory  forms  and  useless  interference, 
as  to  bring  us  back  to  the  more  sober  pace  of  our  former  system. 
This  is  a  task  which  I  can  scarcely  be  called  upon  to  undertake  ; 
let  those  who  arraign  these  improvements  as  ruinous  innovations, 
propose  their  repeal,  and  thus  bring  the  two  systems  to  a  fair 
issue. 

But,  before  they  attempt  to  effect  their  purpose,  let  them  calcu- 
late the  results  to  the  Shipping  Interest.  In  trade,  the  economy 
of  time  will  always  be  found  to  be  the  economy  of  money.  Every 
restraint  is  an  increased  expenditure  of  the  one  or  the  other.  It 
adds,  in  more  ways  than  one,  to  the  charge  at  which  the  raw 
material  can  be  delivered  to  our  manufacturers,  and  the  manufac- 
tured article  conveyed  to  the  foreign  market.  It  operates  as  a 
premium  in  favour  of  rival  manufactures,  and  as  a  tax  upon  our 
own.  From  what  fund  is  that  premium  to  be  drawn,  and  that 
tax  paid,  except  from  the  profits  of  the  mianufacturer's  capital, 
and  the  wages  of  the  labourer  whom  he  employs  ?  For,  as  was 
well  observed  by  the  gallant  member  for  Windsor,  the  price  in 
the  foreign  market,  be  it  what  it  may,  must  determine  the  price 
in  our  own  market.  If  we  are  beaten  in  this  race  of  competi- 
tion, we  shall  want  fewer  carriers  to  effect  the  interchange  of  the 
products  of  our  industry,  against  the  raw  materials  of  other  coun- 
tries. And  how  is  the  Shipping  Interest  to  be  benefited  by  the 
curtailment  of  our  foreign  trade  ? 

The  truth  is,  that,  under   all  the  difficulties  with  which  our 


STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  595 

general  industry,  including  our  shipping,  has  had  to  contend,  since 
the  restoration  of  peace — difficulties  growing  out  of  the  enor- 
mous expenditure  of  war — the  necessary  restoration  of  our  cur- 
rency— and  the  active  rivalry  of  other  nations — nothing  but  a 
timely  relaxation  of  our  restrictive  and  expensive  system,  would 
have  enabled  us  to  bear  up  against  the  complicated  disadvantages 
of  our  situation.  That  relaxation,  so  far  as  it  has  gone — and  it 
ought  to  go  further — has  been  gradually  introduced,  with  due  re- 
gard to  the  interests  and  arrangements  which  had  grown  up 
under  a  different  system.  But  for  the  intervention  of  so  many 
years  of  war,  and  of  a  war  so  peculiar  in  its  character,  these 
improvements  would  have  been  introduced,  not  only  at  an  earlier 
period,  but  with  less  of  friction  and  embarrassment  in  carrying 
them  into  effect.  For  I  can  take  upon  myself  to  affirm,  from 
personal  knowledge  of  Mr.  Pitt's  sentiments  and  views,  that  there 
was  nothing  which  he  more  regretted,  in  the  derangement  of 
war,  than  the  interruption  which  it  gave  to  the  improvement  of 
our  commercial  policy, — an  improvement,  which  he  looked  to  in 
the  temperate  and  cautious  liberation  of  trade  and  industry,  from 
all  unnecessary  shackles  and  impediments. 

These  arguments,  Sir,  may  have  little  weight  with  that  select 
class,  who  claim  to  be,  exclusively,  our  practical  guides  in  politi- 
cal economy.  With  them,  foreign  commerce  is  a  matter  almost 
of  indifference:  according  to  them,  England  can  be  great,  happy, 
and  flourishing,  within  herself.  Of  what  England  they  are  speak- 
ing, I  know  not ;  certainly  not  of  this  country,  as  it  now  exists. 
The  raw  materials  of  every  great  branch  of  our  industry 
(mineral  wealth  excepted)  are  derived,  either  wholly,  or  in  great 
part,  from  foreign  soils.  Cotton, — which  gives  employment  to 
perhaps  two  millions  of  people — w^holly.  Silk,  which  employs 
about  500,000, — wholly.  Wool,  in  great  proportion. — Hemp  and 
Flax,  in  a  proportion  still  greater. — Fir  Timber  for  all  building 
purposes,  nearly  the  whole. — Dyeing  Drugs,  the  same. — I  say 
nothing  of  luxuries,  such  as  wine,  &c.  But,  looking  only  to  the 
articles  which  I  have  enumerated,  I  would  ask — are  gentlemen 
prepared  to  dispense  with  the  comforts  which  the  use  of  them 
here  affords  to  our  population  ?  And  if  they  are,  are  they  still 
further  prepared  to  tell  us  how  that  population  could  be  maintain- 
ed, if  the  conversion  of  these  raw  materials  did  not  give  employ- 
ment to  their  industry  ?  With  what  but  that  manufactured  indus- 
try can  we  purchase  them  from  other  countries  ?  Have  we  any 
superfluous  raw  materials  of  our  own,  with  which  to  make  the 
purchase?  Where  is  the  spare  corn,  or  the  spare  produce  of  our 
soil,  which  can  be  sent  abroad  for  this  purpose  f  No,  Sir,  of 
these  productions  we  do  not  grow  enough  for  our  own  wants. 
Our  population,  then,  so  far  as  it  is  employed  in  working  up  the 


596  MR.  HUSKISSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 

raw  materials  of  other  countries,  must  find  in  its  own  industry 
the  means  of  procuring  those  raw  materials.  Without  them,  that 
industry  must  cease;  that  population  (it  amounts  to  millions) 
must  perish ;  and  then  indeed,  England — but  not  England  great, 
happy,  and  flourishing — England,  reduced  to  its  former  insignifi- 
cance and  barbarism — may  disregard  foreign  trade. 

If,  then,  relief  is  not  to  be  looked  for  by  undoing,  but  rather  by 
persevering  in  and  extending,  our  present  system  of  commercial 
policy ;  our  next  inquiry  must  be,  how  far  that  relief  is  attainable 
by  a  revision  of  the  Finances  of  the  country.  Within  the  limits 
of  public  faith,  the  amount  of  our  taxation  is  under  our  control ; 
and  in  respect  to  the  mode  in  which  it  is  assessed,  distributed, 
and  raised,  the  whole  public  revenue  may  be  considered  as  liable 
to  whatever  alterations  the  wisdom  of  Parliament  may  find  expe- 
dient. 

First,  then,  with  respect  to  its  positive  amount,  under  the 
altered  circumstances  of  the  country,  since  the  restoration  of 
peace.  I  had  occasion  to  state  my  opinion  on  this  subject  to  the 
Committee  upon  Agricultural  Distress  in  1821,  and  as  it  is  record- 
ed in  their  Report,  I  beg  leave  very  shortly  to  refer  to  it.  It  is 
as  follows : — 

"  Your  Committee  cannot  disguise  from  themselves,  that  the 
weight  of  the  public  burthens  of  the  country,  their  nominal  amount 
remaining  the  same,  must  be  more  severely  felt,  in  proportion  as 
the  money  incomes  derived  from  trading,  farming,  and  manufac- 
turing capital  and  industry  are  diminished.  No  exertion,  there- 
fore, should  be  omitted  to  endeavour  to  reduce  those  burthens,  as 
nearly  as  circumstances  will  permit,  in  the  degree  in  which  such 
incomes  have  been  reduced :  for,  in  considering  this  subject,  it  is 
important  to  bear  in  mind,  that  the  general  amount  and  real 
pressure  of  taxation  have  been  positively  increased  in  the  propor- 
tion of  the  improved  value  of  our  currency." 

I  still  retain  that  opinion ;  indeed,  every  thing  which  has  since 
occurred  has  only  tended  to  confirm  it.  The  course  at  which  it 
points  is  obvious.  It  is  that  which,  I  willingly  admit,  is  now  fol- 
lowed by  his  Majesty's  Government.  Credit  is  due  to  them  for 
the  retrenchments,  certainly  not  inconsiderable,  which  they  have 
already  made,  as  well  as  for  the  new  checks  which  they  have 
established,  and  the  further  ones  which  they  contemplate,  for  re- 
pressing that  tendency  to  the  growth  of  expenditure,  which  con- 
stantly prevails  in  every  department  of  the  public  service.  A 
tendency  which,  as  it  pervades  all  branches  of  expenditure,  re- 
quires to  be  steadily  watched,  and  kept  within  bounds — of  late 
years  it  appears  to  have  been  most  vivacious,  if  I  may  use  the 
expression,  in  that  branch  which  is  familiarly  called  ihe  Dead 
Weight. 


STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  597 

After  all  the  details  &nd  explanations  upon  this  subject,  which  I 
have  heard  with  satisfaction  from  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
I  remain  of  opinion,  that  the  proposed  regulations  ought,  in  some 
instances,  to  be  drawn  somewhat  tighter,  and  that  retrenchment 
may  be  carried  considerably  further.  The  Government  has  once 
gone  over  the  wide  field  of  expenditure,  but  what  they  have  cut 
down  is  not  adequate  to  the  wants  and  expectations  of  the  coun- 
try. Let  them  repeat  the  operation,  and  they  will  find  that  more 
than  gleanings  are  left  behind.  In  the  collection  and  naanage- 
ment  of  the  revenue,  it  was  admitted  by  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  there  is  still  room  for  reduction  and  reform.  The 
diplomatic  and  consular  establishment  may  be  pared  down  with- 
out detriment  to  the  public  service.  The  door  of  admission  to 
half  pay,  retired  allowances,  and  superannuations  of  every  sort, 
must  be  further  straitened  and  narrowed.  A  careful  revision 
of  the  Colonial  Establishments  will  afford  a  considerable  saving. 
The  expenses  incurred  on  the  coast  of  Africa  ought,  on  every 
consideration,  to  be  greatly  diminished.  The  laxity  of  control 
over  the  appropriation  of  the  revenue  arising  from  Crown  Lands 
calls  for  revision.  This  branch  of  the  revenue,  as  much  as  the 
Customs  or  Excise,  constitutes  a  part  of  the  consolidated  fund, 
subject  to  the  expenses  of  management.  Under  this  head  of 
Management  it  may  be  proper  to  include  the  expense  of  the  main- 
taining, repairing,  and  keeping  up  that  part  of  the  Crown  Estate, 
which  is  expressly  reserved  for  the  recreation  or  state  of  the 
monarch,  such  as  parks,  lodges,  &c. ;  but  as  in  the  Civil  List,  so 
in  this  instance,  a  specific  annual  sum  ought  to  be  allotted  for 
that  purpose ;  not  to  be  exceeded  without  an  application  to,  and 
an  express  vote  of,  the  House  of  Commons. 

There  are  also  the  savings  which  may,  I  hope,  be  effected  in 
the  great  heads  of  our  expense,  the  military  and  naval  establish- 
ments of  the  country.  I  have  made  no  objections  to  the  estimates 
for  the  Army  and  Navy  this  year.  In  fixing  the  numbers,  the 
Government,  acting  upon  their  information  and  responsibility, 
have  a  right  to  expect  some  degree  of  confidence  from  the  House ; 
especially  if,  from  circumstances  of  notoriety,  it  should  appear 
that,  in  the  pending  concerns  of  the  world,  some  matters  remain 
to  be  adjusted,  and  that  every  thing  is  not  in  its  right  place.  If, 
by  the  next  year,  the  mists  which  surround  us  shall  be  dissipated, 
if  the  political  horizon  shall  be,  on  every  side,  clear  and  bright, 
if  Ireland  shall  continue — as  I  am  confident  it  will — to  improve 
in  its  internal  tranquillity,  and  in  good  feelings  towards  this  coun- 
try, I  should,  in  the  ensuing  session,  expect  no  inconsiderable  re- 
duction in  the  amount  of  our  public  force. 

Whatever  savings  may  be  effected  in  all  these  branches  of  ex- 
penditure, or  in  any  other,  they  will  add  so  much  to  our  relief 


598  MR.  HUSKISSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 

But,  when  the  whole  of  the  charge  over  which  we  can  exercise 
any  immediate  control,  is  not  more  than  11,000,000/.,  the  further 
reduction  which  remains  practicable,  to  be  consistent  with  the 
public  safety,  and  the  efficiency  of  Government,  cannot  be  very 
considerable.  Indeed,  I  much  doubt  whether,  if  we  are  to  retain 
a  reasonable  surplus  of  revenue, — I  will  not  say  upon  the  princi- 
ple of  a  sinking  fund,  but  as  the  necessary  guard  and  provision 
against  the  effect  of  those  fluctuations  to  which  our  public  income 
is  liable, — any  further  absolute  reduction  of  taxation  can  be  anti- 
cipated, from  the  utmost  amount  of  retrenchment  that  can  be 
made,  unless  the  produce  of  the  remaining  taxes  should  be  very 
greatly  increased,  in  consequence  of  the  relief  now  to  be  given  to 
the  people.  • 

I  will  shortly  state  the  grounds  of  this  opinion.  The  Chancel- 
lor of  the  Exchequer  estimates  the  surplus  of  the  present  year  at 
about  2,600,000/.  I  will  take  for  granted  the  data  upon  which 
this  estimate  was  made.  I  hope  my  right  honourable  friend  will 
not  think  that  I  am  doing  him  a  disservice,  when  I  remark,  that  he 
has  under-stated  the  extent  of  relief  which  he  is  about  to  give  to 
the  country.  He  estimates  it  at  3,400,000/.:  now,  the  average 
net  payment  into  the  Exchequer  from  the  duties  about  to  be  taken 
off,. for  a  period  of  the  last  fiv^e  years,  was  3,737,000/.;  and  as 
the  barley  crop  failed  in  one  of  those  years,  1827,  I  think  it  may 
be  taken  in  round  numbers  at  3,750,000/.,  leaving,  consequently,  a 
deficiency  upon  the  estimated  surplus  of  this  year  of  1,150,000/. 
Now,  if  the  reduction  of  the  4  per  cents.,  taken  at  700,000/.,  the 
new  taxes  proposed  by  my  right  honourable  friend,  estimated  at 
400,000/.,  and  the  further  savings  to  be  made,  should  amount 
altogether  to  2,000,000/.,  our  surplus  would  be  rather  less  than 
1,000,000/.,  being  an  allowance  of  about  two  per  cent,  upon  our 
income,  to  meet  all  the  incidents  and  casualties  to  which  it  is 
Hable. 

Assuming,  then,  that  absolute  abatement  of  taxation  cannot, 
for  the  present  at  least,  be  carried  further,  the  question  which  re- 
mains for  consideration  (and  I  can  assure  the  House  that  I  have 
anxiously  turned  it  in  my  own  mind,  in  the  interval  since  the 
Budget  was  made  known  to  us)  is,  will  the  proposed  remission 
be  all  that  is  requisite  for  the  effectual  and  permanent  relief  of  the 
country  1  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  incline  to  think  it  will  not.  In 
the  view  which  I  take  of  our  present  difficulties,  the  main  cause 
of  them,  in  my  opinion,  as  stated  at  the  outset  of  what  I  have 
now  addressed  to  the  House,  and  which,  that  I  may  not  be  mis- 
understood, in  substance  I  repeat,  is  this — that  in  the  distribution 
of  the  annual  wealth  of  the  country,  taking  it  according  to  the 
ordinary  and  admitted  division  into  rent,  profits  of  stock,  and 
wages  of  labour,  the  two  latter,  from  a  complication  of  concur- 


STATE  OF  THE  COIT^JTRY.  599 

rent  circumstances,  of  which  taxation  is  one,  are  now  in  the 
receipt  of  less  than  their  just  share.  I  may  further  state,  that 
such  a  condition  of  society  cannot  long  be  continued,  without  its 
laying  the  foundation  of  national  impoverishment.  There  is  a 
short  passage  in  Adam  Smith's  "  Wealth  of  Nations,"  which  so 
forcibly  points  out  the  calamitous  tendency  of  this  condition  of 
society,  that  I  cannot  forbear  pressing  it  upon  the  serious  atten- 
tion of  the  House.  "  To  complain,"  he  says,  "  of  the  liberal 
reward  of  labour,  is  to  lament  over  the  necessary  effect  and  cause 
of  the  greatest  public  prosperity.  The  condition  of, the  labourer 
is  hard  in  the  stationary,  and  miserable  in  the  declining  state. 
The  progressive  state  is  in  reality  the  chqerful  and  the  hearty 
state  to  all  the  different  orders  of  society.  The  stationary  is  dull 
— the  declining  melancholy." 

If  we  are  in  danger  of  falling  into  this  state  of  things,  and  if  we 
cannot  be  adequately  protected  against  the  risk  by  any  practical 
diminution  in  the  positive  amount  of  our  burthens,  may  we  not 
guard  ourselves  against  it  by  some  change  in  the  principle  and 
distribution  of  the  remaining  taxation. 

In  approaching  this  part  of  the  subject,  I  am  aware  that  I  am 
treading  upon  tender  ground.  I  know  that  I  shall  not  only  meet 
with  great  difference  of  opinion,  but  that  I  shall  expose  myself, 
probably,  to  considerable  clamour  and  obloquy.  It  is  impossible 
to  touch  upon  it  without  coming  into  collision  with  the  interests 
(at  least  as  the  parties  understand  them)  of  many,  and  those, 
perhaps,  the  most  powerful  both  in  this  House  and  in  the  country. 
But,  Sir,  when  I  am  addressing  you  upon  a  subject  of  such  deep 
importance,  I  feel  myself  bound  by  a  sense  of  public  duty,  be  the 
consequence  to  myself  personally  what  it  may,  to  state  a  strong 
doubt  (I  wish  to  put  it  no  higher),  whether  we  shall  afford  ade- 
<^uate  relief,  without  removing  a  larger  amount  of  those  taxes 
which  press  directly  upon  income  arising  from  capital  engaged 
in  industry,  and  upon  the  income  of  labour  to  which  that  capital 
gives  employment ;  transferring,  as  far  as  may  be  indispensable, 
the  burthen  upon  all  that  class  of  income  which  arises  from  capi- 
tal not  so  employed. 

Sir,  my  gallant  friend,  the  member  for  Windsor,  has  called 
upon  us  to  compare  the  habits  of  society,  in  the  higher  walks  of 
life,  with  what  they  were  fifty  years  ago.  Like  him,  and  with 
him,  I  have  lived  long  enough  to  bear  testimony  to  the  change 
which  has  taken  place.  Let  any  man  compare  the  metropolis 
now  with  what  it  was  at  that  |)eriod ;  not  only  its  positive  growth, 
but  still  more  the  extension  of  splendor  in  buildings,  in  furniture, 
in  plate,  in  the  habits  of  luxury,  and  in  display  of  every  descrip- 
tion. Having  mentioned  plate.  Sir,  I  may  remark,  as  a  striking 
evidence  of  this  change,  the  difference  of  the  amount  of  the  duty 


600  MR.  HUSKISSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 

upon  that  one  article,  between  the  year  1804  and  the  last  yean 
The  rate  of  duty  upon  silver  wrought  plate  in  1804  was  Is.  3</., 
upon  gold  16s.  per  ounce;  it  was  afterwards  raised  to  Is.  6d. 
upon  silver,  and  to  17s.  upon  gold.  But  what  has  been  the  in- 
crease in  the  net  produce  of  the  duty  ?  It  has  risen  from  less  than 
5,000/.  in  1804,  to  upwards  of  105,000/.  in  1828 ;  a  rise  of  more 
than  twenty-fold,  notwithstanding  the  greatly  diminished  supply 
from  the  mines,  and  the  consequent  increasing  value,  of  the 
precious  metals.  It  maybe  further  remarked,  that  this  augmented 
consumption  ^hows  how  large  a  portion  of  gold  and  silver  is  an- 
nually diverted  from  the  purposes  of  coin  to  those  of  ornament 
and  luxury. 

Have  the  articles  most  necessary  to  the  scanty  comfort  of  the 
humble  dwellings  of  the  labouring  classes  been  multiplied  in  the 
same  proportion?  I  am  afraid  that, in  too  many  cases,  an  inverse 
ratio  w^ould  rather  be  the  correct  answer.  Look  at  the  earnings 
and  condition  of  that  population  which  raises  the  produce  of  the 
soil,  or  from  early  dawn  to  midnight  throws  the  shuttle  for  bare 
subsistence,  and  compare  them  with  those  of  the  artisans,  who 
minister  to  all  the  various  enjoyments  and  gratifications  of  wealth, 
in  this  great  town.  Contrast  the  hourly  dealings  for  millions,  at 
that  great  mart  of  money,  the  Stock  Exchange,  with  the  stinted 
transactions  and  falling-off  of  our  country  markets.  In  London 
the  bankers,  the  moneyed  men  of  all  descriptions,  complain  of  the 
glut  of  money.  We  hear  of  seven  or  eight  millions  deposited, 
for  want  of  employment,  in  the  Bank  of  England  alone.  Inge- 
nuity is  incessantly  at  work  in  devising  new  and  tempting  specu- 
lations, to  call  forth  these  locked-up  capitals,  of  which  too  large 
a  portion  has  already  been  thrown  away  upon  rash  and  gambHnff 
speculations,  or  placed  at  hazard  upon  the  precarious  security  of 
foreign  loans.  In  the  country,  you  hear  of  nothing  but  the 
bewailings  of  industry,  and  the  want  of  money,  confidence,  and 
credit.  The  country  banker,  reluctant  to  make  advances,  and 
the  prudent  man,  who  is  still  solvent,  cautious  and  tardy  in  ap- 
plying for  them,  because  productive  speculation,  however  carefully 
conducted,  holds  out  too  little  prospect  of  gain  to  compensate  for 
the  risk  of  loss,  with  which,  more  or  less,  it  must  always  be 
attended.  It  is  notorious  to  ^1,  who  know  what  is  passing  in  the 
different  counties  of  the  kingdom,  that  country  banks, — in  better 
times  those  salutary  reservoirs  for  the  alternate  deposit  and  dis- 
tribution of  circulating  wealth,  through  all  the  ramifications  of 
active  industry — now  send  that  wealth  up  to  town,  to  be  lent  for 
short  periods  upon  stock,  and  other  floating  securities  upon  the 
Stock  Exchange.  This  system  is,  perhaps,  safe  for  themselves, 
but,  at  best,  of  very  doubtful  benefit  to  the  public ;  affording,  for 
aught  I  know,  to  a  few  individuals  increased  facilities  for  gigantic 


4b 


STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  601 

speculations ;  swelling  still  further  the  already  overgrown  fortunes 
of  some,  but  bringing  misery  and  ruin  upon  others ;  and  diverting 
the  thoughts  and  aspirations  of  all  who  come  within  its  vortex, 
from  the  sober  and  steady  courses  of  their  forefathers,  to  pursuits 
as  little  conducive,  I  believe,  to  individual  happiness  and  moral 
worth,  as  they  certainly  are  to  the  growth  of  wealth  in  the 
country;  pursuits  which,  were  they  multiplied  even  an  hundred- 
fold, could  never  add  the  value  of  one  pepper-corn  to  our  national 
resources;  whilst  all  the  classes,  from  whom  alone  wealth  can 
really  flow,  are  labouring  under  difliculties  and  complaining  of 
distress. 

In  considering  the  effects  of  our  present  taxation  upon  the 
productive  industry  of  the  country,  we  must  constantly  bear  in 
mind  the  necessary  consequences  of  a  state  of  peace,  and  of  a  free 
competition  of  the  industry  of  other  countries  with  that  of  our  own, 
in  the  general  market  of  the  world.  These  consequences,  as  it 
has  been  already  so  well  stated  in  this  debate,  are,  first, — that  we 
cannot  obtain  for  our  commodities  a  better  price  than  that  at 
which,  in  this  race  of  competition,  the  like  commodities  can  be 
raised,  produced,  and  brought  to  market  by  other  countries ;  and, 
secondly, — that  the  price  at  which  we  can  sell  abroad  must  de- 
termine the  price  in  the  home  market.  Now,  Sir,  let  us  follow 
out  these  admitted  axioms  in  all  their  necessary  and  legitimate 
bearings  and  results. 

It  will  not  be  denied  that  a  spirit  of  improvement,  an  anxious 
desire  to  promote  industry,  zeal  for  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  in 
all  pursuits  connected  with  mechanical  and  chemical  science,  and 
in  the  beneficial  application  of  them  to  the  useful  purposes  of  life, 
are  now  the  pervading  feelings,  not  only  of  every  people,  but  of 
nearly  every  government,  in  the  civilized  world.  Neither  can  it 
be  denied  that,  in  several  countries,  a  greater  degree  of  freedom 
in  their  institutions,  and  a  greater  security  for  property,  have, 
under  the  uninterrupted  enjoyment  of  peace,  promoted  the  growth 
of  capital,  and  the  other  facilities  which  are  necessary  to  manu- 
facturing and  commercial  enterprise.  This  is  the  rivalry,  every 
day  growing  more  formidable,  with  which  our  capital,  and  in- 
dustry, and  skill,  have  to  contend.  If  we  meet  it  under  some 
advantages,  we  have  also  great  ^d  growing  disadvantages  to 
encounter.  Do  not  let  us  lose  sight  of  the  fearful  consequences 
which  must  ensue,  if  we  are  distanced  in  the  race.  The  greatest 
of  all  follies  on  such  an  occasion,  would  be  to  shut  our  eyes  to 
diflJiculties  which,  taken  in  time,  we  may,  perhaps,  overcome,  but 
which,  by  procrastination,  we  cannot  evade.  For  a  long  time  we 
have  been  the  greatest  manufacturing  and  trading  nation  in  the 
world.  We  export  for  sale  abroad,  in  a  manufactured  state,  more 
or  less  of  almost  every  thing  which  we  raise  or  produce.  Of  the 
51  4  A 


602  MR.  HUSKISSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 

raw  materials  of  our  soil  the  export  is  next  to  nothing.  They 
are  barely  adequate,  indeed  I  might  say  inadequate,  to  the  sub- 
sistence of  our  population.  Upon  an  average  of  years,  we  can- 
not do  without  a  supply  of  foreign  corn ;  and  of  cheese,  butter, 
and  other  articles,  we  have  a  large  annual  importation.  Our  corn 
laws,  however  expedient  to  prevent  other  evils,  in  the  present 
state  of  the  country,  are  in  themselves  a  burthen  and  a  restraint 
upon  its  manufacturing  and  commercial  industry.  Whilst  the 
products  of  that  industry  must  descend  to  the  level  of  the  general 
market  of  the  world,  the  producers,  so  far  as  food  is  concerned, 
are  debarred  from  that  level.  If  the  price  of  subsistence, — that 
is,  the  price  of  those  particular  articles  which  we  never  export, 
and  are  frequently  compelled  to  import — be  materially  dearer 
here  than  anywhere  else,  that  dearness  cannot  be  shifted  to  the 
articles  which  we  do  export.  It  must  fall  in  the  way  of  deduction, 
either  upon  the  wages  and  comforts  of  the  labourer,  or  upon  the 
profits  of  those  who  afford  him  employment. 

Here,  then,  is  one  inevitable  cause,  constantly  operating  to  keep 
alive  a  struggle  between  productive  capital  and  productive  labour, 
with  a  constant  tendency  to  bring  both  to  a  lower  level: — because 
the  disadvantage,  under  which  they  have  to  contend,  arising  from 
a  difference  in  the  price  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  is  increased  in 
proportion  as  the  progressive  improvement  of  rival  nations  ap- 
proximates their  manufacturing  skill  and  industry  more  nearly  to 
our  own.  Are  not,  then,  the  circumstances,  which  enhance  the 
price  of  subsistence  in  this  country,  a  strong  reason  why  we 
should  endeavour  to  lighten,  as  much  as  possible,  other  burthens 
which,  by  their  direct  operation,  tend  to  aggravate  this  disad- 
vantage? See  to  what  an  extent  your  Excise  and  Customs  prove 
that  you  do  not  sufficiently  attend  to  this  consideration !  Full 
three-fourths  of  your  revenue  are  levied  under  these  two  heads ; 
and  by  far  the  greatest  proportion  of  that  amount  upon  articles 
necessary,  either  for  the  subsistence,  the  clothing,  or  the  humble 
comforts  of  the  labourer ;  or.  of  use  in  the  fabrication  of  those 
articles  to  which  his  industry  is  devoted.  Let  any  man  look 
through  the  list  of  the  Excise  and  Customs,  even  now  that  the 
beer  and  leather  taxes  are  removed,  and  he  will  find  in  how  great 
a  degree  this  observation  stiH  applies.  Candles,  hops,  licenses, 
malt,  printed  goods,  soap,  British  spirits,  tea,  sugar,  tobacco, 
rum,  hemp,  timber:  here  is  an  enumeration  amounting  to  near 
30,000,000/.;  but  the  incidental  burthen  of  which,  in  restraint, 
impediment,  and  vexatious  interference,  may  well  be  estimated 
at  10,000,000/.  more. 

These  are  the  consequences  of  monopoly  in  some  cases,  as  tea 
for  instance,  and  of  the  charge  of  collection,  regulation,  draw- 
backs, and  such  like  interference  in  others.     They  are,  perhaps, 


STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  603 

unavoidable  under  the  complication  of  a  system,  which  can  only 
guard  against  fraud  and  evasion  in  the  collection  of  the  revenue, 
by  impeding  the  development  of  industry,  and  sacrificing  the  im- 
provements of  science. 

It  is  a  common  remark,  that  the  rich  man  does  not  require 
more  food  than  his  poorer  neighbour;  the  difference  between 
them  must  be  in  the  quahty.  But,  in  many  of  the  articles  which 
I  have  enumerated,  the  consumption  of  the  rich  is  less  than  that 
of  the  poor  man.  In  others,  his  consumption  may  be  greater,  but 
in  an  amount  altogether  disproportioned  to  their  relative  means. 
The  proportion,  however,  in  this  respect,  is  not  so  much  the 
question  now%  as  the  different  mode  in  which  this  system  of  taxa- 
tion falls  upon  realized  wealth,  and  upon  productive  industry. 
Every  man's  observation  must  satisfy  him  of  the  general  truth  of 
these  remarks.  It  can  scarcely  be  necessary  that  I  should  illus- 
trate them  in  detail. 

In  proportion  as  prices  and  wages  have  fiillen,  has  this  class 
of  taxes  become  not  only  more  burthensome,  but  more  vexatious, 
and  more  liable  to  evasion.  Take  for  instance  Soap :  the  duty 
during  the  war  might  be  about  70  per  cent,  upon  the  raw  ma- 
terials; it  is  now  from  120  to  140  per  cent.  If  wages  have  fallen 
in  the  same  proportion,  how  much  heavier  does  this  tax  now 
press  upon  the  labourer,  and  how  much  greater  must  be  the 
temptation  to  resort  to  any  means  by  which  the  duty  may  be 
avoided?  If  we  advert  to  Sugar,  we  shall  find  that  the  duty, 
which  was  formerly  one-half  of,  now  exceeds  the  selling  price. 
Looking  to  this  article,  upon  which  there  has  been  no  reduction 
of  duty  since  the  war,  and  considering  the  severe  and  general 
distress  in  which  all  West-India  interests  are  involved,  I  cannot 
but  regret  that  a  reduction  of  the  sugar  duty  seems  now  to  be 
indefinitely  postponed.  As  *a  measure  of  relief  it  is  urgent.  I 
still  retain  the  opinion,  which  I  have  more  than  once  pressed 
upon  his  Majesty's  Government,  that  this  relief  might  be  given, 
without  any  great  or  permanent  sacrifice  of  revenue. 

It  is  not  to  sugar  only  that  this  observation  would  apply.  A 
general  revision  would  point  out  many  other  articles,  but  the  sub- 
ject is  one  too  extensive  and  too  minute  for  the  present  occasion. 
The  more  general  considerations,  to  which  I  now  claim  the  at- 
tention of  the  House,  are  these :  first,  that  no  other  country  in 
Europe  has  so  large  a  proportion  of  its  taxation  bearing  directly 
upon  the  incomes  of  labour  and  productive  capital : — secondly, 
that  in  no  other  country,  of  the  same  extent,  I  think  I  might  say 
in  none  of  five  times  the  extent  of  this  kingdom,  is  there  so  large 
a  mass  of  income,  belonging  to  those  classes  who  do  not  directly 
employ  it  in  bringing  forth  the  produce  of  labour : — thirdly,  that 
no  other  country  has  so  large  a  proportion  of  its  taxation  mort- 


604  MR.  HUSKISSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 

gaged ; — in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  that  nriortgage  are  we 
interested  in  any  measure  which,  without  injustice  to  the  mort- 
gagee, would  tend  to  lessen  the  absolute  burthen  of  the  mortgage: 
— fourthly,  that  from  no  other  country  in  the  world  does  so  large 
a  proportion  of  the  class  not  engaged  in  production  (including 
many  of  the  wealthy)  spend  their  incomes  in  foreign  parts.  1 
know  I  may  be  told,  that,  by  taxing  that  income,  you  run  the  risk 
of  driving  them  to  withdraw  their  capital  altogether.  My  answer 
is,  first,  that  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  of  these  absentees 
have  no  such  command  over  the  source  of  their  income ; — second- 
ly, that  the  danger  is  now  of  another  and  more  alarming  descrip- 
tion,— that  of  the  productive  capitals  of  this  country  being  trans- 
ferred to  other  countries,  where  they  would  be  secure  of  a  more 
profitable  return.  The  relief  of  industry  is  the  remedy  against 
that  danger. 

One  of  the  objections  made  to  any  direct  tax  upon  income, 
even  limited,  as  I  have  described,  to  capital  not  directly  employ- 
ed in  the  pursuits  of  industry,  is,  that  it  may  be  very  fit  as  a  war 
measure,  but  that  it  is  not  suited  to  a  state  of  peace.  My  answer 
is,  that  this  proposition  is  too  general.  What  may  be  very  well 
adapted  to  a  state  of  peace  or  war  under  given  circumstances, 
may  become  inexpedient  when  the  bearing  of  those  circumstan- 
ces is  altogether  changed.  In  war,  the  wages  of  labour  and  the 
profits  of  capital  may  be  high.  In  peace,  they  may  be  greatly 
depressed.  In  the  former  supposition,  taxes  bearing  upon  indus- 
try will  be  more  lightly  felt ;  in  the  latter,  their  pressure  will  be 
very  severe ;  and,  if  not  alleviated,  will  daily  become  more  so, 
by  exhausting  the  very  springs  of  that  industry  from  which  they 
are  derived.  Let  gentlemen  seriously  .weigh  in  their  own  minds, 
whether  this  be  not  the  risk  against  which  it  is  most  earnest  to 
provide. 

I  have  already  shown,  upon  higher  authority  than  my  own — 
that  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer — that  the  amount  remit- 
ted by  a  change  in  our  taxation,  would  be  a  very  inadequate 
measure  of  the  real  saving,  and  contingent  relief,  to  industry; 
whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  the  produce  of  the  tax  to  be  substituted 
would  be  commensurate  with  what  it  might  subtract  from  the  in- 
comes of  the  classes,  by  which  it  would  be  paid.  The  landlord, 
the  fundholder,  the  mortgagee,  the  annuitant  of  every  description, 
would  moreover  be  directly  benefited,  to  the  extent  of  his  con- 
sumption of  the  articles  upon  which  the  present  taxes  might  be 
reduced  or  abolished.  Each  would  be  ?'nc?irec%  benefited,  by  the 
stimulus  and  additional  ease  which  would  be  given  to  the  indus- 
trious classes.  Take,  for  instance,  the  land-owner.  Can  any 
man  doubt,  that  in  proportion  to  the  relief  afforded,  would  be  the 
means  and  desire  of  the  industrious  classes  to  consume  more  of 


STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  605 

all  the  productions  of  the  soil,  which  constitute  their  habitual 
comforts  and  luxuries : — more  meat, — more  malt, — more  cheese, 
— more  butter, — and  more  of  all  the  other  articles  which  cannot 
be  said  to  be  of  absolute  and  primary  necessity  1  Can  any  man 
doubt,  that  the  consumption  of  these  articles  is  now  checked,  if 
not  actually  diminished,  by  the  straitened  circumstances  of  our 
labouring  population  ?  Should  their  condition  become  still  harder, 
— and,  in  order  to  maintain  our  competition  in  the  foreign  market, 
I  fear  that,  without  the  relief  which  I  have  suggested  it  must, — 
is  it  not  obvious  that  the  consumption  of  these  articles,  and,  with 
the  consumption  the  price,  must  decline  1 

Should  this  be  the  unfortunate  career  in  which  we  are  proceed- 
ing, we  may  have  gleams  of  sunshine,  but  their  transient  bright- 
ness will  not  be  sufficient  to  disperse  the  thickening  gloom  which 
will  be  gathering  round  us,  and  in  which  all  interests  and  all 
classes  will  be  finally  enveloped.  For  the  contentment  of  the 
poor  man, — for  the  comfort  of  the  middling  classes, — for  the 
enjoyment  of  the  rich, — for  the  security  of  all,  it  becomes  the 
paramount  duty  of  those,  to  whom  the  welfare  and  happiness  of 
the  country  are  committed,  well  to  probe  the  sources  of  our  pre- 
sent difficulties ;  and  if  they  are  satisfied  that  they  are  produced 
in  any  considerable  degree  by  the  causes  to  which  I  have  advert- 
ed, not  to  be  tardy  or  timid  in  applying  a  remedy. 

If  I  have  dwelt  upon  these  subjects  at  greater  length  than  I 
had  intended,  I  have  done  so  because  I  have  thought  it  my  duty, 
as  an  unconnected  member  of  Parliament,  not  to  shrink  from 
stating  my  views  respecting  them.  The  position  of  a  minister  in 
this  House  is  very  different  from  that  of  an  individual.  I  know 
how  difficult  a  thing  it  might  be  for  Government,  even  if  they 
concur  in  my  views,  to  carry  them  into  eflfect ;  and  I  am  fully 
aware  of  all  the  inconvenience  which  would  arise  from  their  at 
all  hinting  at  that  concurrence,  unless  they  were  prepared  to  act 
upon  it  All  I  can  say  is,  that  ours  is  a  choice  of  difficulties,  and 
that  the  course  which  I  have  suggested  would,  I  sincerely  believe, 
be  most  beneficial  to  the  country.  If  these  views  are  not  enter- 
tained by  others  in  this  House,  or  sanctioned  by  public  opinion 
out  of  doors,  it  would  be  vain  to  expect  that  they  should  lead,  at 
present,  to  any  practical  result.  But  if,  at  any  future  daj,  a  sense 
of  the  public  interest  should  induce  his  Majesty's  Government  to 
act  upon  them,  I  shall  be  prepared  to  give  my  most  cordial  assis- 
tance and  support,  towards  overcoming  the  various  difficulties, 
which  I  am  fully  sensible  must  arise  in  carrying  those  views  into 
eflfect,  and  towards  conciliating  the  feelings  of  all  who  might  con- 
tinue adverse  to  their  adoption. 

In  the  course  of  this  debate,  allusion  has  frequently  been  made 
to  possible  improvements  in  the  Banking  System,  as  one  means 
51* 


606  MR.  HUSKISSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 

of  affording  some  relief  to  the  country ;  and  I  understood  my 
right  honourable  friend,  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  to 
say,  that  he  expected  much  benefit  from  a  revision  of  the  system 
of  Country  Banks,  and  from  giving  publicity  to  their  proceedings. 
I  am  friendly  to  publicity.  But  if  it  be  required  from  banking 
establishments  in  the  country,  I  trust  that  the  same  rule  will  be 
applied  to  the  Bank  of  the  State — the  Bank  of  England.  Had 
that  system  of  publicity,  of  which  my  right  honourable  friend  is 
the  advocate,  prevailed  between  1824  and  1826,  it  would,  in  my 
opinion,  have  guarded  us  from  the  risk  of  such  a  calamity  as  that 
which  was  upon  the  point  of  taking  place,  at  a  period  of  pro- 
found peace,  towards  the  close  of  the  year  1825. 

Far  be  it  from  me,  in  making  this  observation,  to  cast  any  re- 
flection upon  the  Directors  of  the  Bank  of  England.  I  know  that 
they  are  zealous  and  disinterested  in  the  management  of  the  great 
trust  reposed  in  them.  But  it  is  their  duty,  in  that  management, 
to  look  to  the  interests  of  the  body  of  proprietors  whom  they 
represent.  It  is  the  duty  of  this  House,  on  the  other  hand,  if  they 
think  fit  to  grant  a  monopoly,  to  surround  and  fence  it  with  such 
regulations,  as  may  prevent  the  public  interests  from  being  pre- 
judiced, by  being  placed  in  collision  with  the  interests  of  those, 
upon  whom  the  monopoly  is  conferred. 

The  first  of  all  our  cares,  in  revising  the  Banking  system  of 
the  country,  must  be  to  satisfy  ourselves  that  nothing  is  omitted, 
in  the  way  of  precaution,  which  may  tend  to  secure  the  public 
against  a  possible  recurrence  of  that  greatest  of  all  calamities, 
another  suspension  of  cash  payments.  I  cannot  pass  over  even 
this  opportunity  of  repeating  my  doubts,  whether  the  afl^airs  of 
the  Bank  are  conducted  with  a  sufficient  regard  to  this  paramount 
object.  With  their  original  capital  all  locked  up  upon  loan  to 
Government,  they  have,  at  the  same  time,  nearly  the  whole  of 
their  outstanding  credit  resting  upon  securities,  equally  unavail- 
able. The  sound  system  of  banking,  on  the  contrary,  would  ap- 
pear to  require,  that  the  amount  of  their  issues,  should  be  more 
immediately  within  their  command,  as  the  only  certain  protec- 
tion,— for  themselves,  against  those  emergencies  that  will  occur, 
even  in  time  of  peace, — for  the  public,  against  a  recurrence  of 
the  dreadful  effects  of  such  a  panic  as  that  of  1825. 

There  is  no  saying  how  soon,  should  trade  'revive  with  more 
than  its  usual  activity,  we  may  again  witness  another  season  of 
excitement,  and  extravagant  speculation.  Should  an  unfavour- 
able state  of  the  foreign  exchanges  be  the  consequence,  their 
turning  against  us  would,  for  a  time,  rather  encourage  than  re- 
press that  spirit  of  speculation.  The  salutary  check,  under  such 
a  contingency,  can  only  be  applied  by  the  prudence  of  the  Bank 
of  England.  But  how  is  that  check  to  be  called  into  action,  with- 


STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  607 

out  the  risk  of  panic,  if  both  the  capital  and  credit  of  the  Bank 
are  locked  up  in  dead  weight,  in  exchequer  bills,  in  mortgages 
upon  land,  in  an  advance  to  the  rebuilding  of  London  Bridge  T — 
all  of  them,  I  admit,  assets  most  perfectly  solid  and  secure,  but 
all  of  that  inconvertible  description,  upon  which  no  banking 
establishment,  I  think,  having  the  whole  of  its  outstanding  engage- 
ments payable  upon  demand,  ought  to  rest  so  large  a  portion  of 
its  liabiUties.  This,  however,  is  a  fit  subject  for  a  separate  in- 
vestigation, and  into  which,  therefore,  I  will  not  go  more  at  large 
on  the  present  occasion. 

I  have  detained  the  House,  I  am  aware,  longer  than  any  mem- 
ber, having  no  official  duties  to  discharge,  can  be  justified  in 
claiming  their  attention.  My  apology  must  be,  in  part,  that  I 
have  had  to  defend  measures,  for  which  I  am  more  immediately 
responsible,  as  having  brought  them  forward  when  I  was  in 
office;  and,  partly,  that  I  have  thought  this  a  fit  occasion  for 
stating  the  views  which  I  entertain  of  the  present  condition  of 
the  country.  I  cordially  thank  the  House  for  the  indulgence  with 
which  they  have  heard  me  upon  these  important  topics. 

After  all — do  what  we  will,  say  what  we  may — the  immense 
sacrifices  and  unparalleled  exertions  of  the  last  long  war  must 
tell,  in  abridging  the  comforts,  and  adding  to  the  difficulties,  of 
the  present  generation.  Fifteen  years  have  now  elapsed  since 
that  war  was  brought  to  a  glorious  termination.  From  its  com- 
mencement I  have  been  more  or  less  in  public  life.  In  the  course 
of  it,  there  is  scarcely  a  conceivable  trial  of  fortitude  to  which 
the  country,  and  those  who  administered  its  affairs,  were  not 
exposed.  Mutiny  in  our  fleets, — civil  war  in  Ireland, — the  stop- 
page of  the  Bank, — defection  of  our  allies, — the  overthrow  and 
subjugation  of  all  the  great  powers  of  Europe  by  the  enemy  to 
which  we  were  opposed, — our  commerce  placed  under  an  inter- 
dict in  every  part  of  the  civilized  world, — these  are  some  of  the 
evils  of  which,  having  witnessed  the  first  overwhelming  shock,  I 
shall  retain  through  life  a  vivid  recollection.  But,  amid  all  the 
scenes  of  alarm  and  despondency,  I  might  almost  say  despair, 
occasioned  by  this  succession  of  calamities,  I  tax  my  memory  in 
vain  for  one  single  act  of  weakness  or  dishonour,  of  spoliation  or 
bad  faith.  Never  did  such  expedients  suggest  themselves  to  those 
great  and  firm  minds  that  then  presided  over  the  destinies  of  the 
country.  If  in  vain  I  tax  my  memory  for  one  act  of  that  de- 
scription, upon  which  any  man,  the  most  envious  of  my  country's 
fame,  can  put  his  finger  and  say,  "  this  is  a  blot  in  your  annals,*' 
give  me  leave  to  add,  that  should  you,  in  an  evil  hour,  venture  to 
debase  your  currency,  you  will  commit  an  act  of  fraud  at  which 
that  finger  of  scorn  will  point  for  ever  after,  as  the  hour  of  your 
shame  and  humiliation ;  and  that  the  period  will  not  then  be  dis- 


608  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

tant,  in  which  you  will  deeply  repent,  but  repent  too  late,  the  irre- 
trievable consequences  of  so  ruinous  a  proceeding. 

For  myself,  I  once  more  ente^  my  protest  against  such  an  in- 
fringement of  the  national  faith.  I  cannot  vote  either  in  support 
of  the  original  motion,  or  of  the  amendment.  Taken  abstracted- 
ly, they  both  embrace  too  wide  a  field  for  any  useful  enquiry. 
But  my  greater  objection  is,  that  I  cannot  separate  the  wish  for 
enquiry,  from  the  grounds  upon  which  that  wish  stands  recom- 
mended to  the  House,  by  almost  every  member  who  has  sup- 
ported it.  Again,  to  the  form  of  the  enquiry,  as  recommended 
in  the  original  motion,  I  have  an  insuperable  objection.  In  the 
mode  recommended  by  the  amendment  I  might  have  concurred, 
had  it  been  brought  forward  upon  different  grounds,  and  been 
more  limited  in  its  objects.  From  enquiries  of  this  latter  nature 
I  expect  much  benefit ;  and  his  Majesty's  Government  do  not 
appear  to  be  adverse  to  them.  They  have  already  consented  to 
grant  a  committee  to  enquire  into  the  condition  of  the  poor  in 
Ireland.  The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  has  given  notice  of 
his  intention  to  bring  in  a  Bill  to  regulate  the  Dead  Weight  sys- 
tem ;  and  has  said,  that  he  shall  have  no  objection  to  refer  that 
Bill,  together  with  the  whole  subject,  to  a  committee  up  stairs. 
My  honourable  friend,  the  member  for  Dover,  has  a  notice  on 
the  order  book,  for  a  select  committee^  to  investigate  the  effect  of 
the  present  system  of  our  Taxation,  upon  the  productive  classes 
of  the  country.  Whether  the  proposed  committee  will  be  grant- 
ed or  not,  I  cannot  tell ;  but  this  I  know,  that  whenever  my  hon- 
ourable friend  shall  bring  forward  his  motion,  he  shall  have  my 
warmest  support.  We  have  already  a  committee  sitting  to  en- 
quire into  the  affairs  of  the  East-India  Company,  and  into  their 
monopoly  of  the  trade  with  China.  In  like  manner,  I  hope  we 
shall  have  a  committee  to  enquire  into  the  Banking  System  of 
the  country,  in  connection  with  the  renewal  of  the  charter  of  the 
Bank  of  England.  It  is  by  enquiries  thus  limited  to  specific 
objects,  that  we  shall  arrive  at  more  satisfactory  results,  than  by 
going  into  a  committee,  purporting  to  be  for  an  enquiry  into  the 
causes  of  distress  generally, — a  species  of  enquiry  which,  in  my 
judgment,  could  not  possibly  lead  to  any  good,  but  which,  in  the 
expectation  of  its  promoters,  might  lead  to  what  I  consider  the 
greatest  possible  evil, — the  unsettling  and  disturbing  the  present 
monetary  system  of  the  country. 


(     609     ) 


JEWS    RELIEF  BILL. 

MAY  17th,  1830. 

On  the  4th  of  May,  Mr.  Huskisson  presented  a  petition  from  the  Bankers, 
Merchants,  and  other  inhabitants  of  Liverpool,  praying  that  the  Bill  brought 
in  by  Mr.  Robert  Grant,  for  the  relief  of  persons  of  the  Jewish  persuasion 
from  all  civil  disabilities,  might  pass  into  a  law.  On  the  17th,  the  order  of 
the  day  for  the  second  reading  was  opposed  by  General  Gascoyne,  who 
moved  "that  it  be  read  a  second  time  that  day  six  months."  After  the 
amendment  had  been  supported  by  Lord  Belgrave,  the  Earl  of  Darlington, 
Mr.  Trant,  and  Mr.  George  Bankes ;  and  the  original  motion  by  Mr.  Mild- 
may,  Sir  Edward  Bering,  Sir  Robert  Wilson,  Mr.  O'Connell^  and  Lord  John 
Russell, 

Mr.  HusKissorr  said: — Knowing,  Sir,  the  ability  and  the  power 
of  argument  possessed  by  my  honourable  friend  who  has  intro- 
duced this  subject  to  the  notice  of  the  House,  and  believing  that 
his  endeavour  would  be  crowned  with  success,  I  came  down 
with  the  intention  of  giving  a  silent  vote  in  support  of  the  Bill; 
and  I  should  not  have  broken  through  that  resolution,  had  it  not 
been  for  what  has  fallen  from  my  gallant  colleague,  and  from  a 
noble  lord,  in  reference  to  a  petition  which  I  had  the  honour  of 
presenting,  on  a  former  evening,  from  the  town  of  Liverpool,  in 
favour  of  this  bill.  On  that  occasion,  my  gallant  colleague  ad- 
mitted, that  it  was  both  numerously  and  respectably  signed ;  but 
he  now  says,  that  some  of  the  signatures  to  it  were  obtained 
through  the  great  influence  possessed  by  the  Jews  in  Liverpool  ;^ 
and  the  noble  lord  who  has  adverted  to  the  petition,  seems  to 
think,  that  the  Jews  can  dispose  of  the  feelings  of  the  trading 
classes  of  society  as  they  please.  Now,  Sir,  I  happen  to  know 
something  of  Liverpool,  and  I  really  believe  there  is  scarcely  a 
part  of  the  country  in  which  the  Jews  possess  less  influence. 
They  are  principally  retail  traders,  and  are  therefore  not  likely 
to  possess  great  influence  in  that  town.  The  sentiments  contain- 
ed in  the  petition  are  the  genuine  opinion  of  the  individuals  who 
signed  it,  and  they  should  be  taken  as  the  genuine  sentiments  of 
the  Christians  of  Liverpool,  in  favour  of  the  great  principle,  as- 
serted by  the  House  in  the  instance  of  the  Catholics  and  of  the 
Dissenters.  My  gallant  friend  has,  indeed,  confessed,  that  the 
Roman  Catholics  were  entitled  to  some  favour,  because  their 

4B 


610  JEWS  RELIEF  BILL. 

religion  was  an  ancient  one.  But  if  the  Roman  Catholics  have 
any  claim,  on  account  of  the  antiquity  of  their  faith,  he  will  not 
surely  consider  the  Jews  less  entitled  to  favour  on  the  same  score. 
And  when  my  gallant  friend  tells  us,  that  our  ancestors  were 
opposed  to  all  innovation,  he  seems  to  have  forgotten,  that  they 
brought  about  the  Reformation,  which  changed  the  religion  of 
the  country — that  they  effected  a  Revolution,  which  altered  the 
succession  to  the  throne — and  that  they  expelled  a  King,  because 
he  endeavoured  to  destroy  the  liberties  of  the  country. 

With  regard  to  what  has  fallen  from  the  noble  lord,  respecting 
my  opposition  to  the  bill  for  the  repeal  of  the  Corporation  and 
Test  Acts,  I  am  sure  that  every  gentleman  who  heard  me  upon 
that  occasion  will  bear  me  out  in  the  statement,  that  I  did  not 
oppose  it  from  any  desire  to  exclude  the  Dissenters,  but  because 
I  was  apprehensive  that  partial  concession  might  be  injurious  to 
the  success  of  the  great  and  general  measure  of  Catholic  eman- 
cipation, which  was  then  about  to  be  brought  forward,  and  has 
since  been  happily  accomplished. 

I  am  ready  to  admit,  that  the  present  question  is  not  one  of 
paramount  importance,  or  of  absolute  necessity:  but  upon  prin- 
ciple, the  concession  ought  to  be  made ;  and  as  a  uniform  sup- 
porter of  the  claims  of  the  Catholics,  I  cannot  refuse  my  assent 
to  it.  The  arguments  which  I  have  heard  this  night  against  the 
emancipation  of  the  Jews,  are  precisely  the  same,  mutatis  mutan- 
dis, as  those  which,  for  the  last  thirty  years,  I  have  been  in  the 
habit  of  hearing  urged  against  the  emancipation  of  the  Catholics. 
But,  while  I  admit  that  no  such  over-ruling  necessity  is  apparent 
in  this  case,  I  maintain  that  the  last  blot  of  this  kind  ought  to  be 
removed  from  the  statute-book.  When  this  measure  shall  have 
passed,  the  great  principle  of  general  toleration  will  be  completed, 
and  the  Jews  in  this  country  will  be  placed  on  the  same  footing 
as  those  in  France  and  the  Netherlands. 

The  honourable  member  for  Wexford,  who  has  spoken  so  well 
that  I  hope  to  hear  him  often,  admitted  the  propriety  of  admitting 
the  Jews  to  all  other  stations,  civil  and  military;  but  he  would 
exclude  them  from  seats  in  Parliament.  Now  this,  Sir,  is  a  sort 
of  liberality  which  I  cannot  understand.  The  honourable  mem- 
ber would  give  them  the  power  of  the  sword,  and  the  power  of 
instructing  youth ;  but  he  would  make  them,  by  his  exclusion, 
the  enemy  of  that  legislature,  which  it  is  necessary  for  the  safety 
of  the  state  that  youth  should  be  taught  to  respect,  and  soldiers 
implicitly  to  obey. 

Something  has  been  said  as  to  the  manner  in  which  my  hon- 
ourable friend  has  framed  his  measure.  And  it  is  true,  that  it 
purports  to  be  a  relief  to  the  Jew^s  from  all  their  disabilities,  and 
to  put  them  on  the  same  footing  with  the  Protestant  Dissenters 


JEWS  RELIEF  BILL.  611 

and  the  Roman  Catholics.  But  does  it  follow,  that  if  the  House 
shall  go  into  a  committee,  it  must  necessarily  adopt  all  that  has 
been  proposed  by  my  honourable  friend  ?  For  myself,  I  am  pre- 
pared to  support  my  honourable  friend's  views  to  their  full  extent. 
If,  however,  the  House  should  go  into  the  committee,  and  a  pro- 
viso be  introduced,  not  to  allow  the  Jews  the  privilege  of  admis- 
sion into  Parliament,  however  undesirable,  and  uncalled  for,  that 
proviso  might,  in  my  opinion,  be,  yet  still  I  am  not  one  of  those 
who  would  think  that  the  bill  ought  not  to  be  persevered  in,  on 
account  of  such  an  objection.  Honourable  gentlemen  may  ask, 
why  should  I  agree  to  this?  But  I  would  ask  them,  do  they 
recollect  the  year  1812,  when  a  bill  was  brought  in  to  grant  the 
Roman  Catholics  all  that  they  have  since  obtained  ?  That  bill 
was  read  a  first  and  a  second  time.  It  went  to  a  committee,  and 
an  amendment  was  then  agreed  to,  to  exclude  them  from  sitting 
in  Parliament,  and  on  that  amendment  having  been  carried,  the 
bill  was,  as  I  thought,  very  unwisely  withdrawn.  The  better 
course  would  have  been,  for  the  friends  of  the  measure,  to  have 
taken  what  they  could  have  obtained.  If  a  proviso  to  the  same 
effect  should  be  now  introduced,  I  should  deprecate  it,  and  think 
it  unwise ;  but,  considering  this  bill  as  a  measure  of  justice,  and 
of  relief  to  ail  the  parties  who  are  suffering  from  having  their 
rights  withheld,  I  would  still  proceed  to  pass  it. 

I  therefore  trust,  Sir,  that  the  bill  will  be  allowed  to  be  read  a 
second  time.  It  is  most  certain,  that  it  has  attracted  consider- 
able notice ;  and  honourable  gentlemen  have  been  told,  that  they 
will  rue  the  support  they  are  giving  it,  when  they  return  to  their 
constituents ;  but  I  will,  nevertheless,  support  it,  as  I  did  the  mea- 
sure of  Catholic  emancipation,  without  any  other  consideration 
than  that  which  guided  my  decision  upon  that  question.  Again, 
then,  I  will  express  a  hope  that  the  bill  will  pass,  and  form  the 
consummation  of  that  course  of  liberality,  which  willimmortalize 
the  present  Parliament. 

The  house  divided ;  For  the  second  reading,  165.    Against  it,  228. 


(     613     ) 


MONUMENT  TO  MR.  WATT. 


MR.  HUSKISSON'S  SPEECH  AT  THE  PUBLIC  MEETING,  HELD  AT 
FREEMASON'S  HMX,  ON  THE  18th  JUNE,  1824,  FOR  ERECTING  A 
MONUMENT  TO  1^  LATE  JAMES  WATT;  THE  EARL  OF  LIVER- 
POOL  IN  THE  CHAIR. 


Mr.  HusKissoN  said : — 

My  Lord : — A  task  has  been  assigned  to  me  at  this  meeting, 
which,  I  am  fully  aware,  would  have  been  far  more  ably  and  suc- 
cessfully executed  by  some  one  of  those  who  have  done  me  the 
honour  to  put  into  my  hands  the  resolution  with  which  I  shall  con- 
clude. Several  of  those  gentlemen  had  an  advantage,  which  I 
cannot  boast,  that  of  having  been  personally  acquainted  with  the 
late  Mr.  Watt,  of  having  enjoyed  his  confidence  and  friendship, 
and  of  having  observed,  more  nearly  than  myself,  the  application 
and  progress  of  those  great  discoveries,  and  scientific  inventions, 
by  which  he  has  so  much  benefited  his  country  and  the  world. 

But,  Gentlemen,  however  ill  qualified  I  may  be  fully  to  appre- 
ciate the  merits  of  Mr.  Watt — however  inadequate  I  feel  myself 
to  do  justice  to  my  own  sentiments  in  this  respect — I  cannot  but 
be  gratified  that  I  have  a  public  opportunity  to  bear  my  humble 
acknowledgment  of  gratitude  for  his  services,  and  of  respect  for 
his  memory. 

Gentlemen : — whether,  abstracting  ourselves  for  a  moment  fr^ 
all  considerations  of  country,  we  look  as  men  to  the  benems 
which  Mr.  Watt's  inventions  have  imparted,  and  are  still  impart- 
ing, to  the  whole  race  of  man ;  or  whether,  as  members  of  that 
great  and  powerful  community  of  which  he  was  a  member,  we' 
confine  ourselves  to  contemplate  the  special  benefits  which  he  con- 
ferred upon  this  country, — his  great  discoveries  must  stand  equally 
entitled  to  our  highest  admiration.  As  Englishmen,  we  cannot 
behold  the  results  produced  by  his  genius,  without  a  hvely  sense 
of  joy  that  we  belong  to  the  same  country  to  which  he  belonged, 
and  without  an  individual  feeling  of  gratitude  that  he  lived  at  a 
time  which  allows  us  all  to  participate  in  the  benefits  which  he 
was  the  selected  instrument,  under  Providence,  of  introducing 
among  mankind. 

If,  Gentlemen,  there  be  any  individual  who  can  doubt  whether 
Mr.  Watt  be  entitled  to  rank  in  the  first  class  of  the  benefactors 
of  mankind,  that  individual,  let  him  belong  to  what  station  of 
society  he  may,  has,  I  think,  not  justly  estimated  the  influence  of 
improvements  in  physical  and  chemical  science  upon  the  moral 
condition  of  society.  I  apprehend  no  man  can  doubt  the  benefi- 
52 


614  MONUMENT  TO  MR.  WATT. 

cial  effect  of  that  influence,  more  or  less,  in  all  civilized  countries. 
But,  in  my  view  of  the  subject,  there  is  no  portion  of  the  globe, 
however  remote,  where  the  name  and  flag  of  England  are  known, 
where  commerce  has  carried  her  sails,  and  begun  to  introduce 
the  arts  of  civilization,  which  does  not  derive  some  advantage 
from  Mr.  Watt's  discoveries.  The  economy  and  abridgment  of 
labour,  the  perfection  and  rapidity  of  manufacture,  the  cheap  and 
almost  indefinite  multiplication  of  every  article  which  suits  the 
luxury,  the  convenience,  or  the  wants  of  mankind,  are  all  so  many 
means  of  creating,  in  men  even  but  little  advanced  from  the 
savage  state,  a  taste  for  improvement ;  of  raising  in  their  bosoms 
a  feeling  of  new  wants  and  new  desires ;  of  showing  them  the 
possibility  of  satisfying  those  wants  and  those  desires ;  and  there- 
by of  calling  into  action  the  most  powerful  stimulant,  and  steady 
motive,  to  advancement  in  the  scale  of  the  civilized  world.  Are 
not  the  remote  islands  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  become  a  happy 
proof  of  the  truth  of  this  position  ?  The  same  race  which,  less 
than  half  a  century  ago,  murdered  and  devoured  our  intrepid  but 
unfortunate  navigator.  Captain  Cook,  have,  within  that  short 
period,  become  acquainted  ;>vith  many  of  the  comforts  of  life,  and 
made  a  greater  progress,  perhaps,  towards  improvement,  than 
remains  for  them  to  make,  in  order  to  entitle  themselves  to  be 
admitted  into  the  rank  of  civilized  nations.  Much  of  this  happy 
change  may,  I  grant,  be  ascribed  to  the  benevolent  and  indefati- 
gable exertions  of  the  ministers  of  Christianity ;  but  if  these  island- 
ers be  now  clothed  in.  the  productions  of  English  industry, — if 
they  have  adopted  our  woollens  and  our  linens,  instead  of  their 

fn  rude  dress,  or  rather  no  dress, — if  in  their  habitations  are  to 
found  many  useful  articles  of  English  manufacture,  instead  of 
their  own  barbarous  utensils, — let  it  not  be  supposed  that  the  in- 
creased facility  of  supplying  their  wants  has  not  been  one  power- 
'  ful  means  of  exciting  their  desire  to  procure  these  enjoyments. 
If  the  Steam  Engine  be  the  most  powerful  instrument  in  the  hands 
of  man,  to  alter  the  face  of  the  physical  world,  it  operates,  at  the 
same  time,  as  a  powerful  moral  lever  in  forwarding  the  great 
cause  of  civilization.  We  cannot,  therefore,  recall  to  our  recol- 
lection the  invention  of  the  Steam  Engine,  and  follow  that  inven- 
tion through  all  its  consequences,  without  feeling  the  beneficial 
influence  of  this  discovery  upon  all  nations,  from  those  most  ad- 
vanced, to  those  which  have  made  the  least  progress,  in  the  arts 
and  refinements  of  life. 

The  benefits  which  this^  discovery  has  conferred  upon  our  own 
country,  as  they  are  more  extensive,  are  also  more  obvious.  If 
this  were  the  proper  place,  and  if  I  were  not  afraid  of  trespassing 
too  long  upon  your  time,  I  could  trace  those  benefits  in  their  de- 
tailed progress  and  operation.     I  could  show  how  much  they 


MONUMENT  TO  MR.  WATT.  615 

have  contributed  not  only  to  advance  personal  comfort  and  pub- 
lic wealth,  by  affording  to  industrious  millions  the  facility  of  pro- 
viding for  their  individual  wants,  by  means  which  directly  con- 
duce to  the  general  power  and  greatness  of  the  state,  but  also  to 
the  general  diffusion  of  a  spirit  of  improvement,  a  thirst  for  in- 
struction, and  an  emulation  to  apply  it  to  purposes  of  practical 
utility,  even  in  the  humblest  classes  of  the  community.  But  it 
cannot  be  necessary  to  enter  upon  so  wide  a  range  with  the  en- 
lightened meeting  which  I  have  now  the  honour  of  addressing. 
Looking  back,  however,  to  the  demands  which  were  made  upon 
the  resources  of  this  country  during  the  late  war,  perhaps  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say,  at  least  it  is  my  opinion,  that  those  resources 
might  have  failed  us,  before  that  war  was  brought  to  a  safe  and 
glorious  conclusion,  but  for  the  creations  of  Mr.  Watt,  and  of 
others  moving  in  the  same  career,  by  whose  discoveries  those  re- 
sources were  so  greatly  multiphed  and  increased.  It  is,  perhaps^ 
not  too  much  to  say,  that,  but  for  the  vast  accession  thus  imper- 
ceptibly made  to  the  general  wealth*  of  this  empire,  we  might 
have  been  driven  to  sue  for  peace,  before,  in  the  march  and  pro- 
gress of  events,  Nelson  had  put  forth  the  last  energies  of  his 
naval  genius  at  Trafalgar,  or,  at  any  rate,  before  Wellington  had 
put  the  final  seal  to  the  security  of  Europe  at  Waterloo.  If,  there- 
fore, we  are  now  met  to  consider  of  placing  a  monument  to  the 
memory  of  Mr.  Watt  beside  the  monuments  of  those  who  fell  in 
the  splendid  victories  of  the  last  war,  let  it  not  be  said  that  there 
is  no  connexion  between  the  services  of  this  modest  and  unobtru- 
sive benefactor  of  his  country,  and  the  triumphs  of  the  heroes 
which  those  monuments  are  destined  to  commemorate. 

I  own  that  the  monument  about  to  be  proposed  to  Mr.  Watt 
appears  to  me  to  be  one  of  those  acts  of  public  duty,  to  which 
every  Englishman  of  a  cultivated  mind,  following  the  munificent, 
example  of  the  sovereign,  should  be  anxious  to  contribute.  In 
doing  so,  he  will  indulge  not  only  a  feeling  of  gratitude,  but  the 
cheering  hope  of  exciting  a  spirit  of  emulation  in  others ;  and  an 
honest  pride,  in  reflecting  that  he  belongs  to  the  same  communi- 
ty of  which  this  highly-gifted  genius  was  a  member,  and  to  the 
age  in  which  he  lived. 

Long  as  I  have  already  detained  the  meeting,  I  cannot  sit 
down  without  adding  one  or  two  short  remarks.  It  has  been 
often  said,  that  many  of  the  great  discoveries  in  science  are  due 
to  accident ;  but  it  was  well  remarked  by  the  President  of  the 
Royal  Society,  that  this  cannot  be  the  case  with  the  principal 
discovery  of  Mr.  Watt.  Long  and  scientific  research  and  appli- 
cation alone  could  have  enabled  him  to  create  his  Steam  Engine* 
Again,  it  has  frequently  happened  that  those  philosophers,  who 
have  made  brilliant  and  useful  discoveries,  by  watching  the  phe- 


616  MONUMENT  TO  MR.  WATT. 

nomena  of  the  physical  world,  the  combinations  of  chemistry,  or 
the  mysterious  workings  of  organic  life,  have  only  been  able  to 
turn  their  discoveries  to  the  purpose  of  averting  evils  threatening, 
and  often  destroying,  the  precarious  tenure  of  human  existence. 
Thus  Franklin  disarmed  the  thunderbolt,  and  conducted  it  in- 
nocuous through  our  buildings,  and  close  to  our  firesides — thus 
Jenner  stripped  a  loathsome  and  destructive  disease  of  its  viru- 
lence, and  rendered  it  harmless  of  devastation — thus  the  present 
President  of  the  Royal  Society  (of  whom  it  is  difficult  to  say 
whether  abstract  science  or  practical  life  has  been  most  benefited 
by  his  discoveries)  sent  the  safety-lamp  into  our  mines  to  save  (as 
its  name  implies)  their  useful  inhabitants  from  the  awful  explosion 
of  the  fire-damp.  But  the  discovery  of  Mr.  Watt  went  further : 
he  subdued  and  regulated  the  most  terrific  power  in  the  universe, 
— that  power  which,  by  the  joint  operation  of  pressure  and  heat, 
probably  produces  those  tremendous  convulsions  of  the  earth, 
which  in  a  moment  subvert  whole  cities,  and  almost  change  the 
face  of  the  inhabited  globe.  This  apparently  ungovernable  power 
Mr.  Watt  reduced  to  a  state  of  such  perfect  organization  and 
discipline — if  I  may  use  the  expression — that  it  may  now  be 
safely  manoeuvred  and  brought  into  irresistible  action — irresisti- 
ble, but  still  regulated,  measured,  and  ascertained — or  lulled  into 
the  most  complete  and  secure  repose,  at  the  will  of  man,  and 
under  the  guidance  of  his  feeble  hand.  Thus  one  man  directs  it 
into  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  to  tear  asunder  its  very  elements, 
and  bring  to  light  its  hidden  treasures ;  another  places  it  upon  the 
surface  of  the  waters,  to  control  the  winds  of  heaven,  to  stem  the 
tides,  to  check  the  currents,  and  defy  the  waves  of  the  ocean ;  a 
third,  perhaps,  and  a  fourth,  are  destined  to  apply  this  mighty 
power  to  other  purposes,  still  ufithought  of  and  unsuspected,  but 
leading  to  consequences,  possibly,  not  less  important  than  those 
which  it  has  already  produced. 

It  is.  Gentlemen,  in  the  contemplation  of  the  wonderful,  but 
most  beneficial,  change  which  this  single  invention  has  already 
effected  in  the  world — in  the  anticipation  of  the  still  further 
changes  which  it  may  effect — that  I  feel  most  forcibly  my  own 
want  of  power  to  do  justice  to  my  sentiments  on  this  occasion, 
and  that  I  gladly  relieve  myself  from  any  further  prosecution  of 
the  attempt  by  proposing  to  you  the  following  Resolution : —    ^  " 

"That  those  benefits,  conferred  by  Mr.  Watt  on  the  whole 
civilized  world,  have  been  most  experienced  by  his  own  country, 
which  owes  a  tribute  of  national  gratitude  to  a  man,  who  has 
thus  honoured  her  by  his  genius,  and  promoted  her  well-being  by 
his  discoveries." 

THE  END. 


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